Advice needed - My 8 month old has suddenly started waking in the night..

[Flumpytigger]

Hi there,
I could really do with some advice as I quite honestly don?t know what else to do!

My 8 month old little boy has been having 3 naps a day and sleeping through the night from 6.30pm until 7am since about 4 months. We worked hard to get him into this routine but we got there. I appreciate that we have been very lucky.

However we now have a problem in that he has started waking up every 1-2 hours from 11pm until 4am every night for the past 6 or 7 days.
In the early days this would have been fine and I could have coped with it then (and I did) but now I know he can sleep through I am really struggling to function on such broken sleep. Especially as I am returning to work on Monday and am worried that I am not going to cope.
We have tried everything; we?ve increased his food/drink during the day, we have checked he is not too hot/cold, we have winded him, we have comforted him, we have put dentinox on his gums and used calpol incase his gums are too painful and finally we started putting him into nursery two afternoons per week 6 weeks ago to get him used to it before having to go full time when I go back to work.
We do use dummy?s but I even put a few extra?s in his cot, to ensure that he could find one in the night should he need it.

Last night we preserved and only went into him twice; once to turn him over as he had rolled in his sleep and once to put his dummy in. We ignored him the other times and he finally went back off, but we were still disturbed and so it?s still not really ideal.
I just cannot understand why this has suddenly started happening and would really appreciate anyone?s help and advice!

Thanks,
A very tired & frