What's that thing called sleep like again?

Hi everyone,

Apologies in advance because there's probably stacks of info already on here about this, but I've had a hunt and I'm either looking in the wrong place or I'm too tired to see!

DD is 11 months old, 1 in a week and a bit. She's a happy content baby, still b/f 4-5 times a day, eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and drinking heaps of water. But she won't sleep well.

It's been a long journey for us - a 7 weeks she went into a leg brace for hip dysplacia and before that, she was a wonderful newborn sleeping though the night! Since then, she's been all over the place. We could have weeks of sleeping through, then broken. She's been out of her brace for three weeks now, but for the past couple of months, she's just had real trouble staying asleep. We keep the same routine - dinner at around 6.30, then a bath, then a feed and then she usually dozes off. We live in a quiet, calm house, she sleeps in her own room and we haven't made any changes to it. But within 20 minutes of me hitting the pillow, she's up. I refuse to go to her straight away, but she doesn't settle again. The longer I let her go, the longer it takes for her to fall back to sleep because she gets so upset andd more and more wound up. When she wakes, she just wants to be held. She doesn't want a b/f, formula or her dummy, changing her nappy makes no difference. I've been so tired that I take her back to my bed until I feel her relax again and then I put her back in her own cot.

I don't think its her teeth - she's got six through and they came without much fuss. We've got air con so the house is always at a good temp. I just don't know what else to do. Books hype her up, same goes for a walk in the pram. During the day, if she has a nap, its for about an hour, always before 3pm and if she stirs, she settles herself, no problems. AARRRGGGHHHH!!

I'm sorry this is so enormous. I don't know if this is just seperation anxiety that will pass, or if there is something else. But some nights, she'll be in what I think is a deep sleep, as soon as her head touches the cot sheets, she's crying. I'm doing this on my own - she won't go to DH at night and he leaves super early in the mornings and works long hours so I try not to hassle him during the weeknights. He takes over on the weekend mornings and I get a sleep-in, but it's feeling a REALLY long time between weekends.

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks

Corelly

aww Corelly :hug: I could have written that myself. My DD is 14 months and this is our 2nd bout of night waking, once at 7.5months until 10.5 months thats when we started controlled crying, and her sleep went fantastic again, and again now for the last 6 weeks, the last 3 nights ending with me in horrible tears. I am so sorry I dont have much advice for you because we are working through this too but I just wanted to say I know how you feel and also I am in the same situation with DH working late, up early etc.
I think its because we have had a major disruption to our lives recently which has caused some behavioural problems but who knows what these little ones are going through.
If you need to talk please PM anytime and I hope someone/something can help you. Make sure you talk to someone about it dont feel like you have to do it on your own. I called parent line this moring and they gave me some great advice which we will be putting into action tonight.
:hug: again I hope it gets better and you get some sleep soon.
xoxoxoox

I feel your pain! My DS is almost 10 months and has been doing the same thing for about 3 months now. First it was waking maybe 2-3 a night but now it's getting closer to 8-10!! He just a keep rock or feed back to sleep but the broken sleep is killing me. He got his first tooth a couple of weeks ago and now has another 3 coming so I guess it could be that. Can't give you any advice but I hope it passes soon (for both of us :)).

Thanks Salad and Allycat. Wish it was a simple fix!! Last night I tried leaving her lamp on, she can get spooked in the dark if we're driving home, so I thought that maybe her night light wasn't enough for her. Instead, she woke up at 2am, eyes wide open, ready to play because she thought it was morning. EEEEEEEEEEP!!!! I'll think of a new tactic today!

Corelly

that happened to me the other day too, I put one of those Fisher Price glow worm/sea horse thingys that plays tunes at the end of his cot, next thing I know he's sitting up, playing with it in bed, bright eyed and bushy tailed. :wall:

what are we going to do with them? :o

You poor thing. Makes you crazy doesn't it?

Have you tried taking her to a chiropractor? There are some that specialise in paediatric care.
Some people love em, others don't, but speaking on behalf of someone who has been in 2 car accidents, and introduced one child to chiropractic care at 6 months and the other from birth - it made a HUGE impact on how settled my children were and a significant difference in the amount of sleep I managed to get!! My chiro even cleared my DS2's blocked tear duct by pressing a particular area on the roof of his mouth - who would've thought?! Had I taken him to the docs we'd have ended up with antibiotic eye drops and god knows what else!

