12 month old sleep still awful

[Mumisnttheword]

It’s not a regression, it’s just always been crap. Delightful happy baby, goes to sleep fairly easily but nights are just awful - still wakes every 1-2 hours all night and wants BFing back to sleep. Very occasionally get the odd stint of 3-4 hours at the start of the night but that’s not a given. If I try to settle her any other way, she screams for a bit, but I usually get her back to sleep, only for her to wake after 10/20/30 minutes again. This repeats until I eventually BF her back to sleep for another hour or two. I’ve mostly been relatively happy just waiting it out, but I’m knackered now and there’s no end in sight.

I came on to actually post something similar. No words of advice but watching to see if you receive any words if wisdom. My baby isn't eating during the night and goes down relatively easy but up every hour unless I'm beside her holding hands or having some form of contact. It's grim and sleep deprivation is awful. Solidarity!

She definitely needs night weaning. It may help with her sleep, but it will definitely help you feel better: it's exhausting breastfeeding through the night! And at 12 months, she doesn't need it in the same way tiny babies do.

She should be old enough to understand you buying a special cup or whatever you want for nighttime water. And old enough to understand that that's all that's on offer. You're likely to have a few disturbed nights because of it, but you're already having those, aren't you?

Other things: where does she sleep currently? What's her bedtime routine like? Is she still napping, if so how often and when?

Even if you do nothing, it will get better, but it can take a long time. I had a terrible sleeper. I thought I was losing my mind. So huge amounts of sympathy here. Fwiw, that terrible sleeper is 10 now and he sleeps just fine and has for a few years! Hang tight.

All 3 of mine were like this and they did naturally grow out of it, but not until they started school…

you have my sympathy, it’s brutal

🥴 it really is brutal isn’t it. Have an older child (who has always slept well) too so can’t even catch a rest in the day.

@JuneOsborne sleeps in her own room, we’ve tried co sleeping, wakes just as much if not more, and the fidgeting means I don’t even get the snippets of sleep in between. Two naps of about 45 mins / an hour each, one at about 9 and one about 2. Has a decent routine, feed downstairs an hour or so before bed, pjs, story etc. I am very tempted to night wean, I’m happy to stop BFing totally now tbh, but live in fear she doesn’t sleep any better and then I just don’t have a way to settle her either…

In my - very similar - situation, I night weaned and he still woke every 2 hours so then we did controlled crying but because he wasn't expecting boob it really wasn't that bad. Plus naps should improve. Good luck.

@Mumisnttheword I could've written your post. My dd is almost 11.5 months old. Sleep was improving a bit as I tried to stop feeding to sleep but then she got Bronchiolitis and I fed her everytime she woke as she had a temperature and an awful cough and wasn't eating anything really. Now she's better (but got another cold a week after recovering) she's waking every 2-3 hours again and I'm feeding her. I'm waiting for her to recover from this cold then do Nightweaning but not sure best technique. Back to work in a few weeks and I'm so exhausted

@sunflowerandivy @Allthechocolates just a little update in case it’s helpful. The day I posted this I decided to nightwean. That night when she woke for a feed, I cuddled her to back to sleep instead of feeding. The first time she was really quite cross for about 5 minutes but I was with her reassuring her the whole time and then she went back off. The second wake it just took a few minutes. She then slept til the morning. She has slept through the night every night since…! I know it’s still early days but my goodness the change is incredible.

Oh and still BF in the day fine!