Right, she's 8 months old, she won't sleep...

[toadstool]

As in, she WON'T. We're now heading towards night number 8 of 0 sleep. She lies down, she screams. Last night, she only went down for 30 minutes, then it was the entire night of screaming unless she was held by me.
Horrible screams of pure rage? pain?
She kicks her legs violently and thrashes around, too. Not like her at all, but it's been building up for about a month.
I've tried:
Calpol, ibuprofen - no impact, she still wakes up.
Moved her from the too-small moses basket into her own cot in her own room.
Moved the cot back into our room.
Given her tea later. Given her tea earlier.
She's stopped drinking the bottle at nursery so I reduced night-time feeds... no impact.
Any suggestions? Ear infection?
We've had the GP look at her and the out-of-hours service. They say she's growing normally so despite constant colds, coughs and screaming she's fine.
Thanks for any words of wisdom...

That's dreadful. You must be at your wit's end. I probably won't be much help, but wondered if you'd tried the pick-up/put-down technique from the Baby Whisperer books? It worked for us, although ds was a couple of months younger than yours at the time. The books are a bit naggy, but doesn't detract from the fact that the technique works.

Only other thing I wondered was how recently she'd started nursery and whether she may just need to get used to the change in routine? My ds went off the bottle when he started and his sleep also went down the tubes. With that plus the inevitable bugs, I ended up taking him out of nursery, though I appreciate this may not be an option for you. Might help to know that it could be a cause though and so it will pass. Soon hopefully!

Hope others will have more wisdom, but in the meantime really feeling for you.

has she got any teeth yet? my 8mo DS has decended into horrid sleep in the last week with lots of thrashing around but a second tooth appeared yesterday so I think that is the reason for his discomfort.

last night i held him and rocked him for close to an hour to get him to stay asleep at 1am. i have ditched sleep training and am going with whatever works to keep him alseep at night for the time being.

That sounds like an ear infection to me... have you had that ruled out? When my DD1 (admittedly she's 4, but still...) had one recently, she was in so much pain and it was worse when she was lying down, so would only sleep on my lap propped up. But in the day she hardly suffered at all. Calprofen worked much better than Calpol.

Hope you get it sorted soon anyway - you must be shattered.

Medised. One small dose about 10 mins before bed - before her Milk.

I would also suggest not making anymore changes. Do the normal thing for you. Try and be relaxed about it.

If all else fails let her sleep with you for one night so you get some rest. Google "safe co-sleeping" and make sure you are comfotable with it. I was really against it for ages, I like a glass of wine but one night when DP was away and she was about 12m I could not deal with her screaming so I pushed the bed against the wall and laid her on top of the duvet with me in the other side. She passed out and slept 8 hours. Bliss! We do this occasionally now if she is poorly/teething, otherwise she is in her own room in her cotbed.

HTH

Thank you. No teeth yet, and no signs of it - no dribbling or increased chewing -. She's off again tonight btw, down at 7.30, up twice since, and that's with calpol in her. I think it may be the nursery, as she's been going in for longer periods and she's picking up a bug a week. Ear infection seems plausible except she had 2 normal sleeps at nursery today.
We're resorting to her co-sleeping but even that didn't work last night until the early hours... I'll have a lookat the Baby Whisperer but I think she's too distressed to try sleep training right now.

I've a friend who's son went through an awful sleep phase about the same age which they put down to separation anxiety. Could that be it, especially if she's started nursery recently? Friend ended up sleep in the room with her son and said it was at its worst for about 2 weeks but has now improved.

Hope it improves for you soon. My DD is going through a crap sleep phase too atm 8.5 months and I'm not coping well.

Funny how 8 months seems to be coming up a lot. Separation anxiety is possible, but my work demands are only due to lighten in 2 weeks' time. I'm thinking of signing myself off tomorrow and taking the day out with her, just to get the chance to see the GP or HV. To make matters worse she's got squitty tonight... the joys.

DS did this at that age (and still does, on and off, at 10 months). Twitching, leg-kicking, groaning, droning, rolling, thrashing, flailing, semi-hysterical laughter sometimes

We usually put it down to teething - often after a bad bout he'll be fine for a day or so then a tooth pops through. It seems that the pain is pre-cutting, rather than as the teeth emerge. Not so much dribbling but sucking his lip and going 'mmmmmmmmm' lots.

Do whatever it takes. Cosleeping is order of the day (DS has yet to spend a whole night in his cot). And obviously pain relief. Nurofen does seem better than Calpol. Bongela helps because it kicks in quickly and lasts just long enough to get him to sleep. Teething powders make us feel better, I think

You've got my sympathy, it's totally dire. But if it helps, even the crappiest nights are wonderful in comparison when you get one of those days that you don't have to spend an hour hanging over the side of the cot!

Uh oh, I hear awake baby ....