My little girl is now 10 months old and seems to go through spells of being in a routine and sleeping well and other times the everything seems to be turned upside down. We were hit hard by the 4 and 9 month sleep regressions and things are calmer now but despite the fact that she can self settle (used cc when at my lowest point a couple of months ago) she still wakes up probably three times a night, cries for 30 seconds and goes back to sleep by herself then she's up for the day between 4:45am and 5:15am which is not great when I have to go to work!
She's back down for a morning nap around 8am and sleeps for between 30 minutes to 2.5 hours but there is no consistency. This then impacts the day and depending on when she wakes up she might need 2 or 3 more naps to get through the day. She's speed crawling and walking and has been crawling since 4 months so I know she burns a lot of calories being so active; she can't stay awake for more than 2.5 hours maybe 3 in the day but fights every nap with fury, kicking and screaming until she eventually drops off and sleeps for 40 mins to an hour and a half depending on how she's feeling. It's impossible to carve out any kind of routine because she will not go back to sleep once she's woken from a nap, even if has only slept for 30 mins. I've tried various techniques to lengthen short naps but after 2.5 hours of either crying or messing around and playing peekaboo with herself, I always get her up because it's a waste of time.
She has an insatiable appetite and despite being underweight (2nd centile) she eats for England and has breastfeed when she wakes up at 5ish, porridge at 6:30ish and another breastfeed after her morning nap. She has lunch at 12 and eats a lot, normally a proper hot meal like an omelette with veggies or a jacket potato. She'll then have another breastfeed afterwards and will fight tooth and nail not to sleep. Sometimes I have to rock her for an hour in a dark room because she can't even play she's that exhausted and will only sit on the floor and cry but won't sleep either! She has more breast milk before dinner which is around 5:30 and again she eats a lot and has pudding. Normally she'll nap just before or after dinner because she's exhausted and if I try to keep her awake until 7 she'll be overtired and screaming.
I've tried all variations on naps and bedtime can range from 6:45 to 8pm. Nothing makes her sleep past 4:45/5am and neither does delaying morning feed and nap.
I feel like all I do all day is deal with a tired baby who refuses to nap and when I have to go to work it's really difficult for her grandad to manage her because she fights sleep so much. He normally ends up pushing her around in her buggy for 3 hours so she'll maube sleep for 40 mins!
Is this just an awkward age? I feel like 2 naps a day should be enough at the age but at the moment she couldn't possibly manage with only 2 a day. It's 9am and I've already been up for over 4 hours and she's finished her morning nap already! It's going to be a long day!