8 month old terrible sleeper- please tell me I'm not alone!

[Skyla01]

My LO is almost 8 months old. Sleep went pear shaped from 4 month sleep regression. We did some gentle sleep training around 6 months which helped a bit. We could settle her in the cot with shush-pat, although she still woke up every 1-2 hours with occasional longer spells.

Now she wakes up at least every hour crying. Shush-pat doesn't work anymore. We have to rock or feed her back to sleep then transfer her to cot. This isn't always successful so I resort to co-sleeping- LO sleeps better but I don't!

Help! The tiredness is killing me. Everyone else I speak to seems to have a sleeping baby. Keep telling myself it's a phase she'll grow out of but when?! I suspect over tiredness could be part of the problem but no matter how hard I try with daytime naps she rarely sleeps for more than 2.5hrs a day. Anyone else similar?

Horrible, isn’t it?

I went through a phase at about 7 months when I thought I’d never sleep again. Then it suddenly got loads better and I was so smug, thinking I’d cracked it. Now it’s terrible again.

I could have written this exact post! Turns out my baby has an ear infection which was causing the hourly wake ups and crying... Only signs were bad sleep and a nursing strike on one side and occasional ear tugging. Really hoping post antibiotics his sleep will improve as I feel almost broken from lack of sleep. His sleep has been bad for months though. Seriously contemplating controlled crying (Ferber method) as I can barely function

I'm with you. Good sleep until 4 mo, now 8 and its been a disaster for ages. Most of my friends seem to have sleepers and it often feels like we are living a completely different life to them. We chase sleep constantly - i go to bed at 9pm, frequently co sleep with ds and dp and I often sleep in separate beds. And we are always tired. Its shit. No advice but solidarity.

8 months not 8 years just to be clear! I cant do this until hes 7!

All normal I’m afraid. It does settle down. Co-sleep if you need to to stay sane

Thanks for your replies- helps to know we aren't alone! I found the first few months of being a mum really tough and am so much happier now- LO is at a great age and lots of fun. I just wish I wasn't spending half the day as a zombie! Also hate we seem to waste half the weekend in bed catching up on zzzzz. And yes would like to be permanently sharing a bed with my OH again.

@user1471518119 I've thought about CC too.... Don't think I could go through with it but my OH probably would gladly try it! We're getting desperate though.

@skyla01 I don't want to do it either, but I'm exhausted and feel like I'm useless in the day and have no energy to take him out or play with him which I'm sure is bad for his development. I'm so tired it's affecting my vision. I keep hoping the sleep will get better by itself but it's literally been months. I'd been working on the gradual retreat method but the ear infection has thrown it off track completely.

I've tried:

1. Changing/adjusting/ignoring/rigidly following schedule, more or less wake time seems to make no difference
2. Stopping feeding to sleep, has helped a bit, I've seen him wake up and put himself to sleep a few times.
3. Having a super stimulating day/super boring day
4. Stopped feeding him on night wakeups before midnight (v easy actually, but has not reduced wakeups and I still feed in the night at least three times as have no mental energy post midnight
5. Protein rich dinner/plenty of food

@user1471518119 I know what you mean about wishing to have more energy for baby, it's sad! I had dropped to two night feeds but recently she will scream at wake ups until she gets bf so some nights I'm back to 6 feeds :( definitely hard to hold out in the middle of the night. Sounds like CC might be worth trying. I'm not quite at that point, yet...

Hi @Skyla01, I realise this is a super old thread. I have a just-turned-eight month old and you could be describing my situation. Did it improve for you and if so, when? Did you do anything to help? Thank you!