8 Month old waking regularly every night

[Becca22]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time on mumsnet and im looking for some advice! My 8 month old daughter is waking regularly every night. We are in a difficult situation as we live in a flat and the guy downstairs is up for work at 5.30 every day so we feel we cant just let her cry as the walls are not very soundproof...as a result she is getting used to one of us appearing every time she crys. we use a dummy so sometimes if we're quick enough into her room we can put it back in before she properly wakes but its taking its toll doing this every night many times. i start back work in 3 weeks so need to get this sorted, any suggestions??

Oh this sounds so familiar...

Firstly, is she eating and drinking well in the daytime? If not, she may be hungry/ thirsty and this might need addressing.

Also, is she cutting any teeth at the moment (am thinking maybe it is canine time?)

Finally, if there is nothing else wrong and you want to try leaving her, I think I would be tempted to speak to the guy downstairs, acknowledging he may be pissed off about babies crying, and explain that you are going to try letting her cry. Explain to him that it should only take a few days and that she will sleep very well after that. If he a young guy he may well have no idea at all about babies, and this will help him understand. Finally, when you have beaten the no-sleep beast, take him a six-pack and thank him for his patience. I can virtually guarantee he will smile at you and your baby from then on, unless he is a complete cold-hearted swine.

Thanks for getting back so quick! She is on 3 meals a day and usually has 2 courses at each meal! She is also still getting a 7oz bottle feed mid morning mid afternoon and before bed, do you think this sounds enough? The guy downstairs has two kids but hes split up from his wife so its like his new batchelor pad (poor guy with us upstairs!). we are good neighbours and he has been known to have a few loud parties at night to which we have said nothing...have thought about having a word with him, might do that...beer is always a good idea!

Meant to say, she is teething one of her bottom front teeth has just come through, could this be the cause? I have thought about a blackout blind or more covers...so many options!

Is she waking because the dummy has fallen out and she needs it to get back to sleep?

You might want to think about ditching it. It will be hell for a few days, but worth it once she has forgotten about it.

I think that quite a lot of babies are in a lot of pain when they are teething, and it seemed to make mine wake up more at night.

Teething could definitely be the cause, as could hunger, cold, woken up by a lightish room and not being able to get back to sleep... and many more reasons!

I don't have any answers (7.5 mo DD still waking up too... after a few weeks of sleeping through which is annoying!) but I guess the best thing you can do is rule out the usual:
Pain - try calpol or calprofen or teething powders
Cold - check temperature of room and that DD has enough layers on for that temp
Hunger - perhaps try to get an extra milk feed in during the day and see if that makes any difference (although it sounds as if weaning going well, so perhaps she's not hungry in the night)
Light - try a blackout blind

If after all that, she still wakes up - perhaps then is the time to try some sleep training. There are various methods which you could read up on if that's your thing.

As for the guy downstairs - buy him some good earplugs so that you don't feel guilty about leaving DD to cry a little bit.

HOpe that's of some use. And good luck!

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Havent been on here for a while, she is now sleeping much better after we invested in blackout blinds...her first tooth has appeared too so think it was a combination of the two! xxx