10 month old, wakes every half hour..

[Sarri]

Hi all,
Praying for some advice, we're at our wits end.

Our 10 month old is a very jolly baby but has always been rubbish at sleeping and has never slept through. Lately she's started waking about every half hour in her cot and immediately howling at force 10. We can get her back to sleep, sometimes patting her in her cot, sometimes rocking her back to sleep but it never lasts long before she's awake again. Usually by about 2am we're worn out and she comes into bed with me, where we'll get longer spells of 2-3 hours between wake ups. Is this separation anxiety? Is there anything I can do to help? I dont mind cosleeping for now but it's becoming a bit of a habit and it's not something I can continue when I'm back at work. She's not night weaned but only has one bf through the night and I'm happy with that.

I've got her on a loose routine and she has a couple of naps a day: I feed her to sleep for a morning nap (she's bf) and she usually has a second in her buggy or rocked to sleep. I have had some minor success putting her down awake at night, putting her down awake at nap time has never worked, she gets so wound up she ends up not having a nap..

Thanks for reading

I can't help in any way but going through the same thing with my DS who is 8 months old! All I can say from our latest experience that leaving him to "cry it out" has made him worse!
Good luck!

Oh, sorry to hear you're suffering too. We've not tried crying it out yet, though kind of suspected it wouldn't go well and not very comfy with the idea. I'm trying tinkering around with what time we put her to bed and the bedroom environment at the moment, though not very hopeful..

I have recently read about him possibly being over tired so I moved his bed time from 7 to 6:30 which has helped a little he now sleeps till 11 and wakes for a feed and on a good night goes till 4:30 when he has another bottle on a bad night he cries from 11 more or less every hour :(

He also has classical music on in his room very softly don't know if it helps me but calms me down when I'm trying to sooth him!

Have you tried giving her a night light?

www.babysleepsite.com/Guides/BabySleepSite_5WaysToSTTN.pdf

You might find something in there to help!

Ooo thanks, I will take a look. She managed to sleep from 7.30 till 10.30 last night which was pretty good, but it went pretty much downhill after that..

We use white noise, which I think is helpful, especially as we've got noisy neighbours and I've been thinking about trying a night light but bit worried she'll think that's too interesting.

Our night light is at the opposite side of his bed so he can't really see it only makes the room a little lighter so in my mind he doesn't get scared when he wakes up alone?

Hopefully we will both crack this soon!
Good luck for the night ahead!

How has your last couple of nights been?

No magic improvements I'm afraid! She did manage to go from 7.30-10.30 a couple of days ago - not sure what we did differently though and unfortunately it's not been repeated! How about you?

We managed a 6:30-9:30 feed and a cuddle 9:45-2:30 feed and a cuddle and then hysteria at 5 so ended up in between DH and I foran hour till I gave up and started the day so small improvement :)

I did stay in with him for a few days and forced him into a " nap routine" and went against what feels like every one I know and just cuddle him to sleep.

I wish I could be more helpfull!

Crying since 8:30 last night and the up at 5 :( hope you had a better night! ??????

Urgh, sounds tough. My OH and I have been splitting up the night shift so we both get a few hours kip - gets us by, though he's out tonight :( Worried I'll be up and down with baba so much I won't get chance to eat!

Sounds familiar and I sympathise...it's really tough! I had extreme problems with my daughter who is now 3.5yrs (and finally a great sleeper). It was so bad I set up a blog about it and all the things we tried. We had a problem with separation anxiety and teething mainly, plus she was addicted to breastfeeding and mummy. There is possibly something on their that might help...Here's one of the posts that maybe relevant to your situation. Good luck and best wishes. mydaughterwontsleep.com/2013/12/27/the-sleep-inducing-power-of-acupressure/

I've got one like this, although he's 18 mo now and we are though the worst bit. 10 months of no sleep is awful. Truly awful.

Here's what we did....

We tried: stopping bf ( I lasted till 8 months. He would feed on and off all night so it had to go for me.) it made little difference, although I was relieved.
Not using sleeping bags, but got 2.5 tog sleep suits instead. Seemed to help a bit.
Feeding him something easy to digest before bed. Didn't work.
A night light that played music and projected stars onto the ceiling. Didn't work.
Changing naps around. Didn't work.