Give it a whirl - who knows, it just may be the ticket!

XX

Allycat - OMG it's impossible isn't it!!!! DD has one of those seahorses so I know what you're talking about, but we only use ours in the car at night when she's a bit spooked. Hope you're getting some sleep.

Jellybean - I'll keep the chiro in mind. Mum always had us to chiros as kids, but my DD has had so many doctors and surgeons now with her hips, and she gets so distressed with it all now so I think I'll hold off and let it be an absolute last resort. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Last night, she went to bed later than normal, so I thought, hmmmm maybe she'll sleep. But, as usual, the second we went to bed, "WAAHHHHHH". I refused to bring her to bed with me, settled her, took an hour, left the lamp on in the bathroom next to her room, and went back to bed. An hour later, "WAAHHHHHH". I gave up then and took her to bed with me. BUT another hour later, and again "WAAHHHHHHH". OMG. I cracked them then, took her in her own room, put her in her cot, gave her a book and told her that if she was going to cry in my bed, she could stay in her own. Yeah, I know. Totally rational to be saying this to a nearly one year old. I walked back to bed - she was whimpering, but not full-on crying - I didn't turn on the baby monitor, and I must have just passed out. 45 minutes later, I woke up, freaked out, bolted for her room and found her sound asleep. She stayed that way until 7.30 this morning. Unbelievable.

Tonight DH is taking me out for the night, it's our 5th wedding anniversary, and my mum is staying the night so we'll see what happens.

Corelly

Good luck Corelly, sorry if this sounds creepy but strange enough I did think of you at 1am this morning when I had been up for yet another night for an hour straight with a screaming toddler, I was hoping that you werent up too and that your little one was sleeping.
Happy anniversary too hope you have a great night.
Sending sleep vibes your way xoxoox

oh that's awesome she slept a bit...hope she keeps it up!

Don't know if you're willing to try this but we had similar issues and about that age we took the mattress out of the cot and just put it on the floor. (I was willing to try anything) We found that she slept a lot better that way and after a couple of months of that we got her a bed. Now don't get me wrong, we still have 1-2 wake up calls a night but USUALLY she goes back down quite quickly. I found with the mattress on the floor it was easier to resettle her cause I could just lie down with her and pass out!
Don't know if that helps but I feel your pain and lots of :hug: :hug: :hug:
ETA another thing that seemed to help was night weaning her at about 13 months (I don't think it would have worked earlier for her), although with a recent illness we fell off the wagon there a bit so have some work to do now :doh:

I found DD1 was waking a bit during the night just before her 1st birthday, her teeth were giving her grief but the cycle continued until WELL after her 1st brithday.

She would wake 1-2 times a night and take a fair bit to get back to sleep as i was PG with DD2 i gave up and let her come into our bed most nights, the second she hit the pillow she was out cold.

She finally went back to sleeping in her bed but would wake about 4am and come into our room, about a month back i gave her a pillow, after a couple of nights she slept through again.

Now i don't even have to cuddle or rock her before her day or night sleep, not sure if this is all that has changed for her as we don't have set bedtime routines but it's all happened around the same time...

You can buy a JUNIOR PILLOW from Big W and it's awesome, she loves it.

Good luck.. hope you find something that works.

Salad - Ahahahahahahahaha! Love that you were thinking about us at that time of night! Only a teensy bit creepy :lol: Sucks that you were up at that time of night.

Zarava Flutterby - I was wondering about a pillow. We have a couple of those thin cot ones - we had to use them under her legs when she was in the hip brace. She likes to lie in my big V pillow during the day when she's having a quiet moment and I wondered if it was too soon to try her own.

Thepixie - hadn't thought of that and it sounds like a good idea! Thanks - we might try it later on because ------


WELL DD HAS SLEPT FOR THE LAST THREE NIGHTS! OMG!!!!!!! :dance:

On the night that I just put her in the cot and passed out, she went to sleep. I worked out that she may not like a sheet over her. So we took it away, and she's slept ever since! Maybe now she's brace free she can't stand anything over her legs at all. Last night she went to bed late, at around 10pm and she slept until 7, I fed her and then she slept again until 9.30. Unbelievable! Hope this sticks around, the fuzzies are starting to leave!

Thanks everyone for the posts and I'll keep you up to date with how she's going.

Corelly x