10 month old sleeping disaster

[TheChineseChicken]

I need help! 10 month old DD has always been an ok sleeper, never slept through but usually goes 7-7 with a 5-minute feed around 3am. The last few weeks have been pretty bad. Still going down ok at 7 but now usually waking up between 5.30 and 6 and often waking up 2-3 times during the night. DH often tries to settle her but she goes crazy screaming and will only settle for me and often only with a feed. I've been trying not to feed every wake up as I don't want to reinforce her waking but it's the quickest way to get her back to sleep so I often give in.

Last night she fed at 1.30 then was awake screaming again at 3. I spent 30 minutes trying to calm her and resisted feeding even though she was thrashing around in the cot and she eventually went back to sleep, only to wake at 5.30.

She's been teething recently but I feel like this is a more fundamental problem than tooth pain IYSWIM.

Any suggestions for how we can get her sleeping back on track? Thanks

SianyLou sorry I missed your post. I'll definitely check out the link you posted. I did wonder if there was a 9-month sleep regression. Dd just suddenly seems to be doing so much now, all in the space of a few days! x

FATE, not sure if you'll see this post but looking for a bit of advice. DD is still going without feeds at night (DH usually has to go in to her once in the night, sometimes more, to settle so I'm not calling it sleeping through consistently yet). Only issue is that she is now waking early for the day. Previously she would wake around 7am, sometimes 6.30am-ish but now we are lucky to get past 6am and sometimes it's 5am! This seems to be directly related to dropping night feeds. I'm hoping it's just a phase but wondering if you had any thoughts on how we can extend her wake time? She goes to bed at 7pm. Thanks

4am this morning!!

To test the theory it is linked to night feeds, you could try DH offering a bottle of warmed formula in the night, if you don't feel like trying a breastfeed. Or just reintroduce the night breastfeed, just to see.

If a night feed does help with the early morning, then:

• up daytime food. Bigger portions, more high calorie good, wider variety of food groups

• up daytime milk. Milk intake is still important up to aged 2, so shouldn't have stopped in the daytime

• consider hydration, it could be thirst waking in the night. Especially since the weather for not. If offering water, try diluted squash and see if it means baby drinks more. I would aim for about 1-1.5 litre of fluids through the day. I keep a beakers filled and available all day for my children, so they drink throughout the day not just meal times.

• the other thing to consider is nothing to do with calories. It could be the lack of comfort feed in the night means baby has difficulty getting into a deep sleep. The waking could be for comfort reasons, not calories

• another non-calorie read on is over tiredness. Early waking is often linked to lack of daytime sleep leading to over tiredness.

Thanks for replying. I'm reluctant to start breastfeeding again at this stage (at night) and she's never had formula or a bottle so I'm not sure how that would go down. DH does take in water and she drinks from that but I guess it's not quite enough to settle her. She eats a good amount at meals and had a fair bit of milk during the day yesterday but I will try adding in a couple more milk feeds. Only thing is that she often spits up after milk feeds in the day, which indicates to me that she's already full from food?

She has a bottle of water available all day and drinks well from it and has at least 2.5 hours of naps a day.

Which brings me to think it's probably a comfort thing. Hopefully this will settle again soon?

I was down to 2 or 3 milk feeds a day by this age. Full milk feeds though, rather than top-up after a meal. Aside from that, the rest of the fluids from dilute squash or water - at least two 300ml beakers a day, often three or four.

But I was always prepared to give a night milk feed if needed. Mostly it wasn't, but a night feed would always be my fail-safe for really bad nights. I might just do one, one night only, in a month. Or maybe a run of a single dreamfeed each night for a week while teething. It's just the comfort factor. It's no problem at all to me, to give a bottle of ready made stuff here and there if needed.

In your position I would introduce both bottles and also formula milk. It depends how precious you feel about it, I would though since it keeps that aspect of comfort in the night available. Or be prepared tp breastfeed at night if needed (and your supply can tolerate just occassional night feeds). I have never once found water in the night works to gives enough comfort to resettle after a night wake, but that might just be my children.

Ok, maybe I should be a bit less scared to give the odd milk feed at night then. I actually wonder if she's teething as she's been biting and scraping her teeth on things and quite dribbly. So she may need a bit more comfort at night.

It's always bloody something! Just when you think you've cracked it.

It's always bloody something! Just when you think you've cracked it.

There's an element of setting your expectations at a realistic level. I have always considered my toddler to be a really good, easy sleeper. But she wasn't sleeping through consistantly until 12 months (inconsistantly didn't even start until 9 months). It wouldn't concern me if occassionally she needs extra comfort at night - I'm expecting that as an occassional thing until school age, 5 years old or so.

I don't fear giving that extra comfort here and there, assuming other sleep habits are healthy and progressing in the right direction.

My thoughts are to make that comfort as easy as possible (for me and DH, so we can get back to bed). So if a quick bottle on the odd occassion fixes things, great. Better that than dealing with an increasingly exhausted over tired baby. If that bottle becomes a requirement every night - not great.

As the months go on, I wouldn't give my 2 year old a bottle if she wakes in the night. She doesn't very often but she does sometimes wake - cutting molars, when ill. I don't stress over that happening. I have a travel cot and bedding in the corner of my bedroom. Mostly it remains unused. If DD wakes, I can't be arsed settling her at 2am. She already has good sleep habits so it is of no benefit. I just go get her, plonk her in the travel cot and pull it over to the side of my bed. Bob's Your Uncle - everyone back to sleep within 5 minutes. Then back to normal the next night.

You're right of course and it was a lighthearted comment - I'm certainly not naive enough to expect that I'll be getting an undisturbed 8 hours' sleep a night from hereon in. Although that would be nice

You never know, you may have a deep sleeper on your hands.

My 11 year old, when he started sleeping through that was it, I never heard a peep from him over night. Ever, no matter what. Once asleep nothing would wake him until he has had enough sleep. He has slept through the burglar alarm several times. Fantastic in terms of sleep but created massive problems with bed wetting

Fingers crossed that when you crack sleep, that she's a deep sleeper.