6 months- was sleeping well, now terrible!

[Mummyk1982]

Hi all

Just wondered if anyone has had a similar experience and can reassure me that all will be well?

For two weeks (up til last Thursday/Friday) my 6.5 month old daughter had started to sleep through from 9-7; it was bliss! Naps became a dream too- I simply put her in her cot with her bunny and one other soft toy and she would settle herself within minutes or just play quietly til she fell asleep within 15 mins or so. She would also have longer naps of an hour to an hour and thirty mins.
Since last week she now screams at nap time, has reverted to 35 min naps, and she has started waking a lot during the night. The last two nights I've had to sit up and sleep with her as she just won't settle. Last night as an example:
8pm Bed
11.45 wakes (I feed her as I know from experience over the last week that she won't settle without it)
12.00 has fallen asleep on me after feed- I place in cot
12.15 wakes and fusses- I give cuddle and she falls asleep within minutes
12.40 in cot asleep
3.40 wakes- I give it ten mins- fussing lots (not crying but noisy)- I go in, cuddles and again falls asleep within minutes
3.55 put back in cot asleep
4.05 wakes, fusses. I know that she won't settle herself and I need her to be quiet as hubby has to get up early and I'm concerned about disrupting neighbours (flats)- so we have cuddles and she falls asleep almost she sleeps on me for the rest of the night
7.10 she wakes as usual

Now, she has had a constant cycle of cough/cold/eye infection for over 8 weeks now and has had various eye drops and antibiotics from GP and sadly the cold appears to have made a return yesterday. She also started losing her voice yesterday. I'm fairly sure she's teething too as some days this week she's been super dribble and a little miserable. however, she is well in that she has no fever and on the whole is a very happy little girl who enjoys almost anything she gets stuck in to.
We are BLW as well at present- some days she eats more than others- but that was happening during the couple of weeks she was sleeping through too so here's no pattern to her sleeping better when she's eaten better.

Any advice/thoughts/reassurance?

Thanks in advance!

Have you tried giving calpol when she wakes at 11:45? If she is teething might not be bothering her during the day but just sore enough to disrupt sleep?

My six and a half month old is going through much the same thing. He never was a brilliant day sleeper, he'd never settle himself but up till 4 months old he'd usually do an hour in the morning and 90 mins in the afternoon. He was doing 6-8 hours a night no problem.
Since then he's dropped down to two half hour naps in the day if I'm lucky and he has to be deep alseep when I put him down or he wakes straight up and yells and nothing settles him. I have to give up and try again at least an hour later and the only thing that settles him off is a feed from me.
Was hoping weaning would help, but he's gone from sleeping 8pm to 6am to going down at 8 and waking at least twice, sometimes more. Sometimes a dummy will settle him off, sometimes not. Two nights ago I just had to give up settling him off in his cot and bring him downstairs for a feed and even that didn't work, he was just grumpy and squiggly for ages. He did drop off in the end at 5.30am, but with DH alarm due to go off only an hour later I didn't bother trying to sleep, just spent the whole day tired and grumpy.
I think he has a lot of the same problems as your LO as his big brother keeps bringing back coughs and colds from pre-school. He's got a nasty cough now that he's struggling to shake and that is making him grumpy. His bottom teeth are on the way so he's dribbly and producing lots of runny poo.
I'm getting quite desperate now, especially in the day as some days go by and he's probably had about 5 mins sleep after a feed and that's all. If ds1 is at home I have to send him off upstairs to his room if I'm trying to settle off the baby as the slightest noise means he wont sleep and I have tried just leaving him in his cot to work it out for himself, but all he does is scream and my guilt kicks in after about 5 minutes.
I keep telling myself it's just a phase and wont last forever, but it sure feels like it and as he's the last baby we're going to have I'm sad that I'm not enjoying his babyhood that much as he's constantly grumpy because he's tired.

Marking place as I'm in a similar situation with my 6.5 month old. I started a thread but no replies yet. Gone from sleeping really well to a moany grumpy little thing

Oh same here too, and it's ds2 so you'd think I'd know what to expect! Watching for ideas/advice. I think there's a big development leap around now/growth spurt...

Thanks everyone. Oh well, here's to another disrupted night sleep! We'll get there eventually! I threw my PJs on at 7.30 ready to leap in to bed when the desire takes me- I just want to feel I've had a but of an evening first!

I tried (and failed) to get ds to sleep at 7 as he was so overtired, but he was having none of it, so we've been downstairs with dh and going to try again now. We're cosleeping which is my saving grace for night wakings! He does have a cough at the mo too which isn't helping.

Have dug out my wonder weeks book and apparently the development leap at 26 weeks is about distances, so perhaps some seperation anxiety starting? www.thewonderweeks.com/mental-leap-5/

OP I could have written your post. The only difference being my little girl is 8.5 months. No advice just sympathy.

Have had some improvement in the last week as his cough isn't as bad, but daytimes are still silly as all he does it cat nap when I'm walking ds1 to pre-school. He did 20 mins in his cot today and then screamed and wouldn't re-settle. Am having to feed him to sleep which is bugging me as I was hpoing to sop breastfeeding soon as I really need to get back on my supplements for my bad joints, but he's having other ideas. He is taking a bottle in the evening now which helps but I'm rarely asleep past 5. Problem is now, if he's not waking himself up then it's ds1 falling over on his way to the loo in the night or the OH snoring... and he wonders why I'm so crabby!

My 6.5 month old is the same, only his nighttime sleep got messed up during the big 4 month growth spurt, when he needed to breastfeed lots during the night suddenly, and he's never got back into the pattern of sleeping through. He's also teething at the minute .

I've just been putting him in our bed all night (and saving up for a kingsize!!!) until the problem hopefully resolves itself.

I have a 6 month old DD2 who is also sleeping badly...i think it's developmental to be honest as I know she can do it - she was doing fairly long stretches and only waking up once, until the 4 month regression. Like Trinpy says above, the increased night wakings which started at that time have never really gone away. This week she is teething, has a cold and basically has been a nightmare at night time so I feel your pain OP .

My DD is OK for her first stretch of sleep 7ish - 10.30-11 and then it all goes to pot! She will not settle back in her cot even after a feed and she needs re-settling approximately every 15 minutes. She is in her own room too which makes it even worse. She seems to be OK from about 5am and will then settle without too much hassle. For the last 2 nights she has ended up in between us after her first waking where at least I can pat her as she starts to stir. Not ideal as I don't sleep well when I know she's in the bed (although it beats not sleeping at all when I have to traipse in and out of her room all night) and I move her back to her cot after her 4.30/5am feed.
Her naps have also gone haywire. She was having at least one 1.5-2hour nap a day, with a couple of 40 min ones, but today all she has managed is 3 naps of 30min, 40 min, 20min

I just have to keep telling myself that it's not going to last forever. DD1 was a shite sleeper day and night (used to wake up for 2-3 hours at night wanting to play) until 10 months when we sleep-trained and she has pretty reliably slept through the night ever since (she's 4.5 now).