8 month old stopped sleeping

[Notyoregularmum]

As the title says, my DD is nearly 8 months old. We have been extremely lucky as she’s always been a great sleeper but now she just doesn’t sleep…. Like at all. She is restless and for the first time is wakening crying, like every 20 minutes 😴. She’s been in her own cot in her own room for 2 months now and took to the change really well. We are exhausted.
She eats well, 3 meals a day and still has bottles also, she has a great routine with her 2 naps through the day.
Her routine is:
630/7am wake - bottle
830 am - breakfast
10am - nap
12pm -wake
12.30pm - lunch
2pm - nap
3.30pm - wake
4.30pm - dinner
6pm - bath
6.30pm - bottle
645/7pm - bed

She has been in this routine since she was little and she has always stuck to it, until now. We still put her down at 7pm but she then wakes every 20 minutes after that. We normally give up around 4/5am and take her in with us to get a few hours sleep. Where has this come from…. Please tell me it’s a phase 😭.
On a side note she doesn’t have any teeth yet so I may be that. We’ve tried the Ashtons and Parsons powder, Anbesol liquid and calpol.

There’s a sleep regression between 8-10 months - they learn so much developmentally around this time so disturbs their sleep. Is she learning to crawl or anything atm?

Her naps a little odd though, 1st wake window is 3-3.5 hours, second wake window is 2 hours then 3rd is 3-3.5 again. Have you tried putting her down earlier for that first nap?

Don't bother with teething powders they are just sweet. Anbesol or calpol are a better bet but if they don't work I'd say it's her trying to work out crawling and suddenly it'll stop and she'll be off.

Thanks Vicky, we have tried to put her down earlier in the morning but she isn’t ready and doesn’t go to sleep.

She is not quite at crawling, she is trying but not there yet (she is still working out to bring her left arm forward).

We will just ride this out and hope it stops soon.

I think her bedtime is too early.

Way too much daytime sleep. Start cutting back her naps aiming for one 2 hour nap 1-3. Do it very gradually - start by pushing the first nap forward by 5 minutes every 3 days. Then cut her second nap back by twice as much (i.e. 10 minutes).

Sorry I misread this as 18 months at first! You still need the morning nap at 8 months for sure.

I would actually aim for daily sleep of max 2.5 hours with 2 naps.
Something like nap 1 - 10-10.30
Nap 2 - 1pm - 3pm

You could do it gradually or cold turkey. I think you're seeing a combination of the 8 month sleep regression and too much day sleep resulting in excessive night waking.

Thanks Alyosha, so she has only had 30 minutes this morning. Will see if she goes for her 2 hour nap this afternoon then see how she is tonight. Last night we gave up about 1am and took her in with us and she slept until 630am.
Hopefully tonight is a better night with less sleep during the day.

You may need to trim the first nap even more - to 10/15 mins

So I think baby is vital, she’s been coughing all day and a continuous runny nose. She also vomited all her dinner…. The joys of parenthood lol

Meant to say Viral not Vital

Ah poor you, hope she's better soon. I have covid and I think I've given it to DS2 (4 months) :(. Poor babies.

Oh no…. I hope you feel better soon! And wee one is okay. X

I would ditch the 2pm nap. Could be 8 month sleep regression but at that time my DD dropped to 2 naps a day instead of 3. So could be that - try following a 2,3,4 wake window schedule and see if it works for you?

I know you said baby is not tired before 3.5 hours but it may be that dropping down to 2 naps helps with this?

Could also be things like teething so maybe just wait and see before implementing lots of changes.

Mine is 9 months and doing the exams. Had a good routine before, wake up at 8am, bedtime by 7. Now his pattern is all over the place. He's wide awake at either 8, 9 or 10pm depending on when he went to sleep. I'm just letting him do his own thing rather than frustrating myself. I'm on mat leave so don't have any other obligations currently. Hoping this stage will pass and he will have a routine again. However when he does fall asleep properly (usually 10-11pm) he sleeps well until late next morning only waking up for milk in the night which is around 2 times and then once early morning. It's difficult but hoping it's just a phase

Also part of me is enjoying the lie ins in the morning as he wakes up much later than he used to...

*doing the same

8-10 months is a big one for sleep, it was definitely the hardest chunk of the first year for me. I never regulated naps or had a schedule though, he sleeps when he sleeps

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/sarahockwell-smith.com/2015/11/18/what-the-heck-goes-wrong-sleep-wise-at-8-10-months/amp/

We've been going through something similar with out 10month old who has always slept well and is on a similar routine to yours. It was a combination of two teeth coming through and too much napping. She now does 15mins max in the morning. Then maximum 2.5hrs after lunch. We've also moved her bedtime to 7.15. This is working for us. I would suggest cutting your morning nap to max an hour and then seeing where you are then. You want the lunchtime nap to be the longest one anyway as in a few months the morning nap is usually dropped in favour of a lunchtime nap half way through their day.

Thank you all. She had a better night last night. Didn’t put her down until 8pm and she slept until 2am, quick feed then back down until 7am. So we were all feeling better today.

We cut her morning nap to 30 minutes and she only slept an hour this afternoon as she woke coughing. She fell asleep on me tonight at 715pm, I put her in her cot and she’s been sleeping since.

I’ve now caught her cold mind you (except mine is a horrendous cold) , so that may have been the reason I was so exhausted and had a melt down the other day.