Is my baby going through the 8 months sleep regression or something else?

[ayres25]

Hi all, looking for some advice regarding my son who is 8 and a half months old. I’d be grateful for any help and I’m brand new to this website so would also be grateful if you could try not to use too many abbreviations (or even more grateful if you could use them and also let me know what they mean!)

He has co-slept with me since he was about 3 months old. Before that he had slept in a Moses basket but was waking so often for a feed and then wouldn’t go back to sleep and I was exhausted so made the bad decision of letting him sleep in the bed with me! He’s always loved his cuddles and from birth would sleep so much better cuddled up to me.

It may also be worth pointing out that he has had some reflux issues - we have been adding Carobel to his milk pretty much since he was born as he would guzzle it down so quick and throw it back up. A couple of months ago he was throwing up his milk again after almost every feed so the Carobel has been working well to keep it down. Due to the reflux he prefers having milk little and often so has always woken up a couple of times in the night for some milk but used to then be able to fall back asleep quickly and sleep a few hours before waking (he’s never slept more than 5 hours without waking though). Oh and he is also teething, he has been on and off since about 3 months but unfortunately no teethies yet!

Anyway, the last few weeks especially he is awful trying to sleep at night. He is still sleeping with me and struggles to find a position he finds comfortable. I’m not exaggerating when I say he’ll adjust his head and position 100+ times before finding a comfortable position. Sometimes he’ll get in a position and it’ll be 5-10 seconds before lifting his head to move it again and sometimes it will be a couple of minutes. But it always takes him about 30 minutes to eventually fall asleep (despite him being extremely tired).

Not only this, but at the moment he seems to have some issue sleeping on his back. If I try and lay him on his back he twists it and will be straight onto his front but won’t be comfortable and will just try sitting up again.

He wakes up a lot in the night, usually for a feed although he won’t drink a lot - the milk helps him get back to sleep; I don’t think he’s ever fallen asleep without the bottle in his mouth!

I am exhausted as he is waiting up constantly in the night and then struggling to find a position to get back to sleep. He sometimes wakes up in pain from teething although that’s only been a couple of times. Sometimes he giggles in his sleep and sometimes he wakes up screaming as if he’s having a nightmare, but again this has only been a few times.

I’m just wondering if this is part of the 8 months sleep regression I’ve read about? If it’s only expected to last a few weeks I may be able to put up with it but I’m not sure if his behaviour is normal. He is also struggling to nap in the day, although it only seems to be at night he won’t sleep on his back (for naps in the day he sleeps on me, cuddling).

He is overall a happy baby, crawling and pulling himself up and drinking milk normally. He has some jars of food - I try and give him one a day but he won’t eat any vegetable ones or any with bits in! I’ve tried making my own purees but he’ll only eat fruit. He does love the Ella’s Kitchen cheese sticks and he used to like sticks of toast but now he just plays with them instead of eating

So yes any advice is greatly appreciated! Sorry for putting so much information, I didn’t know what would/wouldn’t be relevant but really I’m just looking to see if anyone elses baby behaved in the same way and what the reason was or any similar experiences!

I’d be so grateful! Anything which may give me an indication of when I may get a little bit of sleep again!

[Harrysmummy246]

He doesn't need to be on purees at 8 months old, there should be some texture now or he could have some suitably soft and not high salt/ no honey things that you have.

DS never had a puree. Ever. He started with some parsnips, carrot and turkey at christmas dinner age 6 mo and 1 day. They need to move on from smooth puree for proper oral development and speech later on


As for sleep, yep, sounds like sleep regression. And there is nothing wrong with bed-sharing. It's perfectly acceptable/ normal pretty much everywhere else in the world!

[Harrysmummy246]

Plus, if he can roll himself onto his front to sleep, that's fine.