Please help - 7.5mth old waking with a jolt every few mins - is this the 8mth regression?

[Pookimum]

I am feeling totally helpless, DD has consistently slept through since 8 weeks old, she went to bed at 8.30ish and slept through till 6.30ish. She has always had problems switching off and falling asleep (it could take anything from 30mins to a couple of hours even when clearly exhausted) but once she is asleep she sleeps beautifully. But last week she seemed to get worse and took hours and hours to fall asleep and now suddenly yesterday has become unable to fall asleep properly. She falls asleep but then wakes up in terror after a few minutes, she jumps & throws her arms up in the air and then either starts screaming or sucks manically on her sleeve and falls asleep again only to do the same thing a few mins later. She generally has two naps a day, 1-2 hrs am and 30mins or so pm.
Last night we tried to put her to bed at 8.30 but she screamed and screamed, we tried feeding her (which normally settles her) but she wasn't interested, we brought her downstairs for a little while to calm her and then tried again and again over the next few hours. By midnight she was so tired & frustrated that she couldn't fall asleep, we resorted to CC (which we had vowed never to do!), it worked, she fell asleep, waking up every few mins and sucking on her sleeve till she fell asleep again. She then did this until morning & is absolutely exhausted today. I managed to get her down for her morning nap and she did exactly the same thing. We are all like zombies today & I feel so sorry for her.
Is does look like her brain is working overtime, instead of slowing down her breathing seems to get faster as she falls asleep and she twitches all over. We do think she has developed a lot over the last few weeks, she wants to communticate more and has gone from being terrified of strangers to loving everyone & anyone. Is this the 8mth sleep regression I have heard about or could it be something more serious like a sleep disorder? Has anyone else had a baby do this? She does have her 5th tooth coming through but doesn't seem bothered by it.

I'm afraid I can't help but can sympathise. I would suspect it is the 8m sleep regression. We're having something like this with our daughter (8mo). The jolting is very noticeable and is a new thing for her. Even when I stroke my lo's back to lull her to sleep, her eyes will be shut then she'll jump awake with a loud "HA!" (it actually sounds quite funny). I can hear this happening when she is self settling too, and she's been up suddenly screaming during her naps.

Sounds like a similar thing. Here's hoping it passes! I'm sure it will.

At around 8 months they can start to get that 'falling' sensation we sometimes get in the early stages of sleep - maybe it's that?

I have had mildly similar problems with my 1 year old recently and have found that making extra time before bed for cuddles and a story helps him to relax and switch off more, rather than bottle and straight down which is what we used to do.

Yep, sounds just like the 8/9 month regression.

There is a great book explaining it called The Wonder Weeks by two scientists who researched all the developmental spurts up to 13 months.

They say:

"Your baby may start sleeping less well. Most babies do. She may refuse to go to bed, fall asleep less easily, and wake up sooner. Some are especially hard to get to sleep during the day. Others at night. And some stay up longer both during the day and at night."

They also say:

"A fussy baby can also be a very restless sleeper. Sometimes, she may yell, toss and turn so much that you think she is having a nightmare."

The developmental spurt causing this happens at about 37 weeks (or between 36 and 40 weeks). The fussy period usually begins between 32 and 37 weeks, often at 34 weeks. It often lasts for 4 weeks, but can be from 3-6 weeks. (My DS's nap disturbance at that stage only lasted a couple of weeks, though.)

There?s useful information about it here, here and here.

Thanks guys, it definitely looks like she is experiencing the falling sensation! I did sign up for the wonder weeks email alerts a while ago but hadn't had one for a while so assumed we weren't there yet.
It has been improving over the last few days, she still wakes up with a jump a lot but she is much more relaxed about it and settles herself again.
We had got to the point where she was refusing to go to bed night or day and would scream whenever we took her near to her cot. We extended her bedtime routine to involve a lot more cuddles and resorted to CC for a few nights following a method we found online where we went in to her room every ten mins and soothed her without picking her up. It has been really tough but has had amazing results, she took an hour to fall asleep on the first night and then that reduced over the next few days until tonight where she was asleep pretty much before I had left the room! I used to put her down for daytime naps when I saw tiredness cues but now I stick to a routine and that also has really reduced the amount of time she takes to fall asleep, she now cries until I leave the room then plays with her hands for ten mins or so and then calmly goes to sleep. So we are definitely over the worst!