Why won't my 8 month old sleep through the night anymore?!

[goldielock]

Please can anyone offer some advice on getting my 8 month old to sleep better.

She used to be a great sleeper, went down at about 8 and would sleep through (with a dream feed) until about 6:30. Then it all changed 😬. I think a combination of the 4 month sleep regression and also having a cold/cough but, 4 months later and she has never gone back to sleeping through.

She can wake up to 4 times a night sometimes just wanting her dummy put back in, sometimes just stroking her head gets her back off or other times I have to (bottle) feed her. I never get her out of her cot though. A good night, which is really rare nowadays would be her just waking at 5 and going back to sleep after a bit of bottle until about 6:30. I can cope with that but like I said these nights are few and far between.

She naps well, usually has an 90 mins or so in the morning (about 2 hours after getting up) then again around lunch for about 40 mins. The afternoon nap is a bit more hit and miss then bedtime is about 7.

We are so so tired and not sure what to do anymore. Anyone been in a similar situation? Do I just have to ride it out?

Is that all forvdaytime naps? 90m ish morning and 40m ish afternoon?

That is nowhere near enough sleep. It could possibly be enough sleep for a baby on the lower-end of the slerp scale who was sleeping solidly for 11-12h at night. But given you are getting very broken nights, baby is not only getting no opportunity to catch up on lost sleep, but is also not getting enough daytime sleep anyway.

For comparison, a baby at the too top end of sleep needs at 8 months may have a 2h morning nap, a 2h afternoon nap and sometimes have a half hour teatime nap. Then 10-11 overnights sleep.

I would maintain your two hour awake times all day. But keep that as a maximum. Make it downwards flexible - so 90-120m awake time would be fine if baby is tired.

Say 6.30am wake would mean 8.30am nap. If that's 90m giving a wake up of 10am, next nap is 11.30-12pm. If this nap is 40m then you will have a wake up time of 12.10-12.40. You then want another nap around 2.30pm. Then depending on how long that nap is, another at 4.30 or 5pm.

This ^ is loads more sleep than yours is currently getting.

OP all babies are different! And the amount of sleep your baby is getting in the day is more than mine did (3x30mins at that age).

They do different things at different developmental stages too. It may just be that she's too reliant on the dummy? Or maybe she just needs to learn how to pop it back in herself. I've never used dummies much so can't speak from experience. Hate to say it but many babies go through rough patches with sleep but the good news is that you get used to it they grow out of it eventually. You're not alone if that helps any.

There's a major sleep regression at this age. 8-10 months were v difficult sleep wise for us despite a baby who had previously slept through.

They go through phases. It will pass.

Thanks for your replies

FATE she will usually have another short sleep at around 3 ish but it's a bit more unpredictable.
I desperately want her to have a longer lunchtime nap but she wakes after about 40 mins and no matter what I do she won't be coaxed back to sleep!

Honestly goldie she may not need as much sleep as you think. A 90 min nap in the morning would have seen mine through the day at that age! Maybe cut that down to get her to nap longer later in the day?

She sounds similar to mine at the same agr.

On the dummy - we introduced a night light and after that she was able to find it for herself. We also went through a phase of scattering 8 of them around the cot so that wherever she reached for one she found one!

At that she age still had a middle of the night feed, at approx 1 or 2am. I used to bring her into my bed to do this and often we both went back to sleep in our bed for the rest of the night. I seemed to get more sleep that way than putting her back in her cot. Although it was light sleep because I was conscious of her being there.

Also, at 8 months she was already down to a 2 hour morning nap, plus an intermittent afternoon nap (her afternoon nap was unreliable from about 5 months - by 8 months it probably only happened twice a week).

If it gives you hope - she's now 20 months and sleeps straight through for 10-11 hours at night, plus a 1.5-3 hour nap over lunchtime.

Have you tried limiting the length of the morning nap to encourage a longer afternoon nap?

Do you have a fairly consistant morning wake up time?