8 month old awake two hrs each night - desperate!

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My 3 yr old son didn't sleep through the night till he was 11 months and before that woke several times a night for a feed, but it was pretty regular and nearly always quick to get him back to sleep. My daughter who's soon 8 months has never been a great sleeper. If my son comes in as I'm feeding her before bed then she'll wake up fully and it will take me ages to get her to sleep. She comes into our bed half way through the night, I try and wait as long as possible, and wakes several times a night. If all goes well and she's totally undisturbed at bedtime she can sleep from 7.30 to 10.30/12 depending. She might wake up but just needs a quick pat and then back to sleep. For periods of time (seemingly ending with a new tooth) she's had two hour awake periods after her 11pm feed. This will happen a few times. But this time we're into a week. Last night she was fed 12 when she woke, went to sleep easily and then woke again at 1 and that was it till 3. She's not in pain but I have to stand over her and she will look up at me to check I'm there. If I leave the room she starts screaming, will sit up in bed sobbing, arms raised when I come in. If I get her to sleep she will wake up again a few min later (when I've just got into bed!). It seems she absolutely will stay awake for roughly two hrs whatever I do. I've tried leaving her crying and checking up on her, I've tried picking her up and calming her to sleep (works but then will wake up a few min later). If she's up with me she's happy and calm.

She is a lovely sweet happy chubby baby in the day. I don't believe she's hungry. She is clingy (hate to use that word when she's so little but you know what I mean) and if she's held by someone else will fix her eyes on me intensely and often cry till I take her. I have her with me all the time but I worry that because she's my second child she's missing out being held by me/attention etc, certainly compared to my son who was never out of my arms. I'm trying to wean her but she only wants to breastfeed in the evenings/night which seems another sign. I do think I am giving her lots of love and cuddles but as I said not at all on the level of my firstborn.

Sorry for the epic message but I am absolutely at breaking point and need some sleep. Each night is torture!

Am bumping myself! Know this is an epic posting but would love to get some advice or just hear that someone else has had this problem and got through!

Oh gosh, could be me. In fact I started a thread earlier looking at similar stuff - teething, dependence on boob, disturbed nights etc. I likewise compare it with my ds with whom I had no such problem.dd can be awake for 2 hours on boob trying to get back to sleep. Knowing there is someone out there is great. No answers yet sadly. If I was confident she was not in any discomfort from teeth I might try sleeptraining or even controlled crying but feel this inappropriate when I am not sure. I found Xmas awful - knackered from lack of sleep and then hostessing. Really not good. I look forward to hearing of others' experiences

We had this problem when DS was 8-9 months old. He would be up for 3 hours pretty much every single night over 6 weeks. Hell! And we actually had to hold him for all that time! Anyway, there could be several reasons. There is a major sleep regression at that stage. Another issue (which resolved it for us) was daytime naps. Our DS had about an hour or more in the morning and about 1.5 hours after lunch. Somehow too long a nap in the morning can cause these nighttime wakings. We reduced his morning nap and tried to encourage a longer afternoon sleep . We saw results very quickly when he slept through after a few days (still an early waker though). We also needed to do a little bit of controlled crying when he was just under a year. It was not traumatic though as he went to sleep after about 15 minutes.
Anyway, might be worth looking at daytime routine but don't forget that it may be sleep regression..

Hi, I know this is a bit late, but I've been having the same problem with my little girl. Its exhausting! Her problems started after she had a cold and I started sleeping with her again. After that she screamed every night when I put her down to sleep. Not knowing whether it was a distress cry or an angry cry, I didn't know what to do, so we tried everything. We tried everything during the night too when she'd wake up and not go back to sleep for 2 hours. We tried holding her, letting her cry it out, giving her a bottle during the night, sleeping with her, patting her ... we even cut out wheat from her diet. Nothing worked. The strange thing was that her day time naps were great, they'd even improved. The night time ritual was no different from the nap ritual, and yet at night time she'd scream the house down instead of dosing off quietly like she did during the day.
We eventually figured we'd go back to square one with the sleep training we'd started before the cold. It felt like a huge step backwards, but so far its helped. We have a spare bed in her room, so we have her cot next to the bed. This way whenever she cries or screams (though the screams have abated of their own) all I have to do is lie on the bed next to her and pat her through the cot rails. Sleeping next to her means I don't have to get up to console her and I can get to her before she becomes too upset. (Its also much more comfortable than hanging over the cot to pat her!). The end goal, of course, will be to move the cot away from the bed and then myself back into my own bed.
Hope some of this helps! (Its so nice to know there are other mums out there who are going through the same thing!)