Separation anxiety at night

[snookie28]

My dd (7 months) has never been a good sleeper (wanting bf every 2-3 hours) and has always been quite clingy with me and her dad. She doesn't like being left with anyone else. In the past week though she has managed to combine the two and start showing signs of separation anxiety when she sleeps

She goes to sleep at 7pm and has started waking up every hour during the evening. I go into the room to see her and as soon as she sees/ hears me she relaxes and goes back to sleep. We still cosleep with her so it is not an issue at night when I go to bed

Has anyone elses dc started doing this, how long has it lasted and is there anything I can do to stop her doing it.

Bump

Is my dd the only one to do this?

My DD almost 8 months has also never slept but recently (noticably the last three days) has started to have mega meltdown when putting her to bed and I'm putting it down to seperation anxiety because if I pick her up she calms down. We've had problems for ages with her being unsettled and needing to hold hands to go back to sleep but it feels like it's slowly getting worse (after a very brief period of it getting better). Hopefully some wise person will be along soon to tell us it's temporary and once it's past they'll sleep for 12 hours with no wakings.

My 15 month ds has always gone to sleep beautifully after his bottle - sorry! - but over the last three weeks has started to have complete meltdowns at bedtime. I think it is separation anxiety and the last time I got really fed up with him, I just went into the room and sat on our bed (he's in with us temporarily whilst his room is being used for something else) until he calmed down. Then I moved a bit further down the bed and eventually left the room whilst he was still awake. It does seem to be getting better.

What I did find when ds was younger was that he would sometimes stir, look for us and, if I didn't go to him immediately, would settle himself back to sleep. But I think if you're bf, then it would be difficult to do this.

You could always try stretching out the time between feeds. Ds used to feed every 2-3 hours overnight and it wasn't until I started trying to get him back off to sleep without feeding him that he graudally started to go longer. I know that wasn't what you were asking, but thought it might help with the overall sleeping pattern...

I know I should try (and be consistant) wuth extending the gaps between nightfeeds but she just has these mega tantrums and at 4am it is easier to give in.

The annoying thing is that she can nap for up to 2 hours during the day but in the evening she seems really restless. I hate hearing her cry but am being driven mad by the marching up and down the stairs until I give in about 10pm and go to bed with her.

When I was pregnant I was convinced I would be a strict (but loving) mum who wouldn't allow a baby to determine my every move. Since she was born I am such a softy who will do anything to please her!!