Baby sleeps better in second half of night

[Rooandtwo]

Why?? It used to be that her first stint was the longest but gradually this has changed and she is now (at 8 months) waking every 1-2 hours until about 1 am when, if I’m lucky, she will do a couple of 3-4 hour stints. It’s driving me mad but also seems very odd by general standards. Why might this be?

As a first time Mum to a 4 month old I've been seeing/reading a lot about baby sleep recently (but by no means an expert!). A lot of what I've seen suggests frequent waking like that could be due to over tiredness. Makes no sense I know, but that suggestion comes up a lot for the issue of frequent wakes (to do with waking at the end of each sleep cycle).

8 months is a time if big change for them developmentally. Check out Lyndsey hookway on IG, she's really helpful. I'm just resigned to the fact that sometimes sleep is good and sometimes sleep is bad, even if nothing seems to have changed/they're not ill etc.

Thanks both. Yes I keep scratching the itch to look for answers but really, given we are committed not to sleep training, I think @Lammveg you’re right that the only problem that can actually be solved is my acceptance of the situation. When I pick her up and feed her, and just have faith that one way or another we will get enough sleep to survive, she goes back down quicker than anything else. I don’t believe the rod for my back nonsense as my sense is DD would much rather be able to get back to sleep solo - I hear her giving it a good go when she’s not in pain and many times succeeding. We will get there one day. But the nights I get frustrated are the ones I hate the most, not actually the ones with the most wakes. It’s me I want to change not her.

undertired, it’s a sign you need to shorten last nap time or leave longer before bed. Mine does it if last nap is too late, even if she’s not slept that much that day!

we've tried longer and shorter last wake window. I don’t think it’s seriously due to either anymore. She normally has almost 5 hours between last nap and actually being asleep - unlikely to be under tired. We have seen no improvement with an earlier bed time and often get an earlier rise from that.

@Rooandtwo curious if you ever understood why this was happening? I mean I am resolved to just accept all nighttime torture by this point… I don’t think there are solutions other than waiting it out. But do let me know how it went for you 😅

Hi, my daughter is 2.5yrs now and she sleeps great (winces at possibility of jinxing it - as you can see I’m still traumatised but better rested). Nothing ever came to light. It just got better eventually. It took longer than I’d have liked..I think she was coming towards a year by the time it meaningfully improved, but it did happen. We never sleep trained, and I’m happy about that. However, I’m not in the least judgemental towards those who do. It’s extreme, the impact of sleep deprivation is a health and safety issue at a certain point. I hope you have the support you need and can let yourself lean into it ☺️🙏🏼

Thanks for replying. I’m glad you are now getting some rest. 😊 it does make me feel better about it. 🤍