6 month baby - HELP I’m loosing it!!

[Tch1]

I’m wondering if anyone has any advice or has been in a similar situation?
My daughter is 6.5 months, shes had many months of being a rubbish sleeper due to Cows milk protein allergy and eczema and recently chicken pox however I have had bouts in between of her sleeping through the night (3 weeks max)
She was breastfed but due to allergy has been put on special formula.. this is the issue. Previously from exhaustion I would feed her to sleep.. now she is bottle fed I am fighting her 5 times per day to sleep. Two morning naps, an afternoon nap, bed time and the wake in the night.
I feel like I have coped with everything thrown at me but this just feels too much. I am rocking and bouncing her around to sleep with my tears streaming.
I’ve always been a strong person and had the shit happens just get on with it mentality but if something doesn’t change I fear I’m really going to go insane.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have a set routine daily and watch for all sleeep cues yet still it can take up to 2.5 hours to get her to sleep on an evening.
Bedtime routine is. Wash, cream with massage, pjs, darken room, bottle and lay in cot. Hell will she lay in that cot. Not even 1 minute and it’s ARGHHHH. How long so I ignore her? I’ve tried getting out settling and putting back 100 times but no chance...
Anyway again.. please save us!!

Oh tch I could've written your post 8 months ago! Believe me when I say , this will pass!

You say you have a set routine - are you happy to share what this is? The turning point for me was when I realised I had way too long between awake times, once I lived by 1.5 - 2 hours max between naps getting her down got a lot easier. Do you have a sling? My DD used to do one nap in the sling because it meant I was doing one less "fight to sleep" per day.

I hope you have people supporting you as it can be so very hard alone!

This sounds tough, you have my sympathy. Will she take a dummy? It worked miracles for getting my baby to sleep in her cot.

I used a baby swing during the day for naps... only thing that worked and saved my sanity.

@happydays00 The routine is:

7 Wake bottle
9 breakfast/bottle nap (1 hour max)
12 fruit/bottle nap (length varies!)
3 veg/bottle nap (usually doesn’t sleep til around 4:30 then it lasts 30 mins)
19:00 bed routine.

Any tips? Where am I going wrong?

She won’t take a dummy no. And actually she takes just as long to sleep in the sling and then I can’t get her off. She’s big too she’s 8.5kg so it does my back in.

Oh it's so tough OP. I also have a rubbish sleeper. Have you tried white noise? Co-sleeping? I currently do both with mine as it's the only way we get sleep (he is nearly 7 months so similar age). Yesterday I didn't have the energy to fight naps. Tried to put him down, no luck. So I left it. He catnapped a bit while I went out, but only 30 mins at most, then when we got home I plonked him on his play mat and he flaked out after a bit with hardly any help! He slept well last night too - only 2 wake ups. So maybe try cutting down naps? I'm going to try the same approach today and see what happens!

Have you tried putting her to bed earlier? Maybe she’s overtired by 7pm and that’s why it’s taking you so long to get her to sleep. At 6 months my DD was asleep by 6pm which I thought was ridiculously early but apparently not! Even now at 8 months she’s asleep before 7pm.

Do you have a partner to help with the night feed?

tch my initial guess would be she's over tired as that last stretch is quite long on just 30 minutes sleep. Have you tried a slightly earlier bed time? I was the same as a pp - my dd was going to bed at 6pm as she could only last 1.5 hours absolute max after that last nap of the day.

Sorry to not have more advice, please take comfort in the fact it sounds like you are doing such an amazing job with her and this really is temporary!

My bedtimes improved drastically when I started weaning and introduced baby rice at bedtime. At 6.5 months I now give a bowl of baby rice mixed with formula and veg/fruit between 5pm and 6pm, followed by final feed at about 6.30. He always used to scream at bedtime and now he settles much quicker and actually stays asleep. He is also sleeping far better at lunch since starting some protein at lunch. Best of luck and I know how desperate I've felt at times with shit day time sleep and awful bedtimes. I hope it passes soon.