Ideas please for how I can get 8mo back to sleep and avoid being up for 3hrs in the night!!!

[curlyLJ]

My DD is 8mo and is going through a 'phase' of waking up for long periods at night... I know this is quite common at this age but I wondered if anyone has got any bright ideas on how to get her back to sleep quicker.

It seems like she is so wired when she wakes (even after feeding) and she can't keep her little arms and legs still, never mind relax and get back to sleep! It doesn't help if I bring her into bed with me as she just claws at my face, pokes me in the eye, and generally plays about.

I gather this is all developmental stuff, and is probably the 8/9 month sleep regression, but I think we also have a bit of seperation anxiety going on.

I have tried patting, shushing, rocking, a bit of PU/PD (although not that consistently) etc but as soon as I think she is asleep and attempt to creep out the room she pushes up on her arms looking for me and SCREAMS! Leaving her to cry just makes her worse during these 'fussy phases' so not an option.

Once she is asleep she goes for fairly long stretches of 4-5 hours, sometimes longer depending on what time the wake up is, but it is getting her there that is the problem!

Has anyone lived through similar experiences. What worked for you?
I am at the end of my tether...

Oh I really wish I could offer hope and help, but yours is an exact description of my DD at 8 months and she's the same now, 5 months later! I think there must have been some better periods in between, or I wouldn't have survived this long! Actually, the 9 month and 12 month bad bits with long night wakings coincided with new teeth sprouting. Could this be what's going on for you? DD seems to cope fine with teething in the day time. I can't see any signs at the moment, but maybe that's our problem too. We cope, just, by me doing night wakings (partly because the sight of DH in the night makes her scream blue murder, partly because he has to go out to work, and mostly because he's shit in the middle is the night!) and he gets up with her once it's after 6am. That gives me at least 90 minutes of decent sleep before be has to go out to work. Not brilliant, but keeps me sane (just).
Hope someone comes along with a miracle for you soon.

Hi again, I have found putting the tv on in the bedroom distracts him for a bit. He's so tired that he will stop crawling to watch the colours for a bit. I lay next to him and he will sometimes latch on and eventually drop off. Doesn't always work, but worth a try?

Interesting that you say the TV helps jerryg, I was thinking of getting her one of those lightshow things to attach to the cot...but I have heard that they can have the opposite effect and stimulate them more so I'm not sure what to do.

Oops. I bought one on ebay a few days ago thinking it would help! I'll let you know!

curly... you say she screams once you try and creep out of her room...

I wonder if it's worth just staying in her room to sleep while this night waking stuff is going on? My own DD goes through longish periods when re-settling her is tough and it's at a time of night when she sleeps VERY lightly, so my creeping out of the room tends to wake her up again (creaky floor boards etc.). I deal with this by bedding down on a mattress on her bedroom floor near her cot. I start the night in my own bed with DH then stay in DD's for the last couple of hours or so after the tricky resettle. Worth considering?

Thanks IC, nice idea and I would do that if there were enough room! She is in the box room so once the cot, and the wardrobe is in there, it doesn't leave much room for anything else... (You can just about get a single bed and a (small) wardrobe in there.

onight I am going to try an idea which I think is from the NCSS - rock her till really sleepy put down, if she cries pick up and try again. Repeat as necessary and for as long as it takes.

Failing that, as DH is now home, I will take her into the spare room and lay on the bed with her until she is sleepy enough to go back down.

Will let you know how it goes