Hi all, I'm new to posting on here but I'm at my whits end with my daughters sleeping so was hoping for some advice.
She's just over 6 months old and although she slept through from 10 weeks, once she hit week 20 the doctor said she was teething and she has been waking up in the night pretty much ever since.
It threw me because she was a very sleepy baby from the start, napping all day and sleeping all night. Which is why I'm beginning to question if it's something I did; have I created bad sleeping habits?
She began waking up upset so once I was sure it was no longer teething I began controlled crying. This worked really well as she stopped waking up crying and I often watched her 'self settle' on the monitor in the evening and right up to about 12am. This soon turned into talking though and she has been doing that ever since! Even though I have tried, I can't do controlled crying as she's not actually crying!! I do the minute thing before I go in but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Most nights she wakes once for her dummy then again around 3am where she will lay talking for up to 2 hours.
When this started she was napping for an hour in the morning, up to 2 hours at lunch time and about 45 mins in the afternoon so I cut this down to 30mins, 1hour and 20mins all to coincide with her food as by this point I had started weaning and if she is overtired she won't eat!! I am also doing baby led weaning so she's not actually eating much at the mo, just playing with it and experimenting.
The nap change didn't make a difference so I have gone back to letting her have 2 hours a lunch but I am currently trying to stop her from having an afternoon nap and bringing her tea forward to 4pm so she's not overtired. Someone suggested putting her to bed earlier (6:30pm) as I currently put her down at 7pm but have also tried putting her down later at 8pm still to no avail! I'm also now giving her half a jar along with baby led weaning sticks to try and fill her up a bit but only started that this week.
I'm wondering if I should change her bedtime routine as it only takes around 30mins - bath at 6:15pm, dried, dressed and taking bottle by 6:30pm, story at 6:40pm whilst she drops off in her cot.
I know some people on here suggest that you wean them off the dummy but I wouldn't know where to start with that as I tried once last week and it seemed to traumatise her!
I should be clear, I've tried putting teething stuff on in the night and giving her water with the weather being warm, which does settle her for a while but she soon wakes up.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post but I wanted to get all the info on to make advice easier to give. Thank you for reading and this desperate new mum looks forward to your response.
Xxx