Seven month old awake for hours in middle of night - any advice?

[lelong]

Hi all

Grateful for any advice from those with similar experiences. My seven month old (second child) used to be a brilliant night sleeper. However the dreaded four month sleep regression hit and she started waking again at night for a feed (she's EBF) - which I am absolutely fine with.

However, recently she has been a nightmare to get back to sleep again after this feed - taking anywhere from an hour to three hours (last night - a new low, hence this post!) to get back to sleep. Most of that time she is not distressed, just messing around in her cot, but at some point will get upset and need comforting. Last night I let her cry for a bit (after 2 hours of trying to comfort her to sleep with no success - feeding, patting, cuddling) - but she got so distraught that I brought her in to bed with me in the end, and she finally settled. She used to come into bed with us after this feed most nights but we found she was taking forever to settle so decided to keep her in her cot. This worked for a while but has now stopped working!

Some details about her routine:
-self settles for naps and bedtime with her dummy and a lullaby playing - put down awake and drifts off to sleep
-good napper - usually has an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon
-bedtime at around 7pm after bath and a book with her older brother
-wakes up for the day around 6.30/7am
-eats well during the day - both solids and milk feeds
She's generally a really happy energetic baby - has been crawling for a few weeks and can also stand up, but doesn't really do either of those things in her cot. I don't understand why she can self settle to get to sleep in the first place but not in the middle of the night!

Thanks

Read about 'split nights'. A good resource is
www.babysleepscience.com
If still struggling they do international consultations.
Good luck!

Have you tried controlled crying. My son was a good sleeper till around 5 months after many nights of no sleep we attempted this. Myself and my DH were fully on board and after a week he sleeps through and if he does wake he cries for around 5 minutes then goes back to sleep. You can be as harsh or gentle as you like with the controlled crying, we took a rather harsh approach but it has worked wonders and he is now such a happy baby xx

Don't know if this will be helpful but my DS has gone through phases of this. We left him to it and would only intervene when he was distressed and even then try to keep contact to a minimum. He would never settle in our bed so that wasn't an option. It's really tough but it did pass and I'm sure it will pass quickly for your LO too xx

It's developmental, both my DC did this at various ages, both awake for two hour periods. To get through it I had them in with me with bed guards on, let them get on with it and tried to rest or doze until they fell asleep. Imo no point in trying to sleep train this, their brains are busy!

Thanks to all of you for replying. I had a feeling it might be developmental as she's doing so much at the moment: crawling, standing, even starting to cruise a little bit (!!). Mrsharper and Orangepear, how long did each phase last? Desperate for light at the end of the tunnel!

My little one did this for 3-4 weeks starting age 7.5 months. Was awake for at least one two hour period in the night, as well as waking nearly every hour - I felt like I nearly died of sleep deprivation.

She also learnt to crawl, sit and stand in this time so I am certain it was developmental and that she hit the 8-10 month sleep regression early (ties in with Wonder Weeks Categories leap). Now she is 8.5 months, the last few nights have drastically improved, for absolutely no reason at all. She only woke twice last night, and only one of those did I need to take her out the cot to feed. She did attach herself to a top of mine last week for a comforter and this helped massively - have you tried a comforter?

I can't believe it seems to have passed - but I think (fingers crossed) it has! So I'm sure there will be light at the end of the tunnel for you too. Keep going and you will get there!