Restlessness at Bedtime

[LoopyLou06]

Help!.
My DD is nearly 8 months old (in about a week) and for the last 4 nights has been a nitemare going down to sleep.....I thought it was something she had eaten/allergies, now I think its overtiredness. (She sleeps during day but only for max of 1.5 hours).
She has just recently started with the 'back of the throat' low pitched cry which sounds like she is pain which makes me think its teething but I read that babies do not wake up due to teething - but what about going down to sleep in the first place?!. Ive tried detinox gel at night and its not really working :(.
She also twists and turns in her cot and seems quite hyper (which made me think about overtiredness). We put her down about 7pm so is not late!.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with DD or DS around this age?.
Do sleep patterns change from time to time - maybe its a phase?.
Whatever it is - I am coping on my own for a few days while DH is working away and its doing my head in a bit!.

Thanks in advance...
LL

It does sound like overtiredness. I would expect an 8 month old to cope with about 2-3 hours awake and then a nap. It sounds as though your DD is having to deal with much more than that. How long is her morning nap, when does she have her afternoon nap and does she still have a third nap? 7pm is still quite late for such a small baby. I would have expected more like:

6am awake
8.30-9.15 nap
11.45 - 1pm nap
4-4.30pm nap
6.30 bed

It might be worth keeping an eye out for worms in her nappy. My dd had worms and was awful at bedtime for a while, writhing around in discomfort.

Have you tried any calpol? My HV advised to give DS calpol when he was struggling to sleep her theory is if the babies in pain the should calm within 15 mins if not you know it's not pain but something else.

I would also try to get her to nap more if you can DS gets very overtired my whole life revolves around trying to make sure he sleeps enough. i give him a 20 min nap between 4.30-5.30 (depending when he last slept) and that keeps him going until 7ish if he doesn't get that late nap i put him down at 6.15ish if i let him go any later he just gets over tired.

Today he last woke up at 3.45 and didn't sleep again so he was in the bath at 6 and sleeping by half 6. My rule is no more than 3hrs between sleeps

If it is over tiredness i would abandon the 7pm bedtime and put her down whenever she looks tired.

Thanks all - she did this for about 4 nights which coincided with DH being back from working away and then she stopped when he wasnt here again!.
Last night she slept a blissful 8 hours for the FIRST TIME EVER! - without me needing to get up and feed her until 4.30am. (she did go to sleep later though - around 8.15pm as we were out all day....). Maybe the busy day tired her out(!) but she turned onto her front I think after 2 hours sleep so shes obviously much happier sleeping on her front!.

No writhing around last night, she was happy to go to sleep (maybe because it was so late for her).
I Would be interested to know if other 8 month olds (or thereabouts) sleep on front and do you find they sleep for longer?
Thanks all for replies...:)