Same sleeping problems as everyone else but is wide awake in the middle of the night often??

[Anonyy]

Hi all,
Reading through many other threads, i have the same problem as you all, 10 month old who is a terrible sleeper, after initial sleepiness of being a newborn has done a 5/6 hour stretch of sleep about twice in her life.
Won't give you my life story but just the relevant details, she's breastfed and still feeds all night long, we co-sleep after spending about an hour in her cot before she wakes screaming. I have an older son who was exactly the same with sleep and i co-slept with him until he was nearly 3 and he is now a fantastic sleeper so i know i will come out of the other side but my im just concerned with the fact at about 3-4 in the mornings she wakes as normal for a feed/comfort but stays wide awake and wont go back to sleep.
I give it about an hour in bed of her being awake, i completely ignore her attempts to get out the bed/play and encourage laying back down etc but if after an hour she isnt asleep i go downstairs where she will eventually go back to sleep, a couple hours later.
This isnt everynight but more often than not. Why????!!
She is a difficult baby in general, and i can cope with the not getting an evening to myself, having no room in the bed etc etc but this just drives me insane.
Can anyone relate?

Hi OP, can definitely relate to your situation. I'm typing this after being awake since 2.30 when 16 month old DS decided to wake up and play. Has been bouncing around since then and only in the last few minutes has he dropped off next to me in the bed. I wish I could give some practical advice as to why they do this and what works but haven't found a solution yet.

I feel your pain it's a horrible horrible situation to be in. I've just had a long cry because it's been like this for months and I've tried everything but nothing seems to work. It's even starting to affect my relationship with DH as he is now starting to sleep in another room and I feel incredibly lonely and afraid for the future. I wish our littles ones could start sleeping better. I don't mind if he wakes up a few times and settles quickly but these wide awake for hours sessions are too much deal with!

Same position, 9.5 month old. Fully awake for about 2 hours at a different time every night. It's driving me mad! But I assumed it was some sort of sleep regression as she did something similar at 4 months (I'm hoping it's a phase!). Having asked Dr Google it seems that if they're getting too much night sleep they have a break in the middle, but having tried to address this it's made no difference to things..

Same here!

Thank you all for the support that im not in this alone! I feel your pain @Elopelo my DP gets fed up of it and i can understand why. Since going back to work, he works long hours and all we want to do at night is to have a little time to ourselves and sleep!
Just thought id mention i have noticed (i feed to sleep before putting her down) that if i let her fall into a deep sleep on me before putting her down she wakes up much earlier than if i get her to sleep but put her down shortly afterwards before she's quite reached deep sleep. If that makes any sense, i think if im putting her down before she's sound asleep she realises she's in the cot and drifts off but i suppose if im putting her down fast asleep shes then suddenly waking thinking why am i in the cot alone lol.
The point of my rambling is that last night i put her down about 5 mins after falling asleep and she slept 6 hours before waking! We did then get up at 5 but its small victories that keep me going :)

I would gladly wake up at 5am following a 6 hour sleep, that sounds like a great victory to me. Well done you, hope that it happens again for you.