Hello hoping some people have some advice about what to do about babies sleep!
I have a 6 month old who is a pretty rubbish sleeper some to do with the bad sleep associations I have let her form and partly she just find sleep a struggle.
soo backstory so you can have all the info!!! She suffers with very bad silent reflux (ridiculous really because she’s very far from silent they should call it screaming bloody murder reflux… side note I do know it’s called silent reflux due the the fact they are not sick with it) anyway I digress… so she’s always co slept not really my choose but she’s the second of two under two and I just didn’t/ don’t have the energy to rock and pick up put down a million times until she’s settled in the cot. So out of pure survival we have been co sleeping. I say survival she wakes ever morning at 4:30 and nothing will make her go back to sleep no amount of breastfeeding, rocking shhhing, white noise, black out curtian the kids likes to be up at 4:30. She wakes frequently in the night to be fed (breastfed) which I don’t really mind. But the real really problem despite the less than perfect night time sleeping is the fact she will not Nap… I have tried everything I know short of leaving her to cry (which I don’t personally want to do) for her whole life she has always napped in a baby wrap again not really want I wanted but super clingy baby plus a toddler … go figure!! I would have put her down in her cot to sleep but the reflux made her so uncomfortable she would just scream and scream so the sling worked for quite some time. She needs extreamly bouncy rocking to go to sleep which leads into my next problem. Due to the intense amount of squats I do on a daily basis to get her off to sleep I’ve managed to injure quite badly me knee… I’m now wearing it in a brace and still continuing to bop and squat her to sleep but here comes in the next kicker … she sleeps for 20 minutes in the sling before I inevitably need to bend down or short her sister out which wakes her and nothing gets her back go sleep she is then mega mega ratty from being really tired and just cries and whinges until I can’t bear it any longer and she does hack in the sling for a second 20 minutes special!! Now I know 29 minutes counts as a nap but this kid is waking a 4:30 … she’s getting a total of an hours sleep her whole day … she’s crying majority of the day which I’m pretty certain is due to tiredness as she constantly rubbing her eyes and yawning. I’ve tired putting her down in the cot majorty of the time she wakes instantly.. I’ve tried drowsy but awake staying which he while she cries hoping she goes to sleep sometimes she does sometimes she doesn’t… which leads me to the next problem while I am upstairs trying to settle the baby in the cot I have to leave me 21 month old unsupervised while I try and put her down (this is why I initially chose the sling in the beginning so I didn’t have to leave the oldest alone) sometimes it can’t more then an hour to settle the baby to sleep in the cot and I just feel very uncomfortable leaving my oldest for that long alone.
i really don’t know what to do. The sling is not working because she wakes prematurely the cot doesn’t work because she doesn’t settle well and it takes a long time my oldest being unattended and she is extremely tired all day long and miserable. She also never sleeps for more than 30 minutes however she is put down… even if I am with her (coalescing) even if she falls asleep in the cot (I stay with her) she doesn’t feed to sleep which I have always found sad as it would help me out to not have to bop squat her to sleep all the time but hey ho what can you do…
anyway some advice would be great… I’m not looking to get my own sleep or my evenings back I get that part and parcel of having babies (although It would be nice) I’m just looking to find a way for her to get the rest and naps she needs in the day to be happy and well rested!