8 month old has been waking every 2-3 hours for 4.5 months.

[Emma961064]

I have spoken to the GP and health visitors about this and neither have helped, I even paid for a private sleep consultant which didn’t help with the night wakings. I do 100% of the nights with her so it’s tough.

My little girl keeps waking every 2-3 hours each night and has been doing this since she was 3.5 months old. Before this she would sleep for 4 hours and wake every 2 hours, now she wakes multiple times after being put in her cot in the evening and throughout the night.

I initially thought it was her reflux but after medication didn’t make a difference I no longer think it is, I think she has pretty much outgrown it now anyway.

I’ve gotten us in some really bad habits:

1. She contact naps for every nap ( initially because of her reflux -having to hold her up after a nap)but wakes up a few times throughout the nap when I eventually move or make noise. If I put her in her cot she will either wake instantly or only sleep 10-20 minutes.

2. We co-sleep, she hates her cot and won’t sleep in it for long before waking up crying , I don’t have the energy to keep picking her up and putting her back in her cot all night so I put her next to me on bed ( I make it safe).

3. I feed her back to sleep as when she wakes up crying I initially pick her up but when she continues to cry I feed her so she drifts back to sleep which can be 2-4 times a night, I know that’s way to much but she will cry until I feed her and wriggles if I try and rock her to sleep.

I don’t know why she could be waking up crying . It could be habit, sometimes it’s me when I move a little next to her, she sleeps with her mouth open so could be an airway issue but I don’t think so. I honestly don’t know what to do anymore.

A lot of these problems arose because of the reflux and unfortunately it left me with bad habits , I know she shouldn’t be sleeping like this at her age . We let her cry a bit when she wakes but I try not to let her cry too much, we normally do pick up put down x

I know I haven’t fixed this so I deserve any judgment but I am just so lost with it all and after 8 months of decent sleep I’m really struggling and I need to fix it some of it before I go back to work in a few months :(

Sorry to tell you this but this is entirely normal. If you want to change it you could consult a sleep consultant, you could choose a very gentle one?

Living this right now. So I feel you.

Here is the advice I have gotten from sleep constants and a sleep training clinic I went to. For the record, I know its correct but its a very tough thing to break yourself.

I coslept since birth and sleeping with bub worked extremely well until about 4 months of age, then my son changed

Sorry pressed send too soon... writing more
Plz hold 😆

Ps stop beating yourself up for "bad habits" immediately. All you have done is respond to your baby's needs. It's hard but not all babies are the same and it isn't your fault.

" I know she shouldn’t be sleeping like this at her age ."

Not true. There is not really a 'normal' with babies' sleeping patterns/habits, just as there isn't with adults'.

Mine (all breastfed till at least a year) would wake up every 2/3/4 hours (average around every 3 hourly) until they were at least a year old, or until I stopped breastfeeding.

At 8 months, to be waking every 2-4 hours is not abnormal or particularly unusual. That doesn't mean it's not very tiring for you! And I do understand your concerns about going back to work (not something I had in the mix). But don't panic that you or your baby are doing something "wrong", because you're not. You're responding to their needs, and comforting them in the best way you can. It's definitely tough, but you're doing great things 💪

Some babies just are wakeful. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them, it's just how they are. If you want you can sleep train, but sometimes it helps just to accept this is how things are for now. It won't be like this forever.

My DD1 was a great sleeper, DD2 is not. We did both things the same for them, it's just how they are wired.

I feel like anyone who falls asleep a certain way excepts to wake up the same way, so a babe in arms will wake and check they're still where they are and resettle. This applies to any way of settling, breastfeeding, bottle, cuddles, parental presence. If they don't have it the same, they get upset.

My sleep consultant likened to me going to sleep happy in bed but then waking in the garden.

So, the recommendation was to split the feeding from the sleep completely and implement a feed, play, sleep routine. Easier said then done. We have had some success with it, purely with getting him into a cot, but he still wakes a lot.

If you like I can send you the sleep training notes I'm following, they're helping us. Message me and I can send them over if it helps. X