she can sleep, but has stopped - how to get back on track?

[bumpity]

Hello

looking for some ideas/tips/encouragement.

My DD is 17wks and from 2 1/2months was sleeping reaaly well - she would do 2-3hrs at lunch and 8-9hrs at night. This was a routine she developed herself. we debated waking her at 11pm fo a dream feed, but she didn't seem to need it so we carried on...

However with the hot weather 10days ago she became all out of sync. she can only nap for 45 mins max and after her bathtime routine wakes after 45mins, gets up for upto an hour, goes down, but only for 45 mins! she is then waking 2-3 times a night - quite a change.

we have a bedtime routine, but no nap routine ~(we're not dead set to specific times during the day but she is always down before 2 hrs has passed - either in pram or om ,y knee or in cot). we are mixed feeding, now mostly bottle, but do breastfeed during night/morning. she sleeps in cot in herown room, but can't really self sooth. we did 5 nights of cc but its not for us yet - both DH and ifeel shes still too young.

we think shes teething! hv agrees and we are happy to use gel/calpol/ashton powders as needed if it'll help.

we know she can do this and we are feeling robbed of our sleep - its especially taking its toll on my relationship with DH who turns out to be rather impatient with DD when he's tired!

any thoughts on what i can do/try etc? thanks

Work out a routine and stick with it as changing it will confuse her.

Spend time with her helping her to settle, maybe a cd / mobile / patting.

Putting her to bed before she is overtired so she is calm.

Try and do the same settling things at naptime.

Favourite cuddly / toy to snuggle with can help.

If you think she is teething use the powders / gel before she is ready to settle so they have time to start working.

bumpity, 17 weeks is prime time for growtth spurt (hence so many parents weaning earlyu)

i would go with the flow and eventually she'll settle back down.

It seems to happen to all babies at around this time. My dd was great, I was getting 6 hours, wake to feed and then another 3 hours. It all went wrong at 16 weeks-ish. I thought it was teething but I have done a bit of reading and agree with thisisyesterday. It seems that babies have a big developmental leap/growth spurt at this time which disrupts sleep.

Lots of my friends weaned early right around this time thinking their dc must need more food (milk has more calories anyway so weaning didn't help any of them).

Come join us on the 4-5 month no sleep club...

here

FWIW, my dd is now 19 weeks and although she isn't back to her 6 hour stretches/pne waking a night, things have improved.

Oh, I should have also said. CC isn't recommended under 1 year.

We don't have set times but have a bit of a routine, bath, change, milk bed etc

I have found that dd might wake at the same time every day but I have no chance of getting her to bed at the same time every day - not yet. She naps on me or in the sling. If I put her down she wakes early and is a nightmare. However, for the last week or so i have noticed a pattern to her naps and her afternoon one has stretched to 2 hours.

My dc finds it hard too and has suggested weaning, leaving her to cry & putting her in her own room. I refused all of those and instead we part-time co-sleep. I actually find that I feel more rested the earlier she gets in with us and often can't remember how many times she fed in the night.

thanks for the replies. we do have a routine at night, although we try to keep times the same sometimes we speed up if shes very tired or adjust due to daytime naps.

last night actually went really well! typical! She went down (nursed them into cot) about 8pm. she had had her jabs so we had given her a little calpol and she had also had teethinh powder. a few noises about 45mins later, but she didn't wake up. slept until 3.30am when she came into bed and had a very small feed an back to sleep till about 6.30am.

i'm sure the jabs had an impact, but u'm hoping that helping her teething pain has had a poitive effect that will repeat itself!!!

we are very slowly introducing her and us to weaning, but are keeping her milk up, so its a taste rather than a feed IYKWIM