My 9 month old won't sleep

[user1471423502]

I’m becoming desperate with my DD sleep patterns. She has a pretty good routine in the day as I’m back at full time work so she is full time at nursery. She has 2 naps in the day and then straight home bath bottle bed by around 6:45pm. From around 10.30pm onwards she will wake around every 1hr to every 2 hours. Once awake she is incredibly hard to put down. If you pick her up she will pretty much instantly fall back to sleep as soon as she is an inch from the cot mattress she wakes! I can pat/rock her to sleep in her cot for anything up to an hour before she’s in a deep enough sleep for me to be able to leave her again. She will then only stay day for up to 2 hours before she wakes.

I have tried to leave her to cry and settle herself but it just doesn’t work (I let her cry for over an hour the other night before I finally gave in) and the other half really doesn’t like it. Me and the other half are exhausted and the stress levels in our house are now so high it’s causing a lot of tension between us which is so upsetting and I seriously don’t know what to do anymore. She used to be an average sleeper up maybe once in the night but wouldn’t take a lot to get back down. It now feels like she literally gets worse every night.

Why not take the side of the cot and put up against your bed? You might find she wakes less and is easier to settle when she does wake.

She's in her own room and has been for around 3 months and physically can't fit down the side of my bed in the cot. I have tried co-sleeping but she is then really restless and will wake crying so will still don't get any sleep.

At about this age we introduced my daughter to a comfort cloth thing. I just cut a muslin cloth into four and sewed satin trim around the edges. I know it sounds silly but it’s made a big difference as she gets real comfort from it and clings to it all night. She also has a bunny soft toy that she cuddles and I think it makes her feel more settled. We also give her a dummy. Good luck you must be shattered xxx

Sorry one other thought we also used to dream feed with a bottle of warm milk about 10 pm before we went to bed to make sure she had a full tummy. Still do now sometimes and she’s 15months now!

Thank you last night I did consider giving her a bottle to see if it would settle her off for longer will see how we get on tonight with finley fox in the cot with her

I found this article (and parts 2 & 3 which you can link to) very helpful:

https://www.preciouslittlesleep.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-sleeping-through-the-night-part-i/

We're exhausted from 2 hourly waking with our son and have had to go cold turkey on the rocking/walking to sleep to help him learn to go to sleep by himself. From your post perhaps it's the bottle before bed association? No easy solutions though

No need to leave her to cry as it’s obviously not worked for you or her. At 9 months separation anxiety is rife so this is why she is being extra needy. I am currently having a very rough time with my 9 month old so understand how you feel. Do whatever works to get you through the phase, even if it’s temporarily cosleeping. 8-10 month regression is rough but it’s also really tough for baby - so much learning happening and separation anxiety is a real fear for them x