At the end of my tether. Any sleep experts able to help before I snap?

[RoomForALittleOne]

DD3 (DC4) was a great nighttime sleeper for the first two months and then she learnt to escape her swaddle. Since then her sleep has changed from getting up once between 7-7 to getting up progressively more (last night every 3 hours to begin with then every 2 hours then 1.5 hours...). This means that I'm not getting any deep sleep and I can't catch up during the day with another 3 children around (and daytime naps are increasingly short anyway). She settles herself to sleep at every sleep time but she refuses to re-settle for anything other than a feed. No amount of sh-ing, patting, cuddling or rocking helps her to drop back off either in the day or at night. She's too young to night wean and when nothing gentle helps her I don't seem to have any options. She's 18 weeks old now and EBF, growing very well.

I've consulted my Millpond book and it seems that her short naps are impacting her nighttime sleep and she almost certainly has a sleep association with the boob despite settling herself to sleep. I can't work out what I'm supposed to do to solve the issue when she doesn't respond to sh-ing etc. I have taken her to the cranial osteopath in case that helps. Oh, and she is definitely having a developmental spurt as she has started rolling from her back to her front (unhelpful with sleep) and is starting to pass items between her hands and put everything in her mouth.

Phew! Sorry for the long post. All help gratefully received!

4 month sleep regression.

This too will pass!

Oh you poor thing, you must be exhausted.

Mine started teething at 3 months and along with growth spurts and developmental stuff it was a recipe for sleep deprivation.

I used to slather bonjela on if they woke and then feed back to sleep. It would keep them asleep for 3 hrs before it wore off and I'd have to repeat.

You try everything in desperation and start to wonder if anything helps. Or it's your imagination. It will get better! It has to but right now it's so hard.

Hopefully this little message will bump it and you'll get more help. If only all children were the same and what would work for one would work with all x

Thanks Mome. She's gone down better for her naps today and went to bed happily tonight so you never know... Maybe peace will be restored soon?

Do you do the bedtime feed right before you put her to bed? Ds 28wks was the same, hit the 4month sleep regression at 17wks and though he self-settled he suddenly needed feeding for every awakening. For the past two weeks I have moved his bedtime feed from right before bed to the start of his bedtime routine and this seems to have really helped (though of course you never know if it's just coincidence!) I also play white noise all night and make sure he gets decent naps during the day. Hope things get better for you, having just the one baby I deeply admire anyone who manages with other children when they are sleep deprived.

Thanks. She has a book read to her after her bedtime feed so she goes down properly awake. She also settles herself down at nap time but only sleeps for 45 mins (so one sleep cycle). I don't know why she can settle herself but not re-settle.

Last night she went to bed at 7pm. I could hear her chatting/fidgeting for 10 mins before going to sleep - no mobile, music, anything else. She then woke at 22:47, 01:08, 03:07, 05:01 then 06:58... I had gone to bed at 21:30ish so got woken up 4 times. She only fed properly once (and that's probably because I woke up properly and made her!).

I should add that it sounds like she sucks on her fingers to go to sleep initially.

Having exactly the same regression issues too, except DS won't self-settle in his cot without the dummy now (previously wasn't dependent and is not dependent for non-cot sleep). Dummy helps ensure he goes to sleep with minimum intervention from me, but as it keeps dropping out I need to intervene frequently in the night. Intending to tackle dummy dependence once we come out of the regression (in survival mode right now) and then really hope I can get him fully self-soothing to sleep, minus dummy, in good time for the next thing to hit and send his sleep haywire!