8 month sleep regression :-(

[PopcornAndWine]

So we'd got into a good stretch with baby's sleeping - she was doing 11-12 hours with just one short wake up for a quick feed. Then 8 month regression hit. First her naps went to shit. Those seem ok again now but now her nighttime sleep is all over the place. She's waking 4-5 times. I'm not feeding her every time, she still has just one feed and the rest of the time is cuddles, pats etc.

I can function on a day to day basis with broken sleep but it catches up with me after a few days and I start back to work next week so worried I'll struggle.

Just wondering if anyone went through this and came out the other side and if so how long it took! Thanks.

Hi there. Following as we are going through similar. The only difference is that our baby has always been a crap sleeper (never done a stretch longer than 4h) but now it is absolute hell. :(

It sucks doesn't it? How are your little ones naps? I am starting to wonder if she is napping too long but reluctant to change them as nap time will probably be the only time we get some work done! Both wfh obviously due to lockdown.

I also have a 8 month old, he's actually gotten better with his sleep pattern. Down at 8/ half past and sleeps until 7- wakes up for bottle then naps until 8am.
I think it's made up from the 3 months of awful colic sleep where we all got absolutely none 😭

** also he has two hour longs naps through the day x

@PopcornAndWine, It's horrendous!
By 5am I'm crying and hitting the wall, before partner steps in.

Our naps are good though. She's been on 2 naps a day since about 6 months, because they are quite long (usually 1h20min each) but I try to make sure it doesn't go over 3h overall. Not that it ever does, she seems to do the same every day now. She's pretty good at falling asleep on her own for naps and bedtime - after some babbling and mild protesting.

So WHY can't all this translate into night time sleep? It's like she has trouble linking sleep cycles. Since she was born, she's only been doing 2-3h stretches. She's only done a 5h stretch twice in her entire life, which was a coincidence, I think.

But now with this regression, her sleep is an absolute nightmare, and I want to kill myself. It's really really affecting my mental health, and I can't imagine going back to work in September. I know it will probably improve by then, but not magically, because she's always been a crap sleeper, and now we're just reinforcing bad habits because nothing else works (BF back to sleep, taking her in my bed etc).

I don't know what to do ...

@Sandrine1982 you poor thing, that sounds like you are having a worse time of it than us, would you consider a sleep consultant? My sister used one for my niece and says it was the best money they ever spent. Assume they can do virtual support at the moment. Good that you don't have to worry about work until September.

My girl's naps are very similar, between 2.5 hours and 3 every day. There was one day last week where she only took 20 mins for her second nap and she only woke once that night! This is what has me wondering if her daytime sleep is too much, but all the sleep guides say 2.5-3 hours at this age is the right amount 🤷‍♀️

@PhoebeBear that sounds like good stretches. We never had the horrendous colic nights early on and she only had a very short regression at 4 months after which her sleep actually got a lot better so maybe this is payback!