8.5 month old no sleep!!

[Sophie1613]

My 8 and half month old (almost 9 months) is a horrid sleeper and I cant help but feel I’m doing something wrong. He slept through the night from 4-6 months old but the day he turned 6 moths he stopped sleeping through and wakes 2-3 times a night and most times he will wake 3-4am and be awake over an hour in his cot wanting to babble and roll around.

He wakes around 9am, naps around 12 midday for 2 hours and then naps again at 5pm until 6pm. Bath time every night at 8:30 and bed for 9pm. He goes to sleep fine but then he will wake up about 12 then at 3 and then again at 6 (at 3am he will babble and screech in his cot for over an hour). He has 2-3 meals a day and only drinks milk at nap time (5-6oz) but we struggle to get him eating lunch as he is never super interested unless its a yoghurt.

any tips to get him sleeping more? I know there are sleep regressions but everywhere says they’re meant to be short and almost 3 months later he still sleeps horribly.

My 2 year old still wakes like that over night with just one nap a day. So unfortunately I'm not sure there is much you can do and it could just be their sleep behaviour.
Do they need a feed to settle? Are the generally happy?

My ds has never been able to self settle so that is something you could work on whilst they are still young.

he don’t always need a feed to settle. At 3am he will have a bottle and then usually he will be awake past 4am, I just have to sit next to the cot and hold him on his side until he goes to sleep. He does feed to sleep for his naps and when he first goes to bed on a night.

Have you tried capping his 2nd nap to 30min?

Last night he only slept about 35 minutes for his last nap and it didn’t make much of a difference. Iv seen online about 2-3-4 wake windows but he will not sleep after 2 hours in the mornings

That’s a lot of hours of napping IMO.

Are you happy with a 9-9 schedule? Maybe try and wake him around 7, first nap around 10.30 for 30-45 mins and second nap around 2.30 for an hour. Bed for 7.30. That’s what my 10mo DD is currently on.

9-9 works for us so my partner will be home from work for bathtime and I can sort everything while he is in the bath. I might try capping his naps so he sleep an hour in the morning and hour in afternoon. Say he naps 12-1 then 4-5? Some days he could sleep 2-3 hours for his first nap

@Sophie1613 That could work yeah. Good luck!

I'd let him sleep as long as possible on the first nap and then cut the second nap completely.

I'd also try and get him to have more milk during the day and stop the 3am feed (offer water and comfort, but no milk).

I would also look at getting him to self settle to sleep. I think the problem might be that he wakes between sleep cycles and then can't resettle himself.

Or switch to a 6-6 sleep cycle. Put him down to bed at 6pm, instead of nap at 5pm and then when he wakes at 6am it's not another wake-up, it's just morning.

Ill try give just water at 3am and im gunna try cap both his naps to an hour since we tried to put him down to 1 nap a day before and he ended up falling asleep in the middle of the floor while playing🙃

Im not sure where to start with him self settling since he falls asleep drinking his bottle and then we transfer him into the cot. He does usually wake when we move him since we try put him down almost instantly when he falls asleep and he will just roll over and fall back to sleep.

Don’t offer him water at 3am, he’s only 8 months old, if he needs milk during the night it’s absolutely not abnormal. Don’t offer water during the night until after he’s turned 1.

Dont try and change too much at once.

Cap his naps and see how you go.

Ill try him with his capped naps for a few days and pray for a change. Even if he just stops playing around at 4am I will be happy! He used to wake at 1am and 5am for a bottle then straight back to sleep but recently he’s waking more often and never settling at 3/4am. Best sleep I’ve had in months was when he had the flu and slept 1am-9am no wake ups

@Sophie1613 is he maybe learning new things? DD learned a lot of new skills around 8.5mo and chose 3am for hour long wake ups to practice her clapping, waving etc 😩😂

@PinkFizz1 He learnt to crawl about a week ago😭 cant clap or wave just crawls around and dino screeches for a few hour until he falls asleep face down and i have to move him🙃

What makes you think your 7-7 is better than 9-9?! The OP doesn’t suggest that there are any issues with the
9-9 routine!

Mine was 12-12 which suited us!

It’s his brain - crawling is a huge learning leap and it will be a compulsion. Not much you can do but ride it out.

There’s also a separation anxiety peak at 8 months.

I didn’t say my 7-7 was better, that’s why I asked if OP was happy with a 9-9. Did you see that part of my comment? She confirmed she was, so I offered advice based on her current schedule. Have a nice day 🙂

“Maybe try and wake him at 7am…..”

it’s a bit like asking someone who wants advice on cooking steak if they have considered veganism.

Again, if you notice that was before OP confirmed she was happy with the 9-9 schedule. I then offered advice based on that. I’m not here to judge/bash/piss off any other new mums trust me, I know how hard it is 😂

He's still too young for only one nap and if he's waking that much in the night I'd definitely be giving a bottle. Hungry babies won't sleep.

@Devilsmommy Yeah I thought so. Am trying him on 2 hour long naps then if thats not help just going to wait it out. Cannot wait for the day his sleep improves🙃 @PinkFizz1 thankyou for the advice! I didn’t take offence to the 7-7 comment since I know that works for alot of parents especially those with school age children. 9-9 just works lots better for us since my partner works and I am in no way a morning person🤣

Honestly the sounds pretty normal for his age. I think you got used to the lovely sleeping through, so waking again it's a shock to the system.

I'd have been delighted with that sort of night at 8.5,m personally. I mean don't get me wrong, your little one doesn't sound like a good sleeper right now, but he doesn't sound like a particularly bad one either.

I'm not going to find any advice though because my kids remain terrible sleepers though school age, so i clearly haven't got any good active m advice apart from being proof that tiredness doesn't kill you 😬😂

I think I was enjoying sleeping abit too much🤣 some days I do just leave him to babble away in his cot at 4am and I manage to fall asleep listening to him and he eventually goes to sleep himself.

Most frustrating piece of advice I always get off family is to put him in his own bedroom but I couldn't imagine going across the flat to his bedroom to settle him (which could take hours) then manage to sneak out the room and get the door shut before going to bed myself🙃 door has to be shut too since we have 2 cats and one of them loves to sleep in the cot every chance possible