8 month sleep regression

[Blak]

Hi everyone. My baby girl is 7 months old and I’m getting very anxious about the dreaded 8 month sleep regression. I’m just wondering what I should expect and what are the best ways to deal with it.
TIA

Firstly, I would say don't necessarily expect it! Some babies have it bad, some not at all and some for a week or two. They're all different!

I would also suggest that at 8 months, you've probably got a fairly good bedtime routine and nap schedule-I would stick to it and ride it out if your DC does regress. I've found with my DS that I just stuck to what he knew and it helped him out the other side. When I've tried changing it all up, it almost made it worse!

Lastly, if the baby doesn't already self settle, I would try and encourage this before it hits. I've found the best time to do this is between 6-8 months. Any earlier and they're too little and any later, they've already formed habits that are hard to break. I'm not necessarily talking sleep training, just gentle move from rocking to sleep, feeding to sleep or whatever is currently used, to putting them in the cot to settle.

Most importantly, don't worry about it!!

@JimandPam thanks for taking the time to reply. I’m only worried about it as I’m scared it will clash with when I’m due back to work and I’ll be doing shift work my DD is amazing and self settling and we have her bedtime and nap routine down to a tee now so fingers crossed if it does happen that we make it through the other side.

We never had it. So you might get lucky!