Hi all, sorry, already posted this in the behaviour section before realisng it should probably rather be here... doh - blame sleep deprivation?! Sorry also for the MAHOOSIVE post. TMI, undoubtedly...
My DD used to be a brilliant sleeper - slept through from 3 months - 8/9months with not a peep. However, since then things have been going steadily down hill, and at the moment she is waking hourly (or less) throughout the night, bar a stint of about 3 hours between about 2.30 and 5.30am.
I have gone back to work, and am struggling to cope with the sleep deprivation and seem to keep getting ill - largely because I am run down, I think...
What's making it worse is that I have this nagging feeling that it's all my own fault because I have somehow 'done' sleep wrongly with her from the get-go.
Now I'm at breaking point and am considering controlled crying or CIO or something because I simply cannot go on the way I am, even though it goes completely against my parenting style and the thought of it makes me feel physically ill.
I know, in my head there are probably many reasons why she may not be sleeping - for brevity I'll just bullet what i think are possibly some of the pertinent points:
- She has always been cuddled to sleep - even though I had the best of intentions about 'putting down awake' having read the necessary books, this simply didn't work for her even as a tiny newborn, so we cuddled, she liked it, I liked it, it worked, so we still do it. And I still like it...
- She's been teething off and on since about 8 months and seems to have a hard time of it - lots of runny noses, face rubbing, ear pulling, off food etc. I think she's probably teething badly at the moment, but I can't see any teeth near the surface so...
- She's just started to walk
- She still has a dummy for sleep times, but doesn't seem bothered when it falls out. However she does seem to need it to fall back to sleep again if she wakes, but this didn't seem to be a problem twixt 3 and 9 months, so...??
- When she wakes in the night I give it a few minutes (probably actually only a minute, in reality) to see if she'll settle herself ? which she sometimes does, but more often nowadays, doesn't... then I go in, she's usually standing up. Attempts to lie her back down without a cuddle result in fairly rapid hysteria.
- Tried Calpol/Calprofen for teething pain - helps for a couple of hours (tops) but that's it. Medised knocks her out for 4/5 hours but makes her impossible to settle when she does wake after this
- She sleeps in a grobag plus a blanket as her room is quite cold.
- She has a pretty good routine of regular nap time ? usually 12.45ish to 2.15ish although I often have to resettle her after 45 minutes or so ? and regular meal times and bedtime is about 7.30 when she usually goes down fairly easily. She wakes at about 6 am and then sleeps another hour in our bed.
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I went back to work at 9 months - she's been looked after by my mum, seems happy, but is a little clingy with me when I come home.
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After a difficult weaning period between 4 and 8 months she now eats well, but doesn't want much milk - 5 or so ounces morning and night with lots fo cheese/yoghurt etc in between. She's not interested in milk if she wakes - tried that.
So, after that lengthy ramble, do you think this is something which will sort itself in time (if I felt that, maybe I could get through it easier...) or do you, in all your various wisdom and experience think I need to take action?
I've read NCSS, and while I like the approach and tried it for a week, I got nowhere and now I just feel too damn tired to slog it out in this way. I want a quick fix, but am aware there probably isn't one other than CIO/CC.
Apart from this, I should mention she's a happy, smiley, energetic, engaging, charming little sweetheart - and I would hate to jeopardise that... it's just...
I neeeeeeed some sleeeeeeep [sob]
db
xx