Advice... I'm desperate!

[Daisyzxcv]

My little DD has been brilliant up until now.. unlike my first who was always terrible! She suddenly started waking and being very upset through the night about a month ago now. I've tried everything. I've got her checked by GP and they can't see anything wrong. I just can't keep going on sleeping an hour every night. I've tried calpol in case it's teething, I've tried extra blankets, I've tried cosleeping etc. Nothing works. She very obviously wants to sleep but just can't stay settled.. poor thing! I don't know if anyone else has experienced this with their 6 m/o but if you have, please reply!

Thank you x

If she's waking hourly and it kicked in at 5 months, could it be late-onset four-month sleep regression aka hell on Earth? Her sleep is developing from drowsy newborn to adult-style sleep cycles and it sounds like she can't link them yet, and is pissed off about it!

I'm right there with you. I'm cosleeping and feeding back to sleep at every wake-up because I'm lazy, and every now and then I get a 3- or 4-hour chunk; 2 hours is standard; 45 minutes to an hour on a bad night.

::yawns:: Someone with a unicorn baby will be along in a minute to explain you need to teach her to self-settle by patting and shushing, a technique that's never worked on my daughter on account of my wanting her to sleep, not transmogrify into the howling devil. I'm hoping that since DD doesn't seem to want to be awake she'll eventually figure it out.

@burritofan your reply really made me chuckle! But I'm sorry you're going through this too! I thought (stupidly hoped) that she would've figured it out by now after a month of this. Maybe I'll just have to wait it out and be a zombie a bit longer. She literally doesn't even go an hour now. It's so awful and I just felt so guilty that I'm doing something wrong that's why I felt the need to ask advice! Thank you for your reply - and for making me laugh!

Hi lovely. So sorry you're going through this. Truly is exhausting. We are in this too with 6mo DD. Co sleeping from birth and was sleeping fine until about 4 and a half months. A bit of let up about 3 weeks ago for 2 nights now back to at least every hour waking. I breastfeed her back to sleep each time (no way am I lifting my head off the pillow!!). Randomly the last few nights shes actually woken properly for over an hour, which is totally new. Usually would stir, plug in boob, and she would go back to sleep. My strategy is just keep going, dont change anything, and hope it passes soon... everything is a phase, take it one night at a time. I also do not agree with letting them cry etc.

Can you get a nap in the day? Or have your partner have baby in the evenings so you can get a couple of hours before normal bedtime? Or if he gets up early with baby? We do a combo of the above.

@LuckyKitty13 Oh it's so exhausting isn't it?! Sorry you're going through this too. And she's waking up properly too? I feel for you. DH helps a lot to be honest but we have 2 under 2 so it's quite a struggle sometimes for the both of us on no sleep! My LO is so miserable in the day now which makes it worse, I miss my smiley baby! Thanks for your reply x

I'm so exhausted and nothing is helping DD right now. She's miserable. How're you getting on? :(

Not going through this right now (many years ago tbh) but it brings back sleep deprived foggy memories.

The only thing that worked for us was "white noise".

I discovered it when drying my hair and the sound of the hair dryer turned DS from an unsettled grumpy monster into a sleepy cherub. The vacuum cleaner also seemed to work.

Only problem was when I turned it off he woke up again...so we recorded the sound and looped it.

Spent 6 months sleeping with the sound of the hairdryer...but it worked and he eventually settled with us turning it off earlier and earlier until no longer needed.

You can now get white noise apps on your phone.

Worth a try?