Hi, can anyone offer any advice? I'm totally stumped about what to do and I am in deperate need of some solid sleep
My dd has been waking between 4 - 5am for almost 2 months now and the past two nights has also woken at around 1am as well.
She is 8 months old and two months ago I returned to full time work. Previous to this she was sleeping through 7am - 7pm (in fact sometimes I had to go in and wake her so that she didn't miss the timing on her first feed!). Over Christmas she had a horrible cold which threw out her sleep patterns and just when I thought we were getting back on track it was time for me to return to work
I tried to keep the normal routine in place as much as possible but something has gone horribly wrong and I can't figure out where. Everyone gives me conflicting views about feeding, sleeping, etc and I don't know which way to turn. Her routine is:
7am 8oz Bottle
9am Breakfast (porridge, cereal)
11am 3oz Bottle
Midday Lunch, then dessert
3pm 3oz Bottle
5pm Dinner, then dessert
7pm 3/4 of 8oz Bottle followed by bedtime routine & remainder of bottle
She goes down into the cot with a paci and is asleep within 5 mins. She has around 2 hours sleep after lunch (she's just not interested in napping before then and shows no signs of tiredness).
Am I feeding her enough (she's formula fed and at the max. recommended amount for her age)? Does she need more solids and are the timings right or should she be having the bottle and solids together? Should she be sleeping more or less during the day?
I've had to resort to sticking her paci back in when she cries in the night to calm her down because I'm just so tired that my work is suffering because I can't concentrate
. But now I think she's developed a dependency on that!! I have accidental parent written all over me!
I'm sure there is plenty in her routine, etc. that could be tweaked to be made better but I just don't know where to start - PLEASE HELP