We are desperate and just really looking for advice.
She goes to sleep v easily at 7.15ish, out like a light until 11 or 11.30... And then the chaos sets in.
She half wakes up, I usually feed her (she is ff) but more often than not I give her a dummy and see how much longer she will go. This can buy another couple of hours if am lucky. So she has a feed around 1am, guzzles 7oz bottle entirely. Back to sleep fine... Then wakings again at around 3, then 4, then 4.30... I usually pop her into bed with me around 5 as she is often wiiiiiiiiiide awake then, on a bad day it will be 6.30am before she is back to sleep, a good day means she goes back to sleep fast but then is awake again at 6.15.
I have started trying a second night feed at around 4am if I fed her before midnight, in case the problem is hunger. I hate doing this as feel it is a regression but thought it might help. It doesn't, really. She has about half a feed. It does get her back to sleep faster than if I were just to try to soothe her bck to sleep though.
I am so tired and demoralised I can't cope with leaning over her cot for ages in the middle of the night, trying to soothe her back to sleep. Hence the second feed.
Either way she still doesn't sleep more than an hour a stretch between 3am and 6. Second feed helps a bit but not much.
So... What am I doing wrong?!
She is on solids, has been since 4m, we are gradually introducing more protein etc but her appetite is still small and she has no teeth so I think she does get quite hungry.
I am offering milk more often in the day. She doesn't have as much as I think she should, I am aware that she needs more in the day and less at night, but how do I do this?! Is she too young to try gradual cutting down amounts at night? Might this encourage her to have more in the day?
Her naps are ok ish... Morning nap is a fight to get it beyond thirty mins even though she wakes up exhausted still at that point! But I am trying hard to leap in and soothe her back to sleep as she needs another half hour ish. But timing of the nap is ok I think, starting at 9 or 9.15. Long lunchtime nap of 1.5 hours at about 12pm then a catnap of 30 mins at about 4.15. As I say, she is fine about going to sleep at night, in fact she is exhausted by 7pm as her nights are so bad!!
Could it be teething? Sometimes she is barely waking up but just shuffling and whimpering in half sleep mode, this wakes me up though and then I can't get back to sleep! Does that sound like teething?
Even when she does wake (not for feeds) she is back to sleep quickly if I give dummy, except for beyond 3am when it is hard to get her back to sleep.
Early waking habit is miserable too.
We have yet to move her into her own room, might this help? DH is loud snorer so maybe he disturbs her? But the waking is as bad when he is in spare room upstairs. Maybe I am disturbing her? Is moving her the first thing to try?
I am rambling, sorry, but am at end of my tether, I cry in the night when she wakes again and can hardly face the days when they start so early... Haven't managed a block of more than four hours sleep since before she was born. Mostly it's two hours at a time if am lucky.
Oh, just to add, I will try anything except CIO, I know that may sound insane to everyone who swears by it but it is just not my thing and would stress me out even more if that were possible!M