What has happened to my 8 month old?

[Aliveinwanderland]

DS has always woken frequently but has gone back to sleep after a feed. He always self settled at bed time with a dummy and snuggly toy.

For the last 2 weeks he has screamed whenever I have put him in his cot. He won't settle to sleep and just screams the house down. No amount of in cot soothing is working and the only thing that stops him crying is to put him in our bed. Once there he rolls about happily until he falls asleep.

Help!

Separation anxiety. Very common at 8 months.

What do I do!!

Let him cry it out, or just let him sleep with us and hope he grows out of it? I'm more than happy to cosleep, but don't want to create habits that I can then break when he is older.

I wouldn't do cry it out and co-slept until DD chose to sleep in her room. Never needed to force it. Now 6 years old and sleeps in her room without any issues. No habits are set in stone.

There are so many threads about 8 month olds and their sleep at the moment! It has prompted me to do a search of my own posts at the time when my youngest (now 2y) was 8 months, to see what I was doing at the time. I can't find any regression we were going through, but evidently lots of babies having sleep difficulties around this age so you are not alone.

If you're happy to cosleep, it's time to carry on. If you don't want to though, there are compromises.

How about removing one side off the cot and wedding it up to your bed? It makes a sidecar space for baby - in the cot byt where you can still snuggle up.

Another alternate is to simply position the cot next to your bed so you can easily reach into it, if it isn't already next to you.

Since this is a change that happened quite suddenly 2 weeks ago, it may well be temporary - teething would be a good suggestion or illness, or a change in the temperature.

Are you still feeding through the night? If these are bottle feeds it might be an idea to start weaning soon. If they are breastfeeds though, they are likely to be more about comfort than calories so baby might not be ready to give them up at night just yet.

Yes I am still feeding in the night. Usually once between 10-11 with a 6oz formula bottle, and then a breastfeed between 2-4am. Sometimes it's 2 breastfeeds after the bottle around 1&4am. I have learned to cope with the frequent night wakes as he always goes straight back to sleep afterwards.

His cot is in his room and he has slept in it for 3 months with no problems. It coincided with me going back to work and him spending time at the childminders so I think it's a separation thing.

Oh definitely in that case. And also being affected by all the changes involved in going to the childminders.

I'd just go with it for a few weeks.

This sounds exactly like DS. I put him to sleep in my bed in the evenings and then move him to his cot once he's in a deep enough sleep. When he wakes during the night I bring him into bed with us. He's 9mo now and I love cosleeping, it's lovely! DH wants to break the habit but he doesn't mind it too much either.