Way too many NW to cope with :-(

[- butterfly -]

I would really appreciate some help please.  DD is now 9 months old.  She has never slept through the night and has been a rubbish daytime napper and EASY has never really been easy!!  But for the past 2 months EASY and daytime naps have been great.  But NW got worse at 7 months and are worse than ever at 9 months.  I thought it was SA but she's great in the day now.

E 7.00am Milk & 8am solids
A 7 - 10.15
S 10.15 til 11.30
 
E 11.30 snack 12.15 lunch
A 11.30 - 2.45pm
S 2.45 - 4pm

E 4 Milk & 5pm dinner
A  Quiet play, bath, bottle, bed
S 7pm

DD goes down for both daytime naps and bt independently (she has a lovie and sucks it's ear!!)

Her NW starts anywhere from 12.30am onwards - times are varying.  I leave her a couple of mins to see if she will self settle but she doesn't - I have to go in and give her the lovie but if I leave her straightaway she starts crying.  So I have to sit with her until she falls asleep this can be anything from 5 to 55 minutes!  DH stayed with her for 20 mins last night and he'd been back in bed 5 minutes and she woke up again.

We are sooo tired but just don't know what to do anymore.  We have been APOP and bring her in with us but it's not ideal.  She's not hungry, don't think it's SA as she is fine in the day and bt is easy.  She is getting a few teeth coming through but we give her meds at bt.

Any ideas would be great.  Thanks.

[Shiv52]

{{{hugs}}}

It could be she is ready for some more A time in her day.  Typical A time at 9 months is about 3.5 hours, sometimes more.  Often at this stage they are ready for more A time but not less day time sleep so the day can often end up being longer than 12 hours until things even out.  Your A time to bed is short at 3 hours for a 9 month old. 

Often NWs at this stage happen if they aren't getting enough A time in the day so they wake up in teh night to make up for lost A time!  Do you think she could handle more A time?

Have you tried doing a DF of meds before you go to bed to see if that helps? 

I wouldn't bring her into bed with you.  THats a really hard prop to break.  If you feel she needs you you would be better sleeping on her floor. 

Another thought is to teach her to find her lovey herself.  So rather than find it and hand it to her push it toward her hand and say 'get your lovey' so she can start finding it herself if she wakes in the night. 

It does sound like she may be in some discomfort with the teeth but an increase in A time may help too.

[- butterfly -]

Thank you.  I will extend A time by 15 mins and see how we get on.

I did sleep on her floor for 9 days but she still constantly woke up!! at least 4 times a night.

Interesting about the lovie - I think it's an issue and your suggestion sounds great.

Thanks.