7 month old unsettled at night

FTM1993 · 2025-04-20T09:20:16+00:00

Hi all, I'd appreciate any advice. My 7 month old used to sleep through 9 or 10 hours a night, waking maybe once for a feed. The last week or so he has woken multiple times per night crying, refuses milk, and struggles to settle even when held/rocked etc. Have tried co-sleeping but this doesn't work either so he just cries in our arms until he is hungry enough for milk at which point we feed to sleep and can then put him back in his crib. He does this every 3 hours. He doesn't nap for very long during the day (3 x 20-30 min naps even if rocked he doesn't seem to be able to connect sleep cycles for naps) so maybe it's over tiredness contributing. Any advice appreciated.

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Lavenderandlemons · 20/04/2025 10:33

I've recently experienced something similar between 7-8 months. Had a great sleeper who was suddenly waking 10+ times a night. Few things contributing I think. There's supposedly a sleep regression around 8 months, some experience it earlier and some later. This might have been part of it as I could see he was trying out some of his new skills at night like clapping, trying to get into crawling position. I think their little brains have so much going on it wakes them.

For us I also think a big part of it was teething. Is your LO suffering with teething do you think? I had to give some pain relief on nights I knew it was bad and that definitely seemed to help.

I think my DS was getting overtired too. I worked hard to get his naps in a better routine so he now has 2 naps, mid morning one is longer like 1.5 hours. Then an hour around 3.30pm-4.30pm. Lots of play and stimulation in the 3 hours before bed and we then start bedtime routine at 7.30pm and he's ready for it.

We're closer to 9 months old now so if it was sleep regression maybe he's just coming out of it now. But I do think the more solid naps have helped, and also calpol etc. when I can see he's having a bad day with the teeth. The hard thing with regressions is that there's no magic cure, need to let it run it's course. Worth looking at some other factors too. We also moved DS into his big cot instead of bedside crib and the extra space to move around seemed to help.

Solidarity, it's so tough and I was really tearing my hair out at one stage. But like everything, it does pass ❤️

Original poster

FTM1993 · 20/04/2025 12:52

Lavenderandlemons · 20/04/2025 10:33

I've recently experienced something similar between 7-8 months. Had a great sleeper who was suddenly waking 10+ times a night. Few things contributing I think. There's supposedly a sleep regression around 8 months, some experience it earlier and some later. This might have been part of it as I could see he was trying out some of his new skills at night like clapping, trying to get into crawling position. I think their little brains have so much going on it wakes them.

For us I also think a big part of it was teething. Is your LO suffering with teething do you think? I had to give some pain relief on nights I knew it was bad and that definitely seemed to help.

I think my DS was getting overtired too. I worked hard to get his naps in a better routine so he now has 2 naps, mid morning one is longer like 1.5 hours. Then an hour around 3.30pm-4.30pm. Lots of play and stimulation in the 3 hours before bed and we then start bedtime routine at 7.30pm and he's ready for it.

We're closer to 9 months old now so if it was sleep regression maybe he's just coming out of it now. But I do think the more solid naps have helped, and also calpol etc. when I can see he's having a bad day with the teeth. The hard thing with regressions is that there's no magic cure, need to let it run it's course. Worth looking at some other factors too. We also moved DS into his big cot instead of bedside crib and the extra space to move around seemed to help.

Solidarity, it's so tough and I was really tearing my hair out at one stage. But like everything, it does pass ❤️

Thank you for commenting. Did you find that when you switched to 2 naps he managed to have longer naps? At the min he is having 3 short naps as he gets quite grouchy after 2.5 hrs so I feel like I would struggle to stretch his wake windows, but then again maybe in the long run his naps would lengthen if I did this

OP posts:

Lavenderandlemons · 20/04/2025 13:26

@FTM1993 Yes, I think cutting down to 2 naps made him nap for longer. It was definitely a gradual process though, his wake windows slowly went from 2-3 hours. He still needed a 3rd nap on certain days, but when his wake window became more firmly 3 hours it got easier. Maybe try stretching it an extra 10 minutes until you get there. Will be worth it in the long run.