Not Coping well with 9mo sleep, or lack of.

[QforCucumber]

I don't know if I'm looking for advice, tips or just a sounding board but I'm really struggling at the minute with DS2 sleeping.

At bedtime he is fab, bath, bf, story, cuddle and into the cot - puts himself to sleep with no crying within around 10 mins. This is at or just before 7pm.

Anytime from 10pm onwards he's awake, hourly, takes full feeds, had a few hours of awake time (for example last night he woke at 10, 11, 12 then was up 1-4) and finally slept 4-7 but attached to me pretty much using me as a comforter. I tend to bring him in to co sleep from his 2nd wake up if he wont settle back down.

He has never and will not take a dummy, he chews on one and plays with it like a toy but will not suck on it.

He is at full time nursery so is FF during the day there, but will not entertain a bottle during the night.

I'm back at full time work in a managerial role and its my busiest time of year and I just don't know how to function properly.

DS1 was never like this so it's all completely new to me.

The Holy grail of sleep training seems to be to get them to fall asleep by themselves, but he does that already!

I juts don't know where to go from here. Any words of wisdom?!

Hey OP, my sympathies, my little girl is 10 mo and has been similar at 9 months, as has her brother.

So firstly, it's not really talked about by sleep trainers etc, but biologically, 8-10 months is the worst time in the first year for sleep - check this out: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/sarahockwell-smith.com/2017/07/24/the-rollercoaster-of-real-baby-sleep/amp/

That aside, he sounds a bit like my daughter in that she was falling asleep in the cot herself but then waking up loads and not resettling.

I found that a possible culprit for us was doing naps in the buggy - so she was having at least 1 if not naps in the buggy as we had to fit around her brothers school runs. The fact she was being lulled to sleep I think was interfering with her ability to resettle in the cot at night - when I make an effort to ensure that all naps are in the cot it seems to improve night sleep.

So, are there any sleep props happening at nursery you could explore?

If not, unfortunately it might just be the way things will be for a while and he WILL grow out of it!

@chachachanges Thankyou for your words, it's reassuring to know others are in the same boat.....although horrid at the same time.

At nursery he is patted or rocked to sleep as it's the only way he will go down, we have tried rocking in the night and he is just so angry and the only thing settling is for him to latch on to me, I don't think it helps that I feel ready now to stop bf but he clearly isn't.

I do love it because I'm missing him so much being at work, but I'd also love chunks of maybe 3 hours sleep rather than just 1!

Just bumping to see if anyone has any more advice, I'm really on my knees :(

You've talked about bottles but does he eat well?

We are having a really hard time with my 9 month old. She has never slept well but it is particularly bad at the moment.

We did have a bit of success last night wi to louder white noise then we normally have and adding another layer over the blackout blind so it was much darker in her room.