7 month old non sleeper -help

[Flambards]

Any advice gratefully received. DS is 7 months and for last month has been plain hell. We are absolutely over a barrel with him as he sleeps In Same room as his 3 year old sister so any noise has to be attended to, we can't hope he'll settle himself as he'll wake her and she struggles to get back to sleep.
Last night he was in bed at 6, up at 7.50, 11, 1.20, 2.30, 4, and I finally gave up and put him in bed with me at 5.20 whereby he slept til 7. I'm a wreck and DH works a horrible commute away so can't help much. Can anyone offer any wisdom?!

No-one? It's a bit depressing to have a baby sleep problem that's floored mumsnet :-(

Ours is always like this so you have my sympathy. From endless reading on sleep I'd suggest it could be temporary if something had changed recently - weaned? Moved to own room? Teething? Change in routine? Moved from 3 to naps? If anything like that then hopefully a temporary phase.

If you're using something to help wee one to sleep (like we are, sigh) - feeding, cuddling, rocking then it could be because they can't settle themself through light sleep phases.

You prob know all this! Didn't like to leave you unanswered. Hopefully it's a passing phase!

Thanks Emma,

I Am desperately hoping its a phase as I just feel poleaxed with tiredness. He's a cuddly little man trapped in a world that wants him to be an independent one, and its just sad but I don't feel I can go on much longer. I'm feedi g him back to sleep but he's now having nearly all his daily milk feeds at night. All the sleep training ideas though seem to come down to letting him cry to some extent, whether alone or cuddled, and we're so stuffed on that one. Surely having children in the same room is normal? I know my sister and I shared a room until we were in school at least. We're hoping to move but that won't be for months yet if it happens at all.

Hello, just offering a as I have a rotten sleeper of a 10mo.

Trying white noise on constant loop tonight, not sure if it'll help or not but will see... Would that kind of thing bother your DD though, in the same room?

I'm sorry you're feeling so bad. You're so right when you say the world wants them to be independent when they are so little.

We are also feeding back to sleep when cuddling/rocking previously worked. I don't mind but I feel like I'm failing him somehow because he can't settle himself.

We are co-sleeping with side sleeper cot for minimum disruption and maximum sleep for all.

It must be tough having a toddler too!

If any comfort most folk I know with babies aged 6/7/8 months seem to have had set backs lately.

I'm also avoiding crying but feel something's going to need to change soon.

You sound like you're doing great by your kids, even though its tough on you.

My ds is coming up for 6 months and is similar with all his night wakings. He has slept in a co sleeper crib too for 3 months and if anything being closer to me has made his night wakings more frequent but more bearable.

I've just recently changed up his bedtime routine. I made it later, previously had been at 7 but now aim for 8 and for the past week he's stopped waking up after the first hour and getting him to sleep is a hundred times easier. Also added a bath every night rather than day and Ewan the sleep sheep every night and nap in the house. So that's cut out one waking.

We have a bedroom with a dressing room/nursery attached to it and I've started putting his cot mattress on the floor in there up against a wall with pillows around it. It's quite far away from our bed so we don't disturb each other as much as the co sleeping crib.

Reason I put it on the floor is because I find it much easier to feed him to sleep lying down and then I can sneak away. I figure since I'm getting him used to sleeping on his mattress it will have all the smells on it and he'll be used to it so will hopefully be fine sleeping on it once I move it back into the cot. Going to work on getting him to sleep without the boob but baby steps for us right now!

So since we've started using the mattress on the floor he still wakes up at 1130 most nights, which isn't ideal considering before the regression he used to do 6 hours at the start of the night. Buuuut, he then only wakes up at 2 for a quick feed then that's him til 730! Those 5 hours of sleep for me at the right time have made me feel like a new human! Previously he would wake up at 11ish and then want to be on me every other hour it was exhausting! I'm hoping the 1130 feed will be cut soon but for now it's much better than before.

So you could possibly try the cot mattress on the floor in your bedroom until he's sleeping better then try getting him back in his room? It's worked so well for us so far I thought it was worth suggesting!

thanks all. Blake, that sounds like a great solution. DS unfortunately has started crawling so he needs to be contained! Emerald, white noise could work, its certainly worth a try. I doubt if it'd keep DD awake... Emma sounds like we're in the same boat. Co-sleeping to be honest would be my choice. He usually comes into bed with me in the early morning and makes these little squeaks of pleasure and joy before settling down for a snooze. I'd be quite happy to have my baby snuggles - after all he's not really going to be sleeping in bed with me forever, but i worry that dd will have her nose out of joint - here comes the new baby and he's in bed with mummy and I'm not- and theres no way we'd all fit in bed together - plus dd is a chatterer if I'm around.

When he was a newborn, he'd be in the moses basket and when he couldn't settle I just put him on chest and we'd doze that way. Humm, rod meet back, huh?