So I need some advice!

My 9 month old has never exactly been a great sleeper, but I’m now looking to go back to work and it’s dawning on me that I’m probably not going to cope well with the amount of sleep I get!

She has one nap during the day, most often in the morning. At home she naps well, for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. If we are out however it’s often as little as 10 minutes. And that’s it, she doesn’t sleep during the day anymore than that so I know it’s not that she’s getting too much sleep during the day.

At night I don’t have too much of a problem getting her to go to sleep. Her bedtime is 7pm and she’s usually tired and asking for it by then. However, she will often wake up only an hour later and I have to feed her back to sleep (although I don’t actually mind this). The problem comes in the early hours, it could be as early as midnight or as late as 3am but at some point she will wake up and I cannot feed her back to sleep. When that happens she is up for at least 2 hours (although it can be more, for example it’s just taken 3 hours) and nothing I do works. I’ve tried cuddles, rocking, singing, leaving her in the cot (she just ends up screaming with this approach and it takes even longer so I’m extremely reluctant to do it). I’m just at a loss. I usually end up taking her downstairs and sitting with her either in her swing or on my lap until she falls asleep again.

How on earth do I get her to sleep decently at night?! At the moment I average about 4 hours of broken sleep. I can generally manage that when not working, but I work with young children (1-11 years) so when I go back to work I’ll be active all day, need high levels of concentration etc.

Has anyone got any ideas?

She’s breastfed, won’t take a bottle at all.