8/9 month sleep regression

[Ifyouthinkiwillsleepyoudream]

So.... we re bang in the middle of the 8/9 month sleep regression and to say that DS's sleep is disturbed is an understatement.

He went from sleeping 10-11 hours straight, to waking up every hour after 1 or 2am... needless to say we are both exhausted. He's also teething which makes matters worst.

My question is this; did any of you do any sleep training or anything at all in order to get through this sleep regression or is it best to just try and ride it out? We re a few weeks in already so perhaps we should just wait it out.

Or should I sleep train? I am worried that if I don't do anything, he will never go back to sleeping through. He managed it by himself first time round, stretching his solid sleep blocks slowly till we reached 10hr stretches at around 6-7 months. Then it all went downhill after the 8-month mark, when he started crawling and pulling himself up.

I am interested in hearing about people's experiences.. give me some hope!

I don't really know what you mean by sleep training?

At 8/9 months I would be avoiding night feeds (calorie loading through the day to be sure). So night wakes would involve me settling baby back to sleep in the cot next to my bed (with the aid of dummy comfort sucks and my touch reassurance).

It doesn't involve being left to cry. Not sure if that matches what you would call sleep training? If it does, then yes I'd sleep train. If you think sleep training means leaving baby to cry, then no I would not do that at 8/9 months.

Thank you Fate!

I guess I mean anything that requires some resistance to night feeding
Sorry, you are right, I didn't explain that well!

I had stopped night feeding by 8 months but sadly this regression means we reverted to feeding to sleep during the night as it was the only thing that calmed him down... I feel we are getting into dangerously bad habits and want to stop but not sure if there's a point during the regression...

We always rocked him to sleep, but it was pretty brief. Now when he wakes at night I could be rocking for 40mins and he'd still wake up 5mins after being put down in his cot. Even feeding doesn't always work to be honest. But at least it works some times.

By sleep training I don't mean necessarily being left to cry, but rather trying to teach him that he doesn't need to feeding to sleep. He can be a rather intense baby when it comes to sleep (although the sweetest and smiliest during the day!) and finds it hard to 'switch off' so to speak. He never really self soothed or was able to sleep with just me patting his back for example. He also never accepted a dummy so I don't have that option either sadly!

He eats well btw - 3 meals a day + 4 bottles/feeds (some ebm, some formula, we ve always combination fed). He gains weight well and lots of nappies (too many if anything!). Plus milk with his solid meals.

Any night feeding hasn't led to him eating any less during the day..