This is the worst age for babies I think. I feel like things SHOULD be getting easier, and sleep SHOULD be getting better - but it's not, and I'm tired, and A times are long, and babies want entertaining, and it all just feels like too much.
So here we are. Audrey is six months old. She has sttn maybe two times. At the moment she is waking usually about 4-6 times during the night. I will feed her two of those times. I don't believe she needs those feeds at all, as she is rarely hungry in the morning, and when she stayed at my mums overnight last weekend she took only 3oz of EBM the whole night. I don't really have any effective way of settling her. I am happy to undertake sleep training although I don't really know what we'd be training 'for' as she goes to sleep independently for naps and at bedtime and I do hear her settle herself at night as well.
pain meds
solids at tea time (doesn't really work she won't let me spoon feed her)
less solids through the day
top up of formula
top up of breast milk
more daytime sleep
less daytime sleep
longer A before bed
shorter A before bed
dropping the dream feed (she would always wake before it anyway)
She has been to the Dr to be checked over incase of any mystery illness i.e. ear infection and has been declare 'the picture of health'
For weeks now she wakes up after bedtime - anything from 1-3hrs after bedtime it's not always the same - and will cry on and off for hours. Then she will have a feed and sometimes the rest of the night is quite peaceful however sometimes she will wake again shortly after a feed and I have no way of settling her.
We weaned the dummy in the hope of breaking this pattern but it hasn't made any difference. I've tried giving the dummy back just because I need some way to make her be quiet so she doesn't wake up Stan (they share a room). But sometimes she won't take it and just goes on crying and/or shouting.
Last night we had our normal early evening - maybe a bit better than usual - and she slept til 12.45 when I fed her and she went back to sleep. She was awake then at 3.45, not crying, just shouting and yelping. I spent half an hour trying to get her to settle down, then, because Stan was tossing and turning and I was afraid he would wake up - I had to feed her even though she clearly was not hungry at about 4.15am. She went back to sleep but was up for the day at 6am.
Her routine is very variable but yesterday was:
6.30am awake
7.30am BF
8am breakfast
9.10am nap 35mins
9.45am awake
10.30am BF
11.30am lunch
12.15pm nap. Slept 40 mins then woke up, 15 mins trying to resettle, slept another 30mins in my arms
1.40pm awake
2.30pm BF
3.15pm catnap 30 mins
3.45pm awake
4.30pm solids
6.25pm BF plus top up of EBM (3oz) which I had in the fridge
6.45pm asleep for the night
Please help.
