At a loss with 8 month old sleep

[FebMama]

8 month old currently transitioning from 3 to 2 naps a day.

Needs a LOT of input and reassurance when getting off to sleep in his cot. Which is a pain as we are experiencing a lot of night wakes because he isn't able to fall asleep by himself.

Last night from bedtime until 12am he was up every 30 minutes. I then gave in at 12am and let him sleep with me so we could get some rest.

He is so aware of my presence and when I'm not there. He just wants hugs and closeness. And whilst I'm sure a few people will say "he's a baby, what do you expect", I am back at work in a few days and it's not sustainable for us to be sleeping together. He needs good rest as do I to be able to function and get through a working day. Not to mention I also have a 3.5 year old.

I'm exhausted and can't wait for a turning point in our sleep journey where it just clicks and things improve.

I'm not good on low sleep. I'm cranky, I'm snappy, I'm less patient and it's not fair on anyone.

Just having a rant and need to let off some steam.
Anyone in a similar boat currently? Or has been in a similar boat and has had some success they'd like to share?

I feel your pain

we have just transitioned go 2 naps about 3 weeks ago and I was loosing my mind. Still am but the past 2 nights it’s got better. When I say better, instead of waking every hour we are back down to 2/3 a night and he wakes at 5 no matter what!

apparently there is a sleep regression around 8 months which does remind me of the 4 month one. We also transitioned to his own room and cot at the same time and I followed she appropriate wake windows but it was such a massive drop in awake time from 3 naps so I have increased them which I think is helping and reduced the amount of day sleep. I asked on a group on Facebook and a lot said all the wakings were overtired and I tried but I still think it was undertired

i also tried sleep training for 1 nap, gave in as couldn’t stand the crying. So for all his night wakings I have to pick him up and cuddle him. Sometimes feed him if he is due a feed but I don’t think he actually needs food. The 5am wake up is the hardest to get him back to sleep though. He has always been an early riser and has never once slept through the night: the best I got was 1 waking for a feed and back to sleep til 7. Happened once in 8 months the day before we moved him rooms and then it went to pot 🤣

I keep telling myself it’s not forever and Surley if he is overtired / undertired we will figure it out once he settles better into 2 nap schedule. Hopefully passes soon for us both!!

@Tiredmamma123 it's such a headache isn't it! We're transitioning to 2 naps at the moment so some days my little one will have 2 naps and other days 3. Depends on how the naps have gone! I always try to cap naps at around 4.00pm though so he's ready for bed by 7.30pm.

What wake windows are you following currently?

Yeah it’s so hard figuring it out. He is definitely a low sleep needs baby

on 3 naps we did 2.5/2.75/2.75/2.75 which I know is above the recommended amount but it worked. Naps were an hour each. Like I said we have never had no wakings but then he started fighting naps etc so we switched. Tried 3/3/3, 2.75/3/3.5 basically so many different variations but it was a drop in wake time which I think were causing night Ealing’s as he handled the longer wake windows.

currently doing 3/3.5/3.75 with 1.25 min naps x 2. I think I realised last night though that maybe it’s not the schedule causing him to wake but it’s a habit. He isn’t sleep trained because I can’t deal with the crying so maybe he will always wake up no matter what I do with the wake windows. God knows. I think a big part is the rolling and moving so much on a night in a bigger cot too. 12 hours sleep overnight is far too much for him, he has always done around 10/11

what wake windows are you following? I don’t think I found the transition from 4-3 as hard as this, did you? I just think everything’s due to a regression or teething 🤣 the only explanation 🙄

@Tiredmamma123 defo didn't find the 4-3 nap transition this hard! I don't even remember it tbh!

Do you follow those wake windows even if little one has had a short nap? My issue is that my son will at times only have 30-40 minute naps. So he then struggles to stay up for a full wake window if that makes sense? Sometimes during days where naps are so short he can only manage 2.5 hours before he's rubbing his eyes and getting cranky. It's such a vicious cycle.

I have a vague idea of what an ideal schedule looks like and one that I think would work pretty well but until he starts napping more consistently I think we're just going to be all over the place ☹️

He's been down for bed since 8pm tonight and we've already had 3 wake ups... dreading the night so I'm literally getting into bed now to try and get some rest before the next one!

The 2/3 maps have messed eveything up. Mine screamed every hour last night - I think maybe teething and a mild cold. Like being back in newborn days !