8 month sleep regression?! What to do??

[Tiredmamma123]

Hi

baby is 7.5 months old (was 2 weeks overdue) not sure if that makes a difference in adjusted age when overdue like when born early.

anywho.. 6 days ago moved into his nursery from being in next to me. Never slept through the night ever but the best slee he did was the night before he moved 9-4am, fed then slept til 7.30am

was also fighting his last nap pushing bedtime so at the same time dropped to 2 naps. I think I overstretched at first but have dropped down to 3/3.25/.3.25. Naps are 1.5 hours each and are contact naps. My plan was to get him used to new schedule then gentle sleep train at night and then naps.

however I don’t know what is going on!!! He wakes soo much at night. I don’t know whether this is a regression, overtired, undertired, needs to be taught to self settle?! Last night went down around 8pm, woke at 11, 1,3,5 and 6.

any help please? If it’s a regression how long does it last? Shall I wait until this passes to do sleep training? I don’t really want to do sleep training, I am ok with 1/2 wakes a night but I need to do it for naps as I can’t contact nap forever and he goes to nursery soon

Bless you. That sounds really tough.

My ds is 8 mths and we moved him into his own room a few weeks ago, and it took a while re things to click into place (also never the best sleeper, always multiple wake ups).

I don't know about regressions but moving into his own room (and into a cot?) and changing nap schedule is a lot to tackle all at once, and it's only been a few days - it's a lot for your baby to get used to. Is it worth bringing him back into your room for a bit, if that's where he had started sleeping really well? He might just need more of a gentle transition to his own room?

We first swapped the next to me for a cot in our room for a few weeks - he didn't like it and woke frequently so some nights he barely spent an hour or two in it, but I felt like it was good for him just to practise being in the cot. Then we tried the cot in his room and again took a while for him to get used to it and he'd end up in our room again generally around 1am, as I didn't think it fair on any of us to keep putting him back down and going through multiple wake ups when I knew he'd sleep better for the rest of the night with us. We just kept trying with that first stretch in the cot, and then a week or so later he started doing really long first stretches without any sleep training and now generally does 8 hours on that first stretch (though is teething now so a few more wake ups). I think he just needed time to get used to the cot and his own room. We've also dropped to two naps but sometimes he just needs three so we just follow what he seems to need that day. Baby sleep never seems to be linear, there's a lot of backwards and forwards!

Anyway, just our experience but it might not be a regression as such, just that he needs a bit more support with the cot transition? I found Lynsey Hookway (on Instagram) really useful for this - she has a gentle transitions guide.

Also, we contact nap too and he goes to childminders/grandparents each week but I haven't sleep trained for this and he finds a way to nap with them, whether in the pram/car etc and he is fine.

In the meantime hope you manage to get some rest during the day whilst he's napping too!

Thank you for replying!

do you contact nap for all naps? I thought I needed to get him in his cot for better sleep during the days and prepare for nursery as they won’t contact nap and I worried about him not sleeping when there. Also will be looked after by my parents and they don’t want to contact nap for 3 hours a day which I understand

i think your right with so much happening at one. But I refuse to bring him back in our room. Mainly because I don’t want to give in but also my partner was against him going in his own room, he thinks he should be with us til at least 1 which I’m against. Also don’t have room in our bedroom for the cot either. Bit of difficulty at the minute as partner wants in our room til 1 but no space and too big for next to me crib 🤷🏻‍♀️

during the night because he is turning and rolling l think the cot is too big for him if that makes sense. We’re nearly a week in so I’m hoping things improve. I think he wakes from having so much space to move around

my baby has never slept 8 hours, I don’t even want him to sleep through! I’m happy maybe 2 wakings for food etc if needed but I think I will need to sleep train gently because I can’t go on with hourly wakings. Hopefully he gets used to room and cot asap!

Yeah, ours was a tight squeeze with cot in our room, we had to dismantle to get it in, out etc. Bit of a pain.

Hear you about him being too big for next to me and cot being too big. Hopefully he will eventually get used to it. I think it is a tricky age with so much going on - sleeping, weaning, teething, moving about, crawling etc.

Yes, we contact nap for all naps. I took comfort from reading about others (here, Instagram etc) who said it's ok/possible for babies to figure out napping in a different way with someone else. My MIL and childminder get on with it and we take whatever naps he can do with them. Fortunately it doesn't seem to affect the rest of his sleep that much, but appreciate it might not be the case for other babies.

Our baby had never slept 8 hours before either, I was really shocked. We still have nights with less. Just to say he might get there! Does your partner help with the night wakings?