Infant Daughter Extremely Restless Sleeper - How Can I Help Her?

my older son was about 7 or 8 months before he really started sleeping through the night. she could be rolling over in her sleep and getting startled..maybe try some soft soothing music, or a mobile....i'm usually very pro CIO, but in this case i agree with you since this is such a major deal...i would probably talk to the pediatrician....i wish i had a better answer, I'll keep thinking of you!!! I kinda know how u feel. my oldest would not sleep at all, no nap or at night, unless he was held..for the first 3 or 4 months of his life i slept sitting up on the couch or in a chair holding him...i did not sleep....I really hope you get things figured out!!!

*EDIT* i dont know if you have tried this, but maybe put a teaspoon or two of rice cereal in her last bottle before bed, maybe that will help to keep her tummy full and she may sleep better.

Sounds like it could be completely normal however you may want to mention it to her pediatrician. Large tonsils/adenoids can cause restlessness while sleeping and she may have congestion or mild sleep apnea. My son never had ear infections but had sleep issues and many colds since he was a newborn and we ended up after meeting with some ENTs deciding to have his tonsils/adenoids removed,

Sounds normal. You are lucky that most of the time she can put herself back to sleep. My 7 month old gets up to eat between 1 and 3 times a night (and that's over a 10 hour period).

Everyone wakes up several times a night, we normally just don't remember it. If she's waking up and putting herself back to sleep, but keeping you awake, try turning the volume on the baby monitor down, or if you share a room and can move one of you do that, so that you can hear if she cries and needs you, but don't hear every little toss and turn.

I blame myself that none of my 4 kids slept well or through the night till about age 1. Its hard, my first three are close together and well we have a 7 month old and I'm due again in Feb. I miss my sleep. But if I hear my kids wake up, even if they are fine, it causes me to lay awake and wait for them to not be fine. this means I get a lot less sleep than I could and should. My husband was kind enough that he keeps the baby monitor and wakes me if needed, because he sleeps through the tossing and turning and doesn't hear the baby unless he's actually crying. While I don't believe in CIO, crying for a couple of minutes while I get a bottle ready and go to him isn't going to hurt him, (IMO).

Otherwise, make sure her room is dark and cool and quiet, we use a fan, turned to high and facing a corner away from the crib, to help block household noises.

This sounds totally normal, just so you know. Waking up 2-3 times a night at that age is fairly common. All mine have done it at that age (I have four kids). They also are all still eating at night at that age. I sometimes have a hard time going through the night without eating...granted I am pregnant! hehe. But a baby has a tiny tummy and there is nothing wrong with giving a bottle to settle her and get her back to sleep. That's what I always do.

I know it's exhausting. I kid you not when I say that for over eight years now, I have not slept through the night for several days in a row. It gets exhausting. But what you're describing sounds SO NORMAL. Some babies are better sleepers than others.

My current baby (12 months) has just started sleeping through the night most of the time. It's AWESOME. If she wakes up, I'll still feed her. She'll usually drinks a lot and goes back to sleep...though she takes forever before I can lay her back down! So, I always hope she sleeps.

I wouldn't have her cry it out. I'm personally not a fan of that. I think it's emotionally traumatic for a baby to be upset and trying to communicate and not have someone there responding to them. I'm sure others disagree, but I personally feel very strongly about that and have never done that.

BUT, I will let my baby cry for a minute or two as I wait to see if she is going to settle back to sleep or wake up. If it's a really tired cry/fuss, sometimes she'll do it off and on for five minutes, and I won't go in. But I don't consider that crying it out. Just sometimes she wakes up and she settles right back to sleep. So, my suggestion is to give her a few minutes before going back in (unless she's SCREAMING, then go in, mine usually only fusses then goes back to sleep). Make sure you are giving her time to settle herself back to sleep. Once I realized that, mine started sleeping through the night better.

Also, make sure you are feeding her often enough during the day so that she shouldn't be hungry. That being said, I still feed mine when she wakes up. The last thing I want is my baby to be hungry at night!

Hope that helps some. It's not a medical issue. It's really normal, I promise. You'll meet moms with other babies that sleep GREAT. Don't compare your baby to that. Each child is different. My current baby seems like an angel baby because she is MY FIRST to sleep through the night at 11-12 months! It's perfect too because I'm prego and really need to get more sleep (and I have three others that still wake me up at night).

So, my diagnosis is - normal baby.

My suggestion is - wait a few minutes to see if she's really waking up or if she'll settle. then give her a bottle to feed her. get her to sleep and lay her back down and go back to bed.

Try swaddling her. My 7 month old will ONLY sleep swaddled; other wise she smacks herself in the face, flops around and wakes herself up - also regardless of where or with whom she's sleeping. I've actually just ordered a Woombie in the mega baby size to see if that helps because she's gotten quite good at sliding her arms out of the blanket and clawing at her face.

Here is what I know about sleep. Children spend the first 3-4 hours of the night in very deep sleep, from which it is difficult to wake them. At the end of this 3 or 4 hour period, they will transition to a much lighter sleep on the way to a period of REM that lasts up to about 20 minutes. This period of REM sleep may be interrupted by several brief wakings, but the child should rapidly return to sleep. At the end of this REM period, there is another brief arousal during which the child will switch position and subconsciously check her surroundings to see if things are normal, then go back to sleep. These wakings occur in all children and adults and they are normal. We as parents often think they are abnormal, especially if our kiddo can't return to sleep afterward. The inability to return to sleep is usually because the conditions the child associates with falling asleep, like being rocked or nursed/bottle fed are no longer present.
Is your daughter actually waking up fully or just stirring and transition between sleep stages?
When you put her to sleep at night do you put her down while she is still awake or do you rock her or hold her until she is asleep?
I think you are right that she doesn't need to eat at night, she is waking for some other reason and the bottle just soothes her back to sleep, but without knowing how she falls asleep I'm not sure what the answer might be.

Try a pacifier instead of the bottle. Just in that middle of the night thing. Sounds like she expects you to help her go back to sleep.