Hi Ladies
Please can you help? I am not sure if I am on the right board but fingers crossed.
My baby girl is now 11.5 months and just recently has started waking in the night. There are I think several issues behind this which need to be addressed but I will give you the background and her previous routine first.
We have never done PU/PD with her as her routine of bath, bottle, bed and cuddles till drowsy then cot has always been sufficient and she has for the most part self settled when waking in the night - yes, I know that we have been exceedingly lucky here!
She suffered badly with reflux when younger hence the cuddles and we have to go to her almost immediately when she cries as if left she turns blue, chokes and then vomits. So freely admitted accidental parenting from a young age but it has never, until now, been an issue.
Her routine has been:
6.30 wake, play with daddy whilst I get up!
7.00 Breakfast
8.45 Milk
9.30 30 minute nap (cuddles with me)
10.00 Activty
11.45 Lunch
1.00 Milk and long Nap (this can be anything from an hour to two but I dont let her sleep past 3.15 pm)
3.15 Activity
5.00 Tea
6.00 Bath
6.20 Milk and bed
7.00 ME time - hooray!
So now we come to the potential problems that seem to be influencing her!
1. We moved home when she was 9 months old and it took 3 weeks to get her through the night again but she DID eventually get there and this was only a once a night waking
2. Her development has been going through the roof with signing, crawling, standing, words etc etc - there is not enough time in the day for our very curious little girl!
3. The big one - two weeks ago we had a nasty car crash and since then she has been taking two hours to get to bed (6-8pm) then wakes between every 1- 4 hours crying for no apparent reason. The before midnight wakings she settles off relatively quickly - about twenty minutes or so - but after midnight it again takes two hours to get her settled. I do not give her any more milk.
I just don't know what to do - the waking is not at a consistent time or in response to any noises occuring - and its not as though she wakes then decides she needs us, she wakes up crying. I should I realise have done PU/PD a lot earlier but we have a saying if ain't broke don't fix it! I am now 34 weeks pregnant and this combined with the injuries sustained from our crash means that i do not have the physical capability to do PU/PD. is there another way? Due to lack of sleep I am becoming increasingly emotional in my dealings with her wakefulness and find myslef swinging between understanding as she has been through a hell of a shock to angry frustration that she won't go to sleep. I myself was badly affected by the crash and I know that my distress will be communicating itself to her even though I have been trying desperately hard to maintain her routines as a matter of course. A friend recommended controlled crying but 1. I don't believe in this and 2. I can't do it with her anyway due to the turning blue/vomiting thing....
I would really welcome any advice and help with this - I realise it may just be a case of tough it out but it is so so draining and I am losing my capacity to be patient and this just makes me feel even worse as its not her fault.
Thanks in advance
Shelley
