Baby sleep routine advice

[Al991]

I’m looking for some advice about sleep/routine etc for my nearly 8m old. Up until a month ago she had 3 naps a day, bedtime around 7 and would generally sleep through to 5. She didn’t need a feed at night. Then she started waking several times a night and this includes 1-2 feeds which she will absolutely guzzle down like we’ve been starving her. She won’t go back to sleep without them. This is what it looks like at the moment:

7am - wake up, dressed, milk
8.30-9 - first nap 1.5hr (very sleepy by this point)
2-3 second nap 1.5hr. Usually resists sleep before this point.
3-6 very overtired from basically as soon as she wakes from nap until bed.
7pm passes out after overtired crying
7.30-8pm wakes up crying, resists sleep

I then eventually get her down for 9ish and she’ll wake through the night screaming.

Other info:

• she is offered solids twice a day but rarely eats
• bottle fed. Drinks about 900-1100 a day.
• contact naps only, crib in our room overnight

Obviously her behaviour at bedtime, basically treating it like a nap, indicates issue with the routine but what would be a better routine? Also is there any steps can be taken to reduce night wakings? She has slept through for months! I give her painkiller in case it’s teething but doesn’t seem to help.

Just to add I do not want to cosleep

I know this sounds wrong but is she sleeping too much in the day? Mine had 3 naps of 40-45 mins at 8m I think.
Is she having a growth spurt? Might explain the sudden overnight hunger?

I think you should look at getting her to nap independently (I know this is easier said than done!) as perhaps she is waking up in the night wanting to be held by you as she is used to it during the day? I really struggled with this too and mine will only nap in the pram during the day (on a walk or rocked in the hallway)

To an extent, I think it's just babies. People talk about them starting to sleep though, but not when they stop doing it, which is really really common.

My first started sleeping through/long stretches at 6w, 11m, 18m, 3, 4.5 and 6.5. Each of those had lasted somewhere from 1-12m, before we were back to square one again. My second went from 3-5 hour stretches before 6m, to waking hourly from 6-18m

At 8m teething, development spurts, weaning, sometimes childcare, they all disrupt the delicate balance.

I'm not going to give you any advice. I have a 5&6 yo who still wake at night, so I'm not best to ask. But it is surprisingly normal.

Sleep really isn't linear for the first few years. It's rough, but somehow we make it through alive.

For us when this happened it was probably a combination of teething (8 at once) and inability to self settle. How does she go to sleep - do you have to assist or is she happy in bed and drifts off herself? Once we solved the settling issue, my son did sleep through again.

If you think she's overtired by 7, can you try putting her down for 6:30? She's probably having lots of daytime sleep to make up for the nights

Thanks, I’m aware night wakings are normal! I think I’m wondering about her overtired was in the evenings and the fact she treats bedtime as a little cat nap. Feel like I’m doing something wrong and she’s suffering because of it.

She is having enough daytime sleep, I would just spread it differently.

I would cap morning nap at 45 mins from 9-9:45/10 then midday nap from about 12:45/1-2:30-3. The smaller nap in afternoon prob isn't enough to carry her through to bedtime.

I then aim for 6:30 bedtime just while she is getting used to two naps.