what THE HELL is my 8mo doing

[babigailwabble]

never been great. we bed share atm sleep training pending research. the last 2 nights (and actually, another night a week or so ago).... he's just awake, it's 6 or so hours in to his usual 11 hours (with plenty of BF wake ups). and fuck it, he's up and ready to go. so right now I'm in bed and i've just left him on the floor to crawl about i'm a bit worried i'm going to lose my temper with him. great. I DIDNT THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR HIS SLEEP TO GET WORSE.

last night he went to bed at 7, normal evening. woke up at midnight and was awake til.. well i remember looking at the clock at 430. slept til about 8 eventually.

tonight he went to bed at 9 (because he was pissing about earlier on same thing rolling over crawling off etc and i was getting stressed out about it so i took him downstairs) and woke up at about 245 and tried to feed back to sleep but also tried to kick me off and escape. so he started screaming when he reaslised he was on his own on the floor.. now he's back on booby but still awake digging his little claws into my tits.

and he's napped for a a couple of odd hours both days. not a great napper either surprise surprise.

Sounds hideous. No advice but lots of sympathy.

oops, I do have one suggestion. Maybe he would do better in his own room? Can you give that a try?

My dd2 is also 8 moths and last night was awake for thre hours. Just awake. Babbling, having feeds, smiling. She is normally a great sleeper so it has thrown me. She has woken up more tonight as well. I am hoping it is just a phase!

My dd was is the same. There’s an 8-10 month sleep regression so hopefully it will pass for you!

As above look at the 8-10 month sleep regression. It’s all about learning to crawl and cruise and walk. Really tough - I recommend getting a good chunk of sleep in his initial long stretch!

So as he's apparently forgotten that boob sends him to sleep (in the end last night he went back to sleep face down, diagonally across the bed with me rubbing his back) would this be a good, or a bad time to start leaving him to sort himself out in his cot...?

He does probably most of his BF at night these days (he is absolutely hyperactive during the day.. he barely stays for 2 min.. ) but I don't see how I can sleep train him without night weaning him. I don't mind feeding him at night and frankly a bit of waking isn't a major problem for me either as I don't have anything else I need to be doing (DP is the one who wants him in his own room ) but I feel like it's all out of control! He's asleep in the car right now but I'm considering putting him out for collection with my old Xmas tree.

Sorry for my jumbly waffle I am like, very, tired. I'm having some restorative toast now we are 46 min into nap.

Have his naps changed at all? My dd has suddenly started having 2hr naps rather than cat naps. Dd1 was an awful sleeper at night so I am unsure what is normal! Dd2 is just about to start nursery and I go back to work in two weeks so am really hoping this phase is very short

I don’t believe in sleep training at all (e.g. teaching them that you won’t come however much they cry) but most people recommend it over a year now.

My 8 month old is exactly the same! She's always woken a few times through the night but would be easily fed back to sleep. Now it takes forever to get her back off. She'll be nearly asleep then suddenly sit up and crawl away from me, then cry because she's away from me . Her naps have been all over the place too. So no advice but you aren't alone!

Personal opinion but I think he needs his own room. It's clearly not working for any of you now even if it was great previously.

Exactly @KTCluck he wants to feed but he doesn't so off he goes. So I shut the gate and put him on the floor to roam around and he has a meltdown because I'm not there. Absolutely infuriating. I'm sure he and I are both in a strop with each other today.

@UnitedKungdom easier said than done though isn't it! Like others I'm not about leaving him to cry, and he's only 8mo! Trying to find another way and it needs to work on the most wilful and unreasonable human I've ever encountered!

@crazycatlady5 just don't know what else to do it's not helping either of us at the moment 😔

@Thishatisnotmine yes his naps have improved! Yes he does need to be strapped into the car seat to give himself permission to relax but if we get it right he's had some 3 hour naps in the ca4 in the last couple of weeks which is previously absolutely unheard of!

@Thishatisnotmine ps good luck with returning to work. That's a whole extra load of pressure which is the last thing you need 😣

DS nearly broke us when he was 9 months - in the end we were told by so many people (not randoms, health visitors and the like!) that he was getting enough calories in the day not to need night feeds and we sleep-trained. He was basically considering all of the midnight shenanigans extra play. We went with rapid return/return and check - worked in less than 2 weeks.

From what I remember, dd had a bf first and last thing. She was too nosy to feed during the day and we stopped night feeds at 7mo.
Ds was a totally different child, with reflux and I can't remember when he was night weaned but he was 4 before he reliably slept through. He just doesn't need a lot of sleep and at 6yo seems to sleep 9-7 and that's after 2-3 hours of pissing about once he's been put to bed.

@Jessicabrassica I must say I am starting to wonder if he just doesn't need as much sleep as the books say. He doesn't seem to suffer particularly from having less(but I do!). When I was younger (not that young though) I used to quite merrily live on 5/6hours but I was batshit as a teenager

My dd is same age, also bf and also cosleeps and wakes all night. At times she seems to come fully awake but I keep the lights off and ignore her basically, she will bash me and babble at me but I pretend I'm asleep, she can help herself to boob if she wishes., she does usually fall back asleep We do still have quite loud white noise playing throughout the night.
I'm same as you though tired and hoping baby will sleep better soon!

If it makes you feel better the ones that don’t sleep much are apparently most intelligent! I’m sure someone made that up to make us sleep deprived mums feel better

Some babies just need more sleep than others. Dh doesn't need much sleep whilst I need loads. I told him Ds was his genetic material and therefore his problem. Fortunately he stepped up and does most of the now occasional night waking plus all of the early mornings which obviously only happen on weekends and holidays and never in term time!!!!

Good luck!