8 month old wakes constantly through the night

[Hughiemummy]

Hello! I'm brand new to this and not sure I'm doing this right but hey ho.
As the title suggests, my 8 month old baby boy has trouble sleeping/staying asleep in the night. I'd say he's always been the same, I can't think back to a time he's slept longer than a 2/3 hour stretch (that's on a good night). He was a better sleeper in his newborn days! On average, he wakes about 8-10 times every night - fun times! When he wakes he is really unsettled, as though something is causing him to wake up, and he doesn't fully wake up "ready for the day" he's still very sleepy, I usually put him on my boob and he goes straight back down. But, give it about an hour (sometimes just 30 mins) and he stirs again, very upset and won't settle unless on the boob. At first I thought he could be teething, so have given him Calpol and teething agents to help but they don't help, he doesn't have any teeth yet so again I'm not sure if it's really down to teething. For the most part, I've just kind of sucked it up and accepted it but sleep deprivation is really starting to impact my mental health and I feel like I'm not being the mum Hughie deserves. I'm cranky, unmotivated, and generally don't have the energy to do anything productive for Hughie and I. I'm due to go back to work in August and know this can't continue if I have half a chance of functioning at work! And above all, surely Hughie isn't getting the rest he needs! He's such a happy boy in the day you wouldn't even think he's been up all night! It baffles me.
A bit of background on Hughie and I. Hughie is breastfed, having 3 meals a day and naps relatively well, naps twice (sometimes 3) for a total of 3-4 hours a day. He sleeps in my room in his cot, but ends up cosleeping with me during the night due to the frequency of getting up and down to comfort/feed him. It's just me and Hughie in the equation, no baby daddy but I have my lovely mum who lives with us and others a helping hand. If anyone has any advice or stories of their own on how to tackle a waking baby please please share. Thank you :) xx

It sounds like it's just habit. He's just in the habit of waking and being fed.

You need to cut out the night feeds, comfort him when he wakes or offer water. It'll be tough initially, but you should see improvement in a few days.

Do you feed him to sleep at bedtime/nap time?

Cut the night feeds. It will be hell for a
week at the very maximum. Good luck.

Could it be he's having too long a nap in the day?

I remember at 8 months my DD having a 90 minute morning nap and a short 30 min nap around 3pm.

Slept in 4/5 hour stretches at night.

It might work! Wake earlier from his nap.

Good luck you're doing great and it does get easier

@NuffSaidSam hi! Yes I nurse him to sleep most of the time, I have been trying to put him straight in his cot when he shows sleepy signs, which he seems to be doing well with recently! He goes down to sleep well for the most part, it's the frequency of him waking up that is the problem 😩 I realise now I've probably made matters worse by putting him on the boob all of the time! It's always been the quickest solution for the night time tears 🙈🙈

@ironicname thank you! I'm going to try this from tonight 😊
@Bronnie2018 I hadn't actually thought that he could be sleeping too much in the day, that makes sense! Thank you for your help 😊

I'm in the same boat with my 8.5 month old. It's an issue with linking their sleep cycles together. If they feed to sleep when they stir if anything has changed that's why they cry so in our case she doesn't have a nipple in her mouth. We're trying to break the feed to sleep association by slipping the nipple out before she's actually asleep. I bought the "no cry sleep solution" book and am working with it. We're 9 days in and have had a mix of the normal nights and a couple with only 3 wakings so I'm trying to stay positive that it will work!

If you can it's good to encourage him to self settle. So try wherever possible to put him down, sleepy and fed, but awake and let him settle to sleep by himself. That and stopping the night feeds should drastically improve his night waking. It will be hard the first few nights though, but stick with it!

How did you get on?
My boy is exactly the same, 8.5 months old. Never sleeps longer than 2 hours and that’s if I’m lucky. Just had another night of hourly. Have tried reducing night feeds but failed so far.
If I put him to bed then go downstairs for a bit he wakes up without fail about an hour later. So I tend to go to sleep when he does. My partner sleeps in the spare room. I have no life! I don’t see an end to it

It seems like he's waking every sleep cycle, and needs to be feed to settle again. I agree with PP that you could consider working on some form of night weaning, although he's still tiny so he is supposed to wake up in the night, just maybe not so much. I also agree with other PP who have said that he could be getting too much sleep in the day. Look into what awake times he should have at his age, as a rough guide for the day, which may help him to develop a healthier sleep drive for the night.

Hi @reeny19 , Hughie fell asleep around 7:30 last night, I took him to bed read him a story and fed him and lay him in his cot still awake, left him to fall asleep himself and he slept til 3:30am! Couldn't believe it I'm so proud of him. But then when he woke at 3:30am I fed him as my boobs were getting full and as he doesn't normally sleep for that long I was worried he would be hungry. I made the mistake of bringing him into bed with me so after that he did his usual of waking every hour til finally waking this morning. I've definitely realised now that for me and Hughie cosleeping doesn't do either of us any favours, he must be smelling my milk!
I think I need to master fighting my own tiredness to persevere with the sleep training otherwise I'm just going to keep caving in the night!! Any tips for giving yourself a nudge/waking up in the night? 😂 I appreciate all the comments they are really helping me through this!😘
@NuffSaidSam @princessbananahammock252 @cathyj87 😊

Great start OP

Carry on. Do try and stop the night feeding though. If he doesn't have any medical needs then be doesn't need/isn't 'supposed to' wake in the night at 8.5 months. He is physically able to go for a stretch without being fed.

If you really don't think he can, you could try a dream feed just before you go to bed, but don't feed during the night. It's habit, not hunger.