8 month old suddenly will not sleep

[missg00se]

8 month old DD has always been a reasonably good sleeper. When I say reasonably good, I mean routinely down at 6.30-7 and reliably sleeping till at least 2am, waking for a night feed anywhere between 2 and 4 am and sleeping till 6.30-7am. Since she was about 3 months old. She's always been a terrible napper but as night sleep is generally good and she is happy I've never pushed the nap issue. She has two 30ish minute naps a day, most days.

For the last week she has not slept more than two hours at a time. Tonight I'm on the sixth wake up and it's 1.30am.

She's breastfed and always wants a feed when she wakes, though she is eating fine during the day. DH works away so there's no respite most of the week - and in reality he struggles to settle her anyway so the most I get when he is here is a couple of hours' extra sleep after the morning feed, which means I miss my expressing window, and I'm desperately trying to get her to take one expressed bottle a day so I can have a bit of a break. (She has a cows milk allergy and we haven't found a formula she gets on with, refused a bottle completely until she was 7 months old.)

I'm at my wits end. Please tell me this will get better?! What can I do?

I've just re-read that and I fear I'm rambling due to lack of sleep. I don't think I was this tired even when she was a newborn - at least then I could nap during the day...

Didn't want to read and run. Really feel for you, you must be exhausted. I ended up sleep training at 7 months as I was in a bad place from the lack of sleep. Cut out the night feeds and did the in and out every 2 minutes and it worked really quickly. I know it's not for everyone and it's hard when you're knackered but it saved me. Baby was much happier as well. She still wakes in the night but generally goes back to sleep straight away... Although we're in the grips of chicken pox now hence me being on here!!
I was really surprised she did fine dropping the 2-3 night feeds straight away - she was eating loads in the day though.

I'm in the same boat with my 7 month old. For me it's a combination of teething and a bad tummy due to starting solids. He won't sleep unless he's being held. I was happy to do that for a night or two but now he's got to realise that bed is where he sleeps as he's expecting it now.

I keep reminding myself that it won't last forever. I'm sure I read that 8 months is a bit of a clingy stage for them.

Thanks @juni I might end up trying that, I've always put her down asleep, but it's never been a problem as she generally then stayed asleep! So I've been reluctant to rock the boat.

No idea what's going on at the moment but I can't take much more. Will do some reading up on sleep training if I get the chance.

Fingers crossed for a better night tonight zzz

@Sylvannas you poor thing. Hang on in there! Weirdly it helps knowing I'm not the only one at my wits end in the middle of the night. It's so frustrating

One other thing I've been wondering about is the amount of light in the room. I've always had a small lamp on so I can see what I'm doing when I'm in and out without having to suddenly switch a bright light on. Would it be better to have a completely dark room, do you think? I'm a bit worried she's freak out as she's not used to it but equally I think she is getting distracted by things in her room when she wakes up.

It's worth a try. My DS sleeps better when it's darker.

You are right though I'm sure they get distracted by everything around them. I found blackout curtains for their room are great as it's getting lighter outside now it's spring so little munchkin is even more difficult to put down.

Blackout curtains/blinds are your friend

Another one here suggesting some sleep training to help cut out the night feeds altogether. It may be a clingy thing as well. We managed to cut out the night wakings by sending in my MIL to resettle DS at night (she was more than happy to). DH was working away at the time. For us it was key that I didn't do the night time resettling since DS would have wanted to BF for comfort from me even if he wasn't hungry.

@pikapoo I definitely think that's part of the problem - if it's me picking her up then she wants fed! Unfortunately there is nobody else to do it most of the time!

On the rare occasions in the past when her sleep has been bad and my husband has been here he ends up bringing her to me after an hour or so of trying to settle her, I then feed her to avoid a middle of the night argument and she settles. Maybe I need to read him the riot act (or check myself in to the hotel up the road) to take myself completely out of the equation for a couple of nights. He's back on Saturday, but he'll be jet lagged and then away again on Monday so it'll be a couple of weeks before we can attempt him doing the night settling I think.

In the meantime... I'll try starting sleep training tonight and see how we go. I honestly don't see how I can be any more tired than I already am, so it's worth a shot.

Just an update, I was all set to start sleep training and she just snapped back into her old routine last night. Went down like a dream at 7pm and slept till 7am with one night feed at 3.30am (up, fed and back asleep within half an hour). The only thing I can think of is that last week she learned to sit up on her own and she just wanted to practice all night! Long may this continue - although I know I need to get her to go to sleep on her own at some point. And also drop the night feed but for now she seems genuinely hungry at that one feed. Maybe when (if?) I've had a few nights better sleep I will try attempt to shift the goalposts...

Thanks all for your input, made a difference when I thought I was losing the plot!

That's awesome! So glad it's all getting better. Those constant wake ups are hell.

Long may it continue
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