5 days to sleep train my 6mo - what would you do to help?

[ecofreckle]

My DD is 6 months old today. Until 4mo she was an easy, happy, good sleeping baby. She is still lovely of course but her sleep has gone to pot these last 8 weeks. I am broken and we are flying long haul in 5 days to a family wedding and will be away for 3 weeks. I'd dearly love to help her sleep better so that she can enjoy her days more and so that I feel less like a zombie.
She was ill 8 weeks ago which lasted 5 weeks or so and may have coincided with a long wonder week and a tooth which appeared two weeks ago. She also started sitting up 2 weeks ago and started on solids (BLW) a week ago. So, there’s lots going on in her crazy little world which I know must be hard for her.

We fly in 5 days and I wonder (now she is 6mo) what sorts of tactics to try with her to help with sleep.

Just to clarify the sleep situation she had been sleeping through from 1930 to 0630/0700 for few weeks prior to everything going haywire. I’m not expecting we can get back to that but an improvement would be nice ahead of our long awaited hols. Currently she falls asleep on the boob at bedtime and I try to rouse her prior to putting in cot (in her own room). She generally goes to sleep happily for at least 3 hours and then it all goes mad. She wakes and cries. As she had been ill I had been feeding her whenever she wanted overnight. But now, even if I feed her she still cries afterwards. One of the wake ups last night was 2.5 hours of screaming. I have tried leaving her in cot and patting tummy/ssshhing and sitting by her cot but these do not work. She stops crying if I pick her up, in goes her thumb and she quietens but she screams as soon as back in cot (she plays in day lying down and happy to lie flat in pram). I did pick up put down 30 times one nap yesterday to no avail. Daytime naps are no longer happening at home either. Vicious circle.

I’m sure I’m going wrong somewhere.

That’s a bit epic but trying to give the info people might request. I’d love to hear about your experiences and wisdom. Thank you!

Sorry about this. Don't have any magic advice, tbh, but you say yourself that there is lots of change going on at the moment and she's about to be transported across the world.

In your position, I'd not push sleep training, not least as she'll pick up on your tension and this might make it harder. If you're doing a radical time zone change, it would be even more difficult in any case. So it might be worth thinking what you can do to reassure that there are things staying the same as well as changing. Best of luck.

Jkk you're right! I'm feeling like an irresponsible parent right now. The things you agree to whilst pregnant and ignorant!
Plenty of cuddles is our tactic tonight and We altered the six month old bed time routine tonight to include a feed with light on followed by book to ensure being awake when put down. She was very smiley. Let's see what night we have ahead.
Thanks for The luck. A dollop of that will be needed on our trip. And thanks for advice: I want perspectives on What people would do in my shoes, so thanks again.

Sorry, DS has thus far always been a great sleeper, and now goes through, but just wanted to bump for those more knowledgable than me . I'd be terrified of long haul so good luck !

How did it go last night eco?

Please don't feel like an irresponsible parent. Honestly, 6 months is an ideal time to travel - way easier than a few more months down the line. The most important constant in her life is YOU - aeroplanes, new countries etc don't really matter.

FWIW my first was just like this - slept well from a few weeks to 4 months and then suddenly seemed to 'break' and was awake several times a night. I continued to feed during the night to re-settle her, but tried to take her off the boob when she was just slightly awake, and put her down awake at the start of the night. She gradually improved over the next few months and by 11 months was sleeping through pretty consistently again.

All babies are different. But 4 month-ish sleep regression is very common. Try and get as much rest as you can at other times - sleep when your baby sleeps in the daytime, lie in when your partner is there to help etc.

Thank you pootle for encouraging us. We don't have much choice but to get on with it now and make the best of the adventure that we can. I veer between feeling very anxious about it and being thrilled that we will have exciting times together as a family. Depends on how sleep deprived I am.

Citysweller after lots of chats with DH and lots of reading we decided to try 'pick up put down' and make an effort to put her down asleep always and thus tinkered with our bedtime routine last night. She was literally grinning at me when I put her down but she was asleep within 5 mins and didn't wake until 2300 when we had an hour of screaming and about 8 PUPDs done by DH. On waking at 0400 I fed her and she was straight back to sleep; I thought it only fair to give her at least one night feed. She then woke at 0630 and I had 30 mins and 14 PUPD. Progress on the night before! Today we have tried PUPD again for naps and it was 20 mins and 14 PUPD. But most importantly she's sleeping. Perhaps, even after just 24 hours, she's starting to get it a bit.

It just feels so good to have a consistent plan in place that we are happy with and that hopefully dd will not be confused by because it's always the same response. It also feels very nurturing and caring and reassuring for DD at this time of lots of change.
I'm still very interested to hear other people's experiences with PUPD, especially with these 6mo babies whose habits are harder to break.
Thank you Pud for bumping. I love to see our crew on other threads I'll pop back over there to ask how work was