Feeds to sleep, multiple night wakings, teething and big developmental milestones: where do I start with my 8 month olds sleep issues???

[kirbymamma]

My little girl has just turned 8 months. She was a pretty normal newborn in her sleeping and eating habits and then at around 8 weeks I started a bedtime routine (bath, boob, bed) and it worked a treat. She started sleeping 10 or 11 hours and continued to do so until about 3 and a half months ago.

I have no idea why things changed and what I can do to try and improve things again. During this blissful period at bedtime I would usually nurse her lying on the bed and then move her into her Moses basket once she came off the boob, usually still awake. She would go straight off with minimal fuss.

i think as time went on she became more reliant on the boob to get to sleep at bedtime so I would often place her in her bed asleep already. So I obviously created a sleep association which perhaps is why she seems to need to briefly nurse to get back off to sleep when she wakes in the night.

Note that I do not think she is waking due to hunger as she is so brief in her nursing so I believe she is using me as a pacifier. I have tried since she was teeny to get her to take a dummy but that is another story...

Weirdly she has always been able to settle herself at nap times until she began crawling did now standing last week. Sconces this development she seems very unhappy to be left in her cot to settle at nap times or bedtimes. I have tried staying beside the cot and keeping a hand on her and doing some shhhh patting but she just gets more and more annoyed/upset.

So here is the info in a nutshell. If anyone can offer any advice on how I can improve our situation I would be so grateful...

8 month old baby girl
Has previously slept through doing 10 to 11 hr stretches
Has previously been able to self settle
Exclusively breastfed
Weaned and now on 3 meals a day
Has started crawling and pulling herself up to standing in the last 10 days
Cut her first tooth 2 weeks ago and has the next one coming I think.
Currently will not settle at bedtime with being fed to sleep
Currently will not settle at nap times unless fed to sleep (although does sleep without nursing if tied down I.e. in buggy or carseat)
Waking multiple times a night sometimes only half an hour after going to bed.
Will not take a dummy
Will not take a bottle

What I really want is for her to not be reliant in nursing to get to sleep so that my husband can do her bedtime sometimes. With this in mind we really need to get her onto bottles...

Help please. She is so different from my little boy who is now 27 months and I am really struggling...

Thanks in advance

Very similar situation to you. Ds 8 months was the same up until 4 weeks ago apart from he needed rocking or settling to sleep on me. Ordered and read Andrea grace gentle sleep solutions and now does a lot better. Goes down ok ish (takes about 5 mins sometimes patting sometimes not) we have gone from 6-10 waking a a night to 1 for a bottle - he is hungry and an early get up as he struggles to go back to sleep after 5.30

I quite often hear him wake up and go back off and we have even had one nights full sleep.

To be honest the book just told me everything I already knew but helped me focus on where I could change. It helped me make and stick to a plan and I am pleased with the result so far. I think the book is similar to the sleep solution which I also read for dd2.

I also think there is a thread on one of these books for those trying to get babies to self settle etc but I have no idea how to link it sorry.