Almost 8 months and still terrible at naps and nights!! Help!!

[Firsttimemomma]

DD is 8 months next week and is rubbish at any type of sleep! It's a constant struggle and I'm the end of my tether.
A bit of background info - she had colic and at 6 weeks Dr's said she had acid reflux (given ranitidine which helped slightly) but I wasn't convinced and finally at 4.5 months she was diagnosed with severe cow's milk allergy (taking neocate now)things have improved so much with it.
Her naps have always been a hit and miss but it's the nights which are rally getting to me now. I have tried everything - I've ticked get to sleep, patted her fir a good 2 hours till she's fully asleep.boubced on the gym ball and recently CC. One of the days I had to let her CIO as it was nearing 5 hours! As soon as she's asleep and I leave her room she will wake up within 30 mins - 1 hour and cry for ages and its not because she wants anything, she just seems to like moaning. I've given her paracetamol /nurofen in case it was teething, I tmcheck nappy, Feed but its neither. Even with me in the room holding and consoling she still just wants to cry. It's as if she xabt sleep unless she's had a good cry!
Due to all of this and work/family and in the process of buying a new house I'm very overwhelmed and suffering from anxiety, is there anyone who has been through something similar? What can I do?

Sorry for the long post

Just reread the message - horrendous spellings sorry, currently trying to get baby to sleep for 3 hours now.
*I've rocked her to sleep, bounced on the gym ball.

I really hated CIO and it broke my heart but after about 10 - 15 mins crying she just turned to her side and went to sleep, this seems to be the only time she decided to stop crying and eventually sleep. Her nights are usually 8.30/9pm to 9am but the first few hours are horrendous, she still wakes up for about 1 or 2 feeds and again sometimes it's difficult to settle her back to sleep so for an hour or 2 sometimes I'm there patting her and comforting her at 3am! Her actual sleep period is after 12/1am. I work 2 and half days a week and unfortunately don't have the option to stop working with currently buying a new house.

You're talking about me and my DC just a few months ago. LITERALLY!! The lack of sleep drove me mad I wanted to bang my head with the wall one day. The last solution which WORKED was to stop breastfeeding at night as he would have solids before the last feeding, put him in his cot in his room and kiss good night and leave until the next morning. It was torture to hear him cry the first few nights but I was on the brink of a breakdown and needed to sleep. I can't tell you how my day went the 4th day when he slept through the night without a single tear. I was a completely different person and he seemed way calmer. He's now 16 months old and is the happiest cheekiest boy you'll ever meet! No sleeping issues since then.

It's hard but don't give up, both of you need to sleep peacefully.

This is me too, but now at 12 months! The most she's ever slept is 4 hours in a row, once. I'm beyond sleep deprived. I'm up 3-5 times each night. Waiting for a referral to see if there's any reason, such as food intolerance. When I pick her up in the night whilst she's crying there's always wind, so wondering if that's the root cause in our case. I'm at the stage too where I'd try anything, you're not alone.

My LO will scream and cry at the top of her lungs so I'm scared she'll end up throwing up or really straining her neck. She's still having a night feed. Sometimes when she does get too difficult I need a moment and step out and does she get annoyed then?! What was the longest your LO would cry for?

That's me too! She cannot sleep more than 4 hours if I'm ever that lucky. My LO has multiple food allergies which is why her diet is pretty simple. That's a good idea however, I've stopped winding her so maybe I need to continue to do so. Was your LO good with naps?

I had this with DS. He was diagnosed with dairy and soy allergies early on but he had additional allergies we didn't know about, so he was basically crying in pain ☹️

I paid for various sleep consultants over the years who just said let him cry but he just cried and cried for long periods 4-6 hours, would fall asleep from exhaustion then wake up 45 minutes later.

He's 7 now and quite an anxious child, especially around sleep. My second has no allergies and sleeps like a dream. It really does have a huge effect. Is she still on reflux meds?

Multiple allergies are really difficult to manage, especially in the early days. I would go through her diet and make sure there's nothing she's reacting to. We recently tried the milk ladder and he's been up every night this week for hours at a time with tummy ache and reflux but obviously we can discuss it which helps but it's been anxiety provoking and painful for him.

If she's at nursery I would check they aren't giving her food by mistake. We have had various issues over the years with childcare and school giving him food with milk in!

Mine is DC2, so never been able to leave her for too long as she's wake up DC1 and just me here at nights. Definitely a good idea to take a break if you need it, remember the HV giving me that advice when she had colic first 4 months. It was complete hell, for all of us. Would you consider seeing your gp in case there's anything else causing it?

She doesn't go nursery yet but that must have been quiet annoying if childcare/school gave something your child was allergic to. I'm weaning her atm and Ive tried 1 food at a time for a few days to see how she gets on so I've tried to rule our stuff she gets fussy with. She was like this even before the solids.

So she went to sleep finally at 12.30 and has woken up bright and early at 7,we had 1 feed in the night which lasted 2 hours of resettling. What do I do 😭😭😭

Are you breastfeeding or is she on formula?

How are the naps in the day?

You have my complete sympathies. Sleep dep is truely awful.

Naps are a bit of a hit and miss, I usually try to put her down for a nap every 2 hours (sometimes 2.5 hours) and on good days each nap will be at least 45 mins - an hour, her first nape tends to be an hour after she wakes up and her afternoon nap usually the longest. However when she's really difficult she will refuse to nap and fights and screams when I take her to bed and will stay awake for a good 5 - 6 hours straight and missing a nap completely!

She's on a hydrolysed formula - neocate, I stopped breastfeeding as she seems to have multiple allergies (milk, eggs, soya, avacado, oats) and would scream in pain everyrime she had breastmilk - whether direct or expressed in a bottle.

I do think this she's is especially challenging. There's a lot going on developmentally too which can go against you. Does your health visiting service have a sleep clinic? They are usually really good in getting some improvement with it all.