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8.5 month old just won't sleep anymore

2 replies

wildfyre · 02/04/2024 03:00

I am just so tired.

My son used to sleep in his cot at night, waking once or twice, but now I can't put him down (usually asleep and freshly breastfed) without a huge scream and cry. The past few weeks have consisted of me pulling all-nighters and holding him, then catching a couple of hours in the morning before my boyfriend starts work. I'm so grateful to get even that little amount of sleep, but it's just not enough because now I'm crying through the night out of sheer exhaustion and I'm snapping at people a lot.

My son has not long had his two front teeth come through, is army crawling around, rolling whilst awake and asleep and making attempts to pull up into standing. I know there's so much going on for him at this age. We give him teething gel before bed and one dose of Calpol some nights (really trying to minimise that one as I don't want to overdo it), but it doesn't seem to help much at all.

He does sleep okay in my arms or in our bed, but we don't have a set up safe enough for bed sharing and unfortunately aren't able to accommodate that so I have to stay up with him either way.

Is there anything at all I could possibly be doing to make this any easier for us all?

OP posts:
currentstateofthings · 02/04/2024 03:13

Guess why I am up right now.. still breastfeeding my baby and haven't even had a 5 minute nap yet because the baby won't let me so I really feel your pain

Can you and your partner do a split shift in the night? You take the first 4 hours and he takes the second or visa versa depending on his work start time? Obviously you will have to pump to do that or try a bottle of formula just for bed time

Lavender bath stuff and moisturiser

I found with my first at around 8 months he was still not sleeping so I tried him in his own room and by the second night he loved it

If you wrap your baby in blanket for bed then try a sleeping bag instead or visa versa

Later bedtime

Big walk in the fresh air right before bedtime

White noise, pink noise, brown noise. Try them all

Whatever sheets, blankets and clothes your baby is using for bed that night sit down for half an hour with them on your bare chest so your scent is on them that apprently can comfort baby

Might light if you don't you one or get rid of your night light if you do

I'm guessing you have checked the room temp etc and dust etc

Dummy if you don't use one

And please don't feel bad I just dropped baby wipes on the floor literally 10 minutes ago and burst into tears 😭 so I think your snapping at people is very reasonable at this point

Changethetoner · 02/04/2024 03:37

Try controlled crying to help your baby learn to self settle. Yes it will be awful at first, but so worth it when you are all sleeping better and longer. That's my recommendation. Your baby your choice though.

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