7 months old wakes up every hour - help!

[lmndlily]

My 7 months old was sleeping for 2.5 - 3 hours at a time at night, and sometimes starting to sleep for 4 or 5 hours when she was 5 months old. However, since after she was 6 months old or so, she started to wake up every 2 hours, and it gradually got worse that she wakes up hourly or even shorter now at 7 months. Also, she used to fall back asleep fairly quickly after being breastfed and stayed asleep once put down in her cot. Now it takes me several tries to place her in her cot, which takes about 1 - 1.5 hours each time she wakes up during the night! And even when she seems to stay asleep, she often wakes up only 20-30 mins later😭

I've tried to shush/pat or rock her to sleep, but she doesn't settle (rocking very occasionally works, but she doesn't fall fully asleep). The only way that works is to breastfeed her. Also we tried Ferber, but she ended up hysterically crying and throwing up (she's got reflux). She generally has been a velcro baby btw and she only naps on me during the day.

So at the moment, my husband watches her on our bed in the beginning while I get some sleep (she somehow sleeps a little bit better for 2 - 2.5 hours that way ... although last night she still woke up every 30 mins to 1 hour), and then again from 5am till 7am if I didn't get much sleep after that. Last night was especially bad and she couldn't be placed in her cot most of the time so I had to keep feeding her then holding her during the night. She only slept in her cot for about 30 mins to an hour.

Is there any way to improve this situation?😢 We don't wanna co-sleep & we don't wanna try sleep training again which involves crying. She's in the same room in her own cot.

Has she ever used a dummy? Tbh the only thing that worked for us was to cosleep but I understand not everyone wants to do that. Might be worth a try though..?

@tangobravo We tried introducing her dummies, but she refused it😭 She also refused bottles at 2 months old so she probably doesn't like the texture...since then I'm exclusively breastfeeding 😫
I'm not like definitely not wanting to co-sleep, but the space is the problem and I'd like to try other solutions first if possible. Do I have to push our bed against the wall to put my baby on the wall side and make my husband sleep in the different room if co-sleeping?🤔 But I'd still be worried she might fall off the bed after wiggling around a lot during the night...!

Hi, just found this thread and sounds identical to current situation with my 7mo son… would you mind sharing how things worked out for you? Did you try anything that helped or just a case of riding it out?! Thanks

Teething? Try ibuprofen before bed!

@schnauzermum1 So I ended up bed sharing with my daughter until she was 13 months old or so. I used the bed guard thing (as she was not pulling up to stand or anything yet). She still woke up every 2-3 hours to feed, and eventually we moved on to sleep train her (this was our second try). She cried a lot for an hour the first night or two, took us another several days - but then slept through from 9pm till 7am! After that she's been sleeping in her own room till now (she's almost two!). I think it's just a phase but sometimes some babies need a bit of a change (like sleep training to sleep alone for her own good). I'm not recommending you to do the same, but just letting you know how things worked out for us:) Hope you'll go through this phase fine and your baby starts to sleep better soon! 😊

Thanks so much for getting back to me @lmndlily , good to know you’re getting sleep at last! Do you mind sharing what sleep training approach you used? Did you move her back into her own room at the same time as starting sleep training? Thank you!