8 month sleep regression / hysterics and vomiting - please help !

[Shazafied]

Hi all,

My 8.5 month old, as much as I love her dearly, is going to kill me!

{May or may not be relevant - She had bad a cold a few weeks ago but seems to have recovered. During her cold I ended up holding her a lot at night, rocking her , just whatever she needed. This seems to have segued into a hideous sleep regression.

Also unsure of relevance - she went off her food with the cold and is now only eating certain ginger foods in v small amounts. She used to eat finger foods and purées quite heartily but 90% of her calories are from formula milk now. Trying my best to gently build the food back up. }

She is a very active baby , never sits still Unless sleeping , can nearly crawl and is pulling up/cruising (spends most of her waking hours in these projects, gets bags of floor time).

I worked so hard to get her from 4 night wakes (at 5-6 months) to 1 night wake/feed at 2am. Had about two weeks of decent sleep and then the cold hit, now this.

She's going to sleep after the usual bedtime routine, bath at 1815, that's not my kitten/monkey/puppy type book on my knee, bottle , asleep by 1900-1930 (sometimes on me , sometimes falls asleep in cot). We have black out blinds, white noise, nothing in cot ... she sleeps in gro bags.

She's having two daytime naps now, rather than three . Last nap ending 1600 at latest.

What's happening during the night:

Wakes up once or twice for c. 2.5 hours each time (eg 2300 and 0300 ish but does vary). Isn't doing happy "morning style" waking up with babbling etc, but waking up up crying and writhing about, flipping around on to her from and trying to crawl about the cot, getting stuck in corners, pulling up and standing at the edge of the cot. Cries and whines the whole time, if I don't intervene it escalates to hysterical crying and gagging / projectile vomiting. I try and settle / pat her back to sleep , or sit next to the cot shushing her, she gets hysterical and vomits. All the calms her down from the crying stage is my picking her up, and rocking her, feeding her when she has calmed enough to take it. After she had calmed down and fed she is a little calmer, I put her back in the cot and the manic writhing/ flipping etc starts again. Again she will get hysterical after a point and I pick her up and rock her before she vomits (I don't want to be changing her a lot during the night). Eventually after about 2-3 hours of this she wears herself out and will be put back into the cot one final time, have a bit of a swan song wriggle about and drop off to sleep.

I try not to talk to her or make eye contact during these episodes. I'm trying to let her know that I am there but it's not time to interact. I'm worried though that I am picking her up and rocking her etc so much during the night (mainly to stop her getting to the hysterics stage) that these habits will stick.

She does this once on a good night , twice on a bad night. It's been going on for about 2 weeks now.

I've read so much conflicting advice about how to handle this sleep regression and mostly "don'ts" lists -
-Don't start habits habits that you don't want to keep
-don't let the baby feel abandoned / start sleep training at this stage as they are starting with separation anxiety and it could make things worse

Etc

I am on my knees. Husband works away during the week and I'm on my own with her. No family nearby and nobody I could leave her with.

What can I do to minimise this phase and prevent sleep problems later / prevent starting bad habits ? How did others survive ?!

Thank you

For what it's worth I breastfed mine to sleep until they were weaned and then moved onto cuddle/shush pat. Both settle fine now. They both still like me to sit with them until they fall asleep but I could probably leave eldest to it if I wanted to.
No rods here.

arti she is definitely frustrated , and almost tormented by trying to crawl (in her gro bag in her cot). Bless her x

My daughter gets terrible tummy pain from broccoli. Maybe hold back in that for now just to test it?

Teething also causes problems for us. She was particularly bad at the same age, so teething pain could well be bothering your baby when they lie down. Have you tried giving calpol or baby nurofen? Has it helped at all?

Also in terms of sleep - I agree it's better not to let your baby get too worked up. I wait when my daughter starts crying as sometimes she resettles herself. But if it's starting to get worse, then I think intervention is better rather than allowing them to get so distressed they are sick. I would cuddle until she calmed down and then return to the cot, as ultimately she slept better there than in my bed. Once your little one is feeling better, you can be stricter with sleep arrangements. But right now it sounds like they need cuddles with their mummy at night. When they start mobilising and learning new skills it does seem to upset sleep patterns, so it sounds like there are lots of things going on here causing the wake ups. Poor you!

Thanks itshappened for taking the time to write that.

Interesting about broccoli , will stop offering that. I have been giving calpol at night (she's fine during the day!) and I really don't know if it's helping or not. I've been giving it for a couple of weeks now due to the cold she had before.

I don’t think you’re meant to give/take paracetamol for extended periods.

If it is teething pain ambesol liquid (not gel) and calprofen will work better. You can alternate calpol and calprofen but I’d be concerned about extended use.

I think a few weeks of calpol is fine, the doses are tiny.. even for babies! If it’s hit belong then I think riding this out, offering feeds and mummy cuddles is your best bet. The poor things can’t talk and tell you what is wrong and so going in with a gentle approach is the best way in my opinion. Imagine if you left her to cry and she was in genuine pain. It would be so sad for her!
When you’re feeling it, just repeat the mantra “this is just a phase!”

If it’s not working that should have said.. not hits belong!