How many ways of bad sleep can there be?

[Tentativesteps133]

My DD has been what I would call a poor sleeper since about 6 months. She's nearly 10 months now. Actually writing it down, 3/4 months of poor sleep doesn't sound that bad but it feels so hard when you're in the middle of it!

We keep 'getting over' periods of bad sleep just for it to be replaced with something new! We've had the waking hourly phase, the wakes every time she's put in her cot phase, the refusing to feed to sleep phase, the only will fall asleep by feeding phase, the bedtime meltdown phase, the had to be taken for a walk each night to fall asleep phase, the wake for 2 hours in the night phase....you get my drift.

We've worked really hard to stop cosleeping (was a godsend initially but ended up with more disturbances for everyone in the end), stop feeding at every wake and getting her to self settle. BUT despite the fact she is put in her cot awake and falls asleep herself and I only feed her once at night, she still wakes up multiple times (midnight and 4am on a good night, every hour on a bad night). I curse everyone who told me as soon as I stopped feeding to sleep and taught her to self settle that she'd sleep through!!

Can anyone give me some reassurance that she might at some point at least give me a 7 hour stretch of sleep? Or is she destined to be one of the 'my DC didn't sleep through til they were 4' babies that I read about...? I've got 3 months of mat leave left and starting to think about how I'll cope being back at work.

Are there any underlying health issues?
Could it be worth starting a food diary to see if there’s any correlation between good v bad night and what she’s eaten?

Hi namechange30. A food diary is a great idea as the problems did seem to coincide with weaning. She never slept through before 6 months but I think I just expected sleep to be better in the second half of the year instead of getting worse if you see what I mean?

My gut feeling is that there isn't a food issue as nappies are fine and she's generally a really happy chilled baby but it's definitely worth monitoring. No other health issues as far as I know.

She WILL give you 7 straight hours at some point. You may need to go to bed early (mine were up before 6 today). It may not happen before you go back to work (sorry), but it will either happen, or she will get old enough to wake, and go back to sleep without telling you.
None sleeping babies and toddlers are the pits. and to get you through today.

Yes I noticed it started when weaning which is why I suggested a food diary.

My son is breastfed and we only realised he had CMPA quite late on after he had been on solids for a couple of months and he started having some formula at nursery.

It might not be a good/digestive issue of course but worth considering just in case.

What time do you feed her in the night? What do you do for the other wakings?

Food not good!

Dunes - thanks. Got a flight and 3 hr drive today so coffee is definitely needed!

Namechange30 - I feed her around midnight, so about half way through the night which is her first waking on a good night. Dad sees to her before midnight and me after midnight and it depends on her cry if you know what I mean, sometimes a hand on her and shush is enough, sometimes she needs rocking. I feed at midnight just to be sure she's not hungry and wakes an hour later to feed. She does feed properly so I'm happy it's not a complete comfort exercise.

It might help to stop the midnight. We went cold turkey on the night feeds at 10 months (also a terrible sleeper!) I did carry on feeding at 4-5am for several months after that because he wouldn’t go back to sleep without it, so I figured it was hunger. Obviously feeding at 4-5am every day isn’t ideal but if no other wakings and it’s a quick feed then straight back to sleep, it’s fine. (It was a vast improvement for us.)

Sorry I meant to say that if baby is eating and feeding well during the day, they shouldn’t need a feed at midnight. My son started eating better in the day after we cut the night feeds.

Sleep pressure is stronger at the beginning of the night and weaker towards the morning hours which is why we stuck with the 4-5am feed rather than doing a dream feed, that was when he needed it to get back to sleep.

A bit of a random one, but try seeing a cranial osteopath for babies and children. Apparently birth can click something slightly out and that can stop babies being good sleepers. Worked for a friend of mine. Hope it improves soon

If the birth had caused issues it would have caused issues from birth and not 6 months.

Could the midnight feed be the problem? My DS's sleep got gradually worse between about 5 and 10 months until he was waking every 45 minutes to feed. I decided to cut out the night feeds - the first night I told myself I would feed him at midnight but in fact after waking up at 9.30pm and taking two hours to go back to sleep he then went back to sleep until 5am. It only took a couple of nights for him to start sleeping 7-8 hours.

Both mine were very resistant to falling asleep if rocked or shushed, they needed zero stimulation to fall asleep.

I feel for you, I made myself seriously ill with sleep deprivation before I got desperate enough to tackle the problem.

Oh and my DS used to feed properly at night - so properly that he hardly fed in the day! For a healthy 10 month baby I don't think that feeding well at night is necessarily a sign that they need to be fed.