6 month old will suddenly only sleep on me … help!

[JMPB]

My 6 month old dd has always slept well,, and slept through from about 10 weeks old. For the last 3 weeks or so her sleep has got worse & we’re at the point now she will only sleep at night if she’s on me. She’ll go down in her cot for a couple of hours then wake and refuse to go back in there. Will sleep fine if being held, almost instantly goes back to sleep but would fuss and eventually scream if left in her bed. I’m exhausted, only getting a couple of hours sleep when she goes to bed and when hubby takes over for a hour before he goes to work.

she used to get herself to sleep but now she needs to be rocked/bounced and every nap/bedtime is a fight.

she has 3 naps a day:
09.00 - 10.00
12.00 - 12.30
15.00 - 17.00
then goes to bed around 7.30-8

We have been weaning for a little while & have tried both stopping & upping solids to see if either made a difference but it didn’t.

do I need to sleep train? Ride it out? Any help appreciated, I’m exhausted and at wits end with it.

thanks :)

There are several sleep regressions that happen in the first year or two and they can last around 6 weeks. It's all developmentally normal for babies to do this. We found that we just had to ride it out, but a few things we made sure we did were:

Making sure she napped as much as possible during the day so not overtired at bedtime.

Keeping to a consistent bedtime routine (bath, milk, story, cuddles, put down awake but drowzy)

White noise on Ewan the sheep - this thing was a complete life saver for us!

Sleeping/resting when she napped in the day

Would you consider cosleeping? I wish we had done this so life wasn't as hard at the time, but it's a personal choice.

It doesn't last forever (although I know it feels like it will).

Thanks for the reply!

co-sleeping isn’t really an option as we only have a small double bed so wouldn’t be safe for baby to be in there as well. No spare bed either.

She has a bedtime routine but still won’t go down by herself she has to be rocked to sleep.

trying to ride it out, and really don’t want to sleep train but I’m starting to think I might have to as it’s getting to the point it’s affecting DH at work and I’m so exhausted I darednt even drive my car etc.

She’ll go down in her cot for a couple of hours then wake and refuse to go back in there.

The reality she can't refuse, you just can't stomach her protests - which is different

I've had to bedshare with both my kids around 6 and 7 months. Around 7mo they have been more settled and each went into their own rooms then. They seemed to sleep deeper after whatever development it was over.