Desperate for help - 10 month old still doesn't sleep in the evening, or night!

[lou031205]

I had DD 1 month early, and she has/had reflux. She slept through the night from 3 weeks old, up to 14 hrs, which was amazing. Then she started to wake for feeds. At 4.5 months she suddenly got scared of her crib, and wouldn't be put in it at all. She came in bed with us. At 8 months we bought a bedside cot, which has helped.

She won't go to bed in the evening. If I do try, she will only BF to sleep, then I have to slip away. She wakes within 30-40 minutes. If I try and settle her, she will only settle by feeding again, then the process is repeated.

She will feed to sleep on me in the lounge, and stirs regularly to 'plug herself in'.

When I go to bed, I feed her to sleep, and her night wakings are getting worse and worse. Between 11pm when I go to bed, and 7am, she wakes 4-8 times. Each time she will only settle with a feed.

In the day she will go for a nap if fed to sleep, and it lasts anywhere from 20mins to 1.5 hours. Sometimes she will wake after 20 mins, but then fall asleep on me feeding straight after.

The 16 hour day followed by waking every 1-2 hours in the night is slowly draining me of life! I can't imagine it is doing much for Jasmine, either. She wakes up distraught sometimes. She can be very fractious with others, because she is tired and wants my breast for comfort!

Please help! I did have a stab at PU/PD and easy when she was 8 months, but obviously did something wrong.

bump

have you cinsidered a teething problem? tried giving paracetamol before bed or during the night?

She has just got her first tooth. Paracetamol doesn't seem to make any difference.

Oh my. I have no answers but a lot of sympathy. My nearly 6 month-old DD started doing this last Sunday after being a good sleepr. It is doing me in. I'm crossing my fingers that it's because she's been ill.

I could have written your post when DS was 9mo. He had gone through very similar patterns. We did controlled crying at 9mo which was my last resort but I was like the walking dead with often no more than an hour or two's sleep a night. It worked within two nights and he has slept very well ever since (apart from illness and teething).

I know it's not for everyone and I'm sure people will be along with alternatives. But just wanted to say that's what worked for us.

Hi - I just wrote the same post, only that DS is 7 months old and started this roughly two weeks ago. I am considering everything because as you say, it's not good for anybody. I am wondering if this is a phase only (then I can deal with it) or if I am setting a permanently a behavior.

Hiya..

This sounds really similar to my experiences with DD1. We ended up using a sleep counsellor which really helped us. More details here