8mo waking every 2 hours

[Squishmagazine]

I just don't know what to do anymore and am so exhausted, reading through websites is making my head spin.

DD is nearly 8mo and is an ebf co-sleeper. We bath her at about 9pm and she's asleep by about 10pm. I haven't wanted to move her bedtime earlier as I basically have to go to sleep when she does and I would have no time with DH otherwise. She feeds to sleep straight after the bath and generally doesn't have trouble getting to sleep, and will sleep for about 10 hours, with 2-3 1hr naps in the day (no set time).

Problem is, she's waking about every 2 hours in the night and will only be fed back to sleep. I haven't had any decent sleep since 2016.

I don't want to leave her to cry - what can I try?

(Also, currently weaning her, she's managing to eat dinner but not much. She's also powering through milestones, recently started crawling, babbling and pulling up to stand alone).

I think 8-9 months is the absolute pits for sleep - due to separation anxiety and the fact that so much is happening developmentally. We were down to about 45 minute stretches at that stage and the only thing that kept me going was splitting the night so we each got a stretch of uninterrupted sleep. Evening time together was a luxury we gave up for a few months. My other half gave a bottle of EBM during his shift - there was a fair bit of crying but never uncomforted. I know this probably doesn't help but it does get better.

In order to better cope with night wakes in-line with your cosleeping ebf parenting style, I'd suggest you start developing ways for her to be able to feed without waking you. Or at least without waking you properly. For example sleeping with no top on, with easy access to your boob. Help her learn by latch on herself without needing much input from you.

Increasing daytime calories will ensure she isn't hungry. Use high calorie foods and include carbs and protein in the diet.

I also suspect she's over tired. 10 hours of overnight unbroken sleep would be in the low side, considering your DD is having her 10h as broken sleep, she must be exhausted the following day.

Hello! Nothing constructive to add except to say I'm in the same boat! DD has just turned 8months and sleep has been the pits! We also bed share and EBF. No plans to stop this as a) I enjoy the snuggles and b) is quick and easy! (I'm also against CIO and too lazy to try other methods of getting her back to sleep in the middle of the night!) She isn't crawling but is pulling to stand and yesterday started attempting to cruise along the table. She is also cutting her first tooth. We do baby led weaning and what she eats varies - sometimes loads, sometimes nothing!

Our cot is sidecarred to the bed and she goes to bed at 6.30/7pm bed in there but ends up in with me when I get in bed about 9/10pm. Last night she woke up about six times

Anyway, from what I have read it is another leap/phase linked to development and so much going on. Probably not much comfort if you're as shattered as I am but just so you know you're not alone!