7.5 month old now not sleeping

[PunkyPod]

Gah! Am losing my patience a bit. DD has always been a super sleeper, through the night no problem from 6 weeks but now everything has changed. We have always fed/cuddled her to sleep at bed. For naps she's had a dummy in the cot and goes to sleep herself.

Since new year we've decided to move away from feeding to sleep so have introduced a bedtime story and we're putting her in the cot awake. Have been trying to pat her to sleep but as yet no success. She responds ok for about 20 mins but then gets more agitated til she's screaming to be picked up. We're thinking of giving CC a go.

Anyway this has all coincided with her waking in the middle of the night and just talking to herself for up to an hour! Then she gets annoyed and the moaning/crying begins. She's not needing a feed (it's not helping her settle) and even when 1 of us goes in to try and settle her she just lays there chattering. What's this about??

Should we be doing CC at bedtime and in the night when she wakes up?? It's now 5:10am and tonight's monologue started at 2:45am!

[teacher123]

Have you tried just leaving her to settle off by herself without patting/staying with her? DS used to feed to sleep, then when that stopped working we had an interim period of disaster where I was trying to 'make him' sleep. Turns out he hates sleeping if I'm in the room-he's too distracted. He also point blank rescues to cosleep and needs to be left alone. DS hardly ever cries at bedtime-just grizzles a bit.

[PunkyPod]

Thanks Teacher. I think we need to just leave her for sure. Has just been difficult as DP had job interview yesterday and work has been so busy for him that he's not been around much to help out and then at night it feels like I need to do anything possible so we can get some sleep!

DD is pretty head strong. Have tried PUPD before and she cried for 2 hours solid even when she was being picked up.

Recently she's moved from 3 x 55 min naps to 2 naps lasting a minimum of 90 mins each. Could she be napping for too long?!

For naps she has white noise and blackout blind. She's definitely one for being distracted from the task in hand...

[teacher123]

DS does the 'I'm awake in the middle of the night, listen to me chatter!' Thing and I just ignore it now unless he's actually crying! I shut the door and eventually he drops back off. He finds me far too interesting, and loves the attention of me going in and stroking him and cajoling him back to sleep. Also I think every time I go back in it just wakes him up more.

[PunkyPod]

I need to be a bit stronger about leaving her... Last night she chattered happily for 50 mins and then started getting annoyed. That's when I went in. Will have to leave her next time.

Have been thinking about her afternoon nap and am wondering whether it's too long and finishing too late. Am going to aim for a max of 90 mins today finishing no later than 4pm and see if it makes a difference.

She's just gone down for first nap, I'm off to bed!

How old is your DS by the way?

[teacher123]

DS is 8 1/2 months, that does sound like quite a lot of daytime sleep, DS has about 45 mins in the morning and about 1 1/4 hours in the afternoon. I never let him sleep later than 3pm, and he goes to bed at 6.

[PunkyPod]

Just did my first bedtime CC. Really hard but she fell asleep after 35 mins. Also cut her afternoon nap to 1 hour so she was knackered at bedtime. Hopefully this is us turning a corner...

[teacher123]

Fingers crossed it improves soon!