In the end my mum said that she thought it was milk. And I think she is probably right. He can still be quite unsettled and still wakes most nights, but gets straight into our bed and sleeps through, so I can cope with that. We have changed him onto goats milk, but I actually think I need to see the GP about it.

In light of all that my advice would be to try everything and anything.

I really hope you get some sleep soon.

Good luck for tonight!!
I'm already in bed just to get a little sleep!
My dad said I did this exact thing in the end it was separation anxiety might be what we are both dealing with? I read up about it and they said the best cure is comfort?
[hmmm]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I must admit I have been feeling at a loss to know what to do - been talking to friends with babies of a similar age and whilst some of them get a couple of night wake-ups it's nothing on our scale - and we don't appear to be doing anything very different. 1lastshot, I have also wondered about separation anxiety - guess if it's that we just have to wait it out :(

I know this sounds stupid but what does your instinct tell you?
We are dealing with little individuals and even though it's not always worked out for me I started ignoring people's opinions and to be honest we've had a few good nights which gives me a glimmer of hope!
hope you have a good night!

I don't think following your instinct sounds daft at all :) And hooray that you've had some better nights, that's great!

I know I don't sound like it on here, and I am worried about the lack of sleep, especially when I go back to work.. but fundamentally I'm an optimist - I'm just hoping things will gradually get better - it's probably the opposite of what the books say about independent sleep but maybe if she's slowly reassured that we're there for her if she needs us she won't be so alarmed when she wakes..?

That was my thoughts exactly so DH and I decided that if it is separation anxiety we will "embrace" it and it seemed to do the trick most nights! He ends up co sleeping with us ALOT but we all get sleep! And miraculously last night he only woke twice :) :)
I feel your pain with lack of sleep and going to work, I go back in 5 weeks and I'm dreading those 9hour days if I don't get a decent nights sleep!!

Good luck for tonight I hope your DD has a good night!

How have you guys been doing?

Hello - that's ace that you only had 2 wake-ups, amazing!! We had a bit of a stinker last night, poor love didn't want to settle at all, then we had 2 wide awake hours between 1.30 and 3.30am! So I am a bit zonked!

However, made a discovery today - she is scared of a toy sheep who lived next to her cot! So he has been removed! Not expecting miracles but I'm sure he wasn't helping..

We were up at the same time last night!

Bless her heart, well I'm hoping that the removal of mr sheep will help her!(and you)

Does she have a dummy?

So we had a bit of a surprise a couple of nights ago - my husband went up to settle baba, and she was on her side, so rather than putting her on her back, he let her roll onto her tummy. And she slept for hours! I wasn't totally comfy about her being on her tummy but it seems to be considered ok once they're rolling around and sitting up and so on.. so we've tried it for a couple more nights and she's been much more settled. Not sleeping through, but only a few wake-ups, which when you've been dealing with 10 or more a night, is pretty astonishing. I'm still not completely relaxed about her being on her tummy (keep bobbing in to check, managed to wake her up by poking her in the ear in the dark, oops..) but she lifts her head and changes side when she wants to, so I hope it's ok at this age?

How are things going 1lastshot?

Wow that's so great! I think babies are amazing! I know they keep us awake but look how she is improving all by herself no cc or anything!
I think that it's ok for her to be on her front, DS rolls onto his front in his sleep? She is old enough to turn back around if she wanted too.

We have had a few really good nights Saturday he only woke once! I was up and down checking if he is still alive ;)
And last night only woke twice! He has also cut down to only 1 night feed for about 4 nights so when he wakes I only sit in his room for 5/10 minutes so that he falls asleep again! I'm hoping he improves or just stays like this I'm back to full time work in 4 weeks can't be sleep deprived then!

How are you getting on? Is she still happily sleeping on her front?

Hi there! I realise this thread is OLD but I’m really really hoping you still get these messages!! I’m having exactly the same issue as you were having several years ago; I have a ten month old who has never slept thru the night, wakes on average every 1.5hours and it is just so painful. I’m really interested to know if and when the situation resolved and if you have any suggestions based on your experience?? Thanks in advance 🤞🏼