Nearly at my wits end!

[BorahT]

My 7 month old is having terrible sleep at the moment and I can’t work out why! He’s been waking every 1-1.5 hrs at night and will only settle if I feed him and his “feeds” have been getting longer longer so I feel like I’ve been up all night! He wakes up really crying like he’s in pain, I thought it must be teething as he’s getting his lateral incisors through already so tried some calpol before bed but didn’t seem to make any difference...

I felt like I was so lucky, when he was 2.5m he started sleeping through the night without any encouragement, then a month later it all ended! He started waking only twice, then up to three times, now all the time and I just don’t know what’s happened!

So now I feel like I’m doing a terrible mummy job as I’m so shattered all the time, he won’t nap without being fed or walked in the pram in the day so I don’t get any time to myself and all the housework has to get done when he is awake so I just don’t feel like I’m doing enough with him. Anyway, I just had to have a moan, if anyone has any magic solutions to share I’m open to it, otherwise please let me know this will get better eventually!! I’ve finally given in and spent pennies on a white noise toy which I really hope will work!

How is he doing with weaning? Could he just be really hungry? I added a bit of baby rice to my daughters 7pm bottle before putting her down and I did feel that that helped for a while but the health visitors didn’t recommend it and weren’t too pleased with me doing that so maybe seek advice from them?

Sorry it’s so hard when they go through these phases but it does pass and he will return to better patterns. Try to get as much rest as you can as it’s dreadful when you are so so tired.

1. How are his daytime naps?
2. As PP said, how much food does he eat?
3. How much milk does he take in the day?
4. Lastly, if it is teething ditch the Calpol and try baby Nurofen. Far more effective.

You’re not doing anything wrong. Dowload an app called the wonder weeks it’s very useful. ALL babies are different there is no right or wrong answer, my now 10 month old has a really bad patch at 7 months or is it a constant bad patch but it passed, for a while!

In fairness weaning is going pretty pants! We’re doing baby led and the only thing he will reliably eat is Greek yoghurt and sometimes banana, everything else gets thrown on the floor. He started off pretty well but then his top teeth started coming through and now he doesn’t want to know! Perhaps I could experiment with some purée tonight to see if I can get a bit more in him? He is breastfed on demand so I haven’t the foggiest how much he gets though it feels like I always have one boob out or the other

We’ve had to work pretty hard at getting his naps in the day, but I think he gets enough, usually between 2.5-3 hrs spread over 2-3 naps?

Thanks for the tip on the baby nurofen, not tried that!

We did baby led and out of desperation I tried purees. She didn’t want it and it made me realise she just wasn’t really ready for solids. Also worth remembering that purees aren’t calorific, they’re just fruit and veg mushed up essentially, so it helps to start getting nutrients in but not calories. Your milk is much more calorific :) x

Thanks Crazycatlady5 haha you’re not wrong they are all different, I have the wonder weeks app and he never seems to fit into when he’s supposed to be grumpy he’s a bit lof a late bloomer and has only just started rolling over so perhaps he is stuck in the last leap!

Sounds like we are going through the same thing you have been through, good to know there may be the prospect of a break coming up even if it is short Lived!

Honestly, it’s so tough. But you’ll get through. And for all you know you won’t get many more rough patches! I have lots but mines been like it since she was born, ups and downs all the way 😂 good luck x

How do you settle him? Is he fed to sleep all the time?

at night i am guilty of mostly feeding to sleep, I can settle by rocking him but it doesn’t seem to knock him out quite as much and he wakes up as soon as I put him down! 😫 I know that this is a problem but I’m at a loss as to why he’s suddenly waking so frequently recently, only a couple of weeks ago he was only waking 2-3 times a night 😭

I did wonder if it was because I wasn’t feeding him enough in the day though, so I’ve fed him something either milk/food at least every hour most of today! Not sure it’s worked though as he’s already woken up once, but the new white noise toy might have done the trick, took a few minutes but he settled down without my intervention! Fingers crossed it carries on working 🤞

Sounds as though he has a sleep association, if he’s used to be fed to sleep when he wakes- even if not necessarily hungry- he will look for that to go back to sleep. On top of that there could be a leap or as you said the dreading teething that plaques sleep for the first year!
I love white noise! But, I play it all night long, loud and my DS definitely sleeps better. Used for all sleeps.

Is he in own room or with you?

Can totally sympathise, when DS was 4 months he was up hourly for weeks and would only BF back to sleep. Once he learned to settle himself it got better.

You’re doing a fantastic job!

Plagues* not plaques

guilty of mostly feeding to sleep

Really nothing wrong with feeding to sleep it’s totally natural! You’re not doing anything wrong!

Thanks you lovely people! You have made me feel so much better! Oh we got the white noise toy last night and IT WORKED!!!! I am so pleased I finally took the plunge and got it! He still woke up but the white noise kicked in and soothed him back to sleep and I don’t know if I was being hopeful he seemed to get less unsettled as the night went on! He still fed three times when the white noise wouldn’t cut it but that’s totally workable 🤗

fortheloveofjames he still sleep in a cosleeper in our room, I tried moving him to his own room with the hopes of us possibly not waking him so much but it didn’t make any difference so he moved back in the following night 😂 I’m going to play around with the settings on the white noise thing to see if volume will help settle sooner 👍👍👍

Crazycatlady5 ha I know I shouldn’t feel guilty but somehow I still do as though I should be making more effort to settle him otherwise as everything you read says “don’t do this or that blah blah blah” 😂 I should read hurrah for gin’s rods of shame story again and make myself feel better!