Hi, I am very tired.
Our 6m old little girl has never been good at napping during the day, from birth, but when she finally settled at night she would as least sleep fairly reliably, waking only for a feed. We'd shift her to our bed to co-sleep at that point. But she's always been terrible at settling to sleep in the first place.
Now she wakes several times during the night. The things is.. we're happy to co-sleep half the night. The problem is that sometimes she doesn't want feeding or changing or anything - she just doesn't want to sleep. She's wide awake, looking to play if anything.
She has two big sisters (from another father,) the youngest of whom is just 5 and has become fantastic at going to bed with no fuss at bedtime. But she's still a light sleeper and wakes up very upset if the baby cries. We've experimented and even at opposite ends of the house big sis wakes up if baby cries (she's got an amazing set of lungs on her for such a small thing.) During the night if she wakes up bored she'll just happily.. shout. Not cry or scream just kinda announce that she's ready to get up and play now.
The only reliable way to settle her is to pace vigorously with her. My girlfriend (I'm the dad) has a nasty heel spur and is already in pain through much of the day, so I'm pacing her to sleep in the evening and pacing her back to sleep at night.
I know this is proper 'making a rod for your own back' stuff but any other method disrupts her sister's sleep. Her sister didn't ask for a baby (well technically she did, repeatedly, but a bit harsh to hold a then-3yr-old accountable for that) so I don't think a 'sleep training' solution is fair on her (or her bigger sister, who seems able to sleep through an apocalypse but presumably has a limit.)
Is there anything we can do? I can handle running downstairs to make a bottle two or three times a night but pacing for half an hour in the dark isn't much fun, especially when I need to work. I will not let my girlfriend aggravate her heel spur further by asking her to do it, especially since I know she would and just try and hide the agony in her foot.
One thing - breastfeeding didn't really work out and at two weeks we were in hospital for three days with our little girl in a light box to cure her jaundice. She's been on a combo since but the bottle has been more prominent as time's gone. The breast is largely a 'comfort place' - she will often reject the breast in favour of bottle though which obviously hasn't helped my girlfriend's milk production. So sometimes I think she's in a 'breast mood' at night and gets kinda pissed when the milk's not flowing.
Sorry if this was all a bit jumbled. I am very tired.