Getting 8 month old into a routine

[PudsDuckling]

I am a first time mum, I have an 8 month old boy, he is happy and healthy but my only problem is i cannot get him into a consistent routine.

A lot of the routine examples I have looked at recommended getting your baby to sleep around 7, my son won't do that.

The pattern we have so far is this:
7am - wake up
7:30am - bottle
8:30am - baby porridge
9am - washed and dressed
9:20am - nap (20-30 minutes)
10-10:30am - walk in the park
12:30pm - solids
1:30pm - bottle
2-3pm - nap (20-30 minutes)
4:30pm - solids
5:30pm - bottle
8pm - bath time
8:30pm - Pjs, bedtime creams, story and final bottle

He rarely sleeps for more than 30 minutes at a time, if I get him to bed earlier than 8:30 he will wake up at 10pm and will not go back to sleep before 1am, this includes if day time naps are removed from the routine.

During the night, he cries in his sleep too. Often only being soothed if he is in my arms (I've tried giving him a comfort toy, talking to him softly etc) he will only settle in my arms.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, he is busy every day and I keep him happy and on track developmentally but his sleep is so difficult. I thought maybe he was over tired/ over stimulated but the results are the same on quiet days too. I'm getting stressed because I'm due to return to work soon and I need him to be in a better routine

All babies are different! They haven’t read the rule book and they can’t read the time either. It sounds like you have a good daytime routine so don’t over think it, some babies are just harder than others.

Is he going to nursery when you go back to work? If so, his routine will probably change to whatever they are doing there so not sure there is much point changing things now. He might need more sleep due to being over-tired from nursery, plus all the bugs they pick up and so naturally switch to going to sleep earlier.

For the night time sleep, the only thing you can do is sleep training if that’s something you want to do.

My first was like your son. Low sleep needs, would wake up at 6am, two short naps, asleep at 8:30 but multiple wakes (5+) each night and occasionally 2 hour parties in the middle of the night!

My second loves her sleep. At 8 months she was still having 3 naps a day, an hour and half and then two 30 mins and sleeping from 7pm-7am. She does wake up briefly in the night for a 2 min breastfeed but that’s it.

Ive done nothing different. They are just different children 🤷‍♀️