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Don't know what to do about 8mo waking in the night, please advise

5 replies

sharond101 · 13/02/2013 16:34

DS slept through the night from 7 weeks although since christmas this has gone wrong. He has been teething and I believe he has liked the comfort I give him in the night and waking every night, once or twice every night, for anything between 20minutes and 4hours! The last four nights have been the worse and I am sleep deprived and cranky. I now feel we have several problems to tackle to help things improve.

  1. He wants his shawl. He was swaddled in it from birth and we have progressed to a sleepbag although he needs to hold his shawl to go to sleep and have it tucked into his cot. He refuses milk if he is not wrapped in or holding his shawl or is in his outdoors skisuit.
  2. He feeds to sleep and likes to be rocked.
  3. He is becoming more reliant on his dummy.
  4. His regular waking which i can find no cause other than teething but I cannot see how this would cause him to wake every night and why he immediately settles when I pick him up if he is in pain.


When he wakes up I keep him in a dark room, don't stimulate him or feed him. SOmetimes I offer water, paracetamol or teething gel. I resort to rocking him or co-sleeping with him which takes up to four hours (this was Sunday night!)to work although normally it is between 1-2 hours.

He naps twice per day and goes to bed at 7.45, usually wakes around 7/8am.

What would you do? Controlled crying? No tears? Start by removing dummy? Stop feeding to sleep? How do you put baby down awake in scenario of controlled crying/no tears if he is sound asleep after feeding?
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ilovepicnmix · 15/02/2013 15:23

Hi sharond101. My son is 7 months old and never beem a great sleeper. A week ago I was one night away from doing cc. However he suddenly started just waking once in the night which I can live with. I've tried not feeding him as I don't think he's hungry, but eventually I give in and that sends him off. Maybe im wrong to but last few nights I've fed im immediately when he's woken and it means more sleep for both of is although he doesn't take much so I don't think he's hungry. I have no wise words but just want to let you know that maybe he'll just sort himself out. Hope I haven't jinxed myself!

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sharond101 · 15/02/2013 21:41

We started sleep training last night so hoping for improvements.

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beanandspud · 15/02/2013 21:52

Not sure if this will help but DS suddenly started waking at 6months after sleeping really well. There was no explanation (possibly teething but not obviously in any pain). I spent hours cuddling him on the sofa in his room, some nights he wouldn't settle for two hours and it was very, very hard work and also really frustrating (I am the sort of person who likes to have an answer for things Grin).

However, after about two months he then went back to sleeping through. I still don't know what it was but since then he slept really well and rarely wakes in the night.

My advice would be to try to see it through with cuddles and being in the room with him. Find somewhere comfy to be during the night, keep him in his room and keep muttering to yourself that it will pass.

Good luck, I was like a zombie for a while but it really was just a phase.

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ilovepicnmix · 17/02/2013 18:10

How is the training going?

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sharond101 · 17/02/2013 22:03

ilovepicmix it's going smoothly so far. DS has his first cold though and that has complicated matters as last night he woke himself up several times coughing and was upset and scared. His cold has also made him really tired and so going to sleep has been really easy. Night one took twenty minutes and he was asleep. Woke 3 times but only required his dummy put in (normally wants an hour - 2 hours of cuddles in the night, night 2 took 25 minutes to fall asleep, slept 8hrs straight, then two more hours after I brought him into our bed (not really part of the method), last night went straight to sleep before I even sat in chair then was up coughing several times but settled within 15 minutes each time, this evening again he went o sleep immediately.

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