Co-sleeping 20 weeker waking up lots, not sleeping...

[jumpjockey]

DD is 20 weeks, had previously been going to sleep happily in a bedside crib at 7.30 and first waking at about 2 or 3 for a feed (comes into bed with us) then maybe again every couple of hours until 7 up for the day. I could feed her to sleep lying down and we both had a reasonable night.

Last couple of weeks she's been waking up when we go to bed (about 11 or 11.30) and won't go back to sleep on her own, so I've been feeding her. She'll nod off lying down on the boob after about 5 minutes vigorous sucking but if I try to take the nipple out of her mouth (to get myself into a more comfy position or because it gets sore after an hour or so ) she wakes up and gets cross (had been trying the NCSS pull-off thing but she's too sensitive to it now). Then she won't go back on again to finish off the feed, sometimes she decides that it's time to get up for the day and wants to be played with and refuses to sleep (so one of us takes her downstairs til she gives off tired signals again), other times she'll sort of go back on the boob but kicks and pinches and scratches a lot. The average pattern for the last few nights has been sleep 7.30 til 11.30, awake off and on from then until about 4ish, either I or dh gets up and puts her in the sling or just takes her out of the bedroom, and then she might sleep another hour or two if we're lucky.

This means that come the morning I have no idea how much quality sleep she's had, or when she last fed for the purposes of knowing if she's actually hungry. If I sit up with her for the feeds instead of lying down she wakes up when I try to put her down again.

I've had about 4 hours sleep max a night for the last week it seems that she's similar, only gets a good stretch in before midnight. Her first tooth appeared on Monday and she's had a bit of a cough but we can't work out how that's affecting her sleep so badly. Is there anything we can do to help her get back on track? I'm sure this will pass eventually but meanwhile she's often very angry in the daytime and won't nap unless I feed her to sleep then sit very still...

(cross posted to feeding in case anyone there has ideas too)

Hello my DD is also 20 weeks. Can't really help other than mine has just been ill with a viral thing, cough, runny nose which she seemed to be getting over then we had one or two very bad nights and it turns out she has an ear infection. Apparently worse when lying down, sucking etc. Could it be something like that?

Blimey Starlight. Didn't realise there were so many of us in the same boat! Will sign up post haste.

Growth spurt and gross motor development leads to sleep regression at this age.

also get her ears checked as an infection is more painful when lying down.

could also just be teething. my kids have always built up to a crescendo of absolutely fuck all sleep, tooth appears and then quite quickly back to more settled sleep (until the next time).

blinks - she did have a bit of a cough earlier in the week but we've checked her temp and dh has looked in her ears (is a doc) and no problem there. Would have been great if that had been the answer!! Tooth not too troublesome now that it's appeared, she's just doing lots of weird back arching and then trying to roll onto her front all the time. ??? Anyway - have decamped to Starlight's suggested thread, thanks all for comments

may be windy with the back arching etc. try a bit of tummy massage and leg pumping to see if it prompts a fart or three...

if not, it's probably one of the inexplicable phases they go through. if you're co-sleeping you could try propping her head up a bit on the crook of your arm in case she's still a bit congested.

apart from that,i've run dry of wisdom.