At the end of my tether!

[T84]

At the end of my tether ladies! 😩 Ruby is 7 1/2 months old now and I could literally count on one hand how many full nights sleep we've had out of her. Today she's had 30oz of milk and has been up screaming for half an hour til I eventually gave in and she took 7oz at 12am! Considering she only went to bed at 730, this is crazy but defo not a one off! Weaning is a joke so far and she point blank refuses anything off a spoon, even tho every single other thing goes straight for her mouth. Finger food she just pushes around too and won't actual put it in her mouth even if you coax her! I've tried literally everything I can think of/have been advised. I know they say food isn't important for the first while but I just can't see light at the end of the tunnel 😢😢 this plus the lack of sleep, being back at work and also having a 2 year old diva is breaking me!! 😰😢

 

[El1en]

Oh I do feel for you. My 18m old has never slept through the night.. not once

How does she nap during the day?

Has she ever had dream feeds?

Is her sleep getting worse or has it always been the same?

If I were you I'd stop worrying about weaning for a while, as you said you know it's not important so just have a break from it for a month and then try again

 

[Eryinera]

Apparently I was very similar to this when I was baby. We found out only after I had my son that I must have had a small reflux problem when I was a baby a bit like heartburn. my dad had it and my son had it but in boys it usually results in projectile vomiting where girls are rarely sick but very uncomfortable with it. my son needed baby gaviscon to settle him but the change once he started was shocking. (He also needed omeprazole too but his was quite sever) I'm just wondering if it has a similar reason with your little girl. Now I'm pregnant again my reflux is getting crazy!

 

[JD.Deedee]

My Son refused to feed most of the time at that age and drained bottles. Never mind go sleep at 7.30 that's something he's started doing since last year when around about 2. Not that he didn't sleep just didn't sleep through. I suggest moving up with follow on milk and try to move to cows milk but if there's still too much request for milk around 1 -1,5 do only give cows milk in the day and formula at night as the contents in vitamins and such are different.

Maybe ask to be referred to the paed to see if there's any reason why eg reflux, intolerance or allergies.

 

[Holi]

Bless you that sounds so hard! I have a 7month old and she eats 3 meals a day, snacks, about 18oz of milk and she still wakes through the night (normally for cuddles/dummy!) but I'm with you on the whole 'give me a god damn full nights sleep!'

Everything I'm going to suggest you'll have probably already heard, but have you tried distracting her with tv when spoon feeding?? Or give her her own spoon while feeding. So let her naw on her spoon, then quickly swipe it away and shove a spoonful of food in. Sometimes I give my lg a spoon to play with herself while I feed her to stop her constantly trying to grab my spoon and that helps! I think the key for her here is food! I would really push getting her onto atleast breakfast and dinner and hopefully you'll see an improvement!

Good luck love it's really hard on broken sleep! X

 

[BunnyN]

My two both ate solids well but it never helped them sleep better. DD started sleeping through a lot of nights when she turned about 2.5. DS is 22 months and sleeps though some nights, sometimes. Not sure if thats very comforting :/.

I think you have to be careful about pushing the solids. Its easy to turn it into a battle. Eventually babies do get intrested in solids themselves but you don't want to put them off before that. But pushing things before they are ready you might just delay, not encourage weaning. She is still quite young so I don't think its a big deal yet. If she still isnt interested in food at all 1 year then I might try harder.

What time do you go to bed? The only way I found that worked was putting babies to bed at our bed time. Otherwise someone was waking just when I got to sleep and they wanted to get up at the crack of dawn.

Can your OH do some of the night waking to give you a break?

 

[ruby2015]

I'm feeling a bit hopeless too T84 and my little boy is a similar age- almost 8 months. At one point he was sleeping through and I remember feeling like my old self again and it was such a relief. But it lasted only a week or so and we are now up at least 3 times in the night. I still feed him to sleep and wonder if I've got it all wrong if you find a miracle cure please let me know. Sorry not to offer any advice but I really hope things improve for you soon. Poor you!!! Xx

 

[fcroxy]

I'm sorry your having a tough time. My daughter didn't sleep through until well over 2 years old (and still wakes once a night 5 nights out of 7 at almost 3 years old!) even with weaning it didn't make her sleep better! I think some babies just need less sleep than others. Sorry I'm not much help but I can totally sympathise. Xx

 

[Rose83]

Hey Jen, I literally haven't been on here for about 5 months but you'll remember I had my little boy the same time as you so he is also 7.5 months and I have a 22 month old daughter.
Afraid I haven't really got any advice but just to say we're the exact same. T has never done a full nights sleep but he is breastfed so I always just put it down to that. He will sleep in his cot until about 3 or 4am but then won't settle unless he is in bed with me. Meanwhile my daughter is getting her final canine coming in and it's taking forever and she is biting through dummies at a rate of about 2-3 a week which is costing me a small fortune!

In terms of weaning T is very similar, I started him with some purées at 5months after some family made me feel like I should. I had started my daughter at 4 months because I knew she was ready but he was showing no signs so was going to hold off until 6 months but I felt so judged I just started and wished I hadn't because he just pushed it all straight back out until around 6 months. Since then he has shown little interest in food although swallows it if I can get it in his mouth - he bats away every spoonful. So I tried finger foods but he is similarly disinterested. Will munch on a stick of cucumber but not greatly fussed. I also cannot get him to take a bottle at all, tried 5 different bottles with expressed milk then gave up and tried bottles with formula, then formula in a sippy cup but nothing. He is just wants boobs. I just got my AF back too which causes my supply to drop so he is now feeding harder and longer which my nipples are cursing me for and off course it means I'm up more at night. It's a tough job! So I feel your pain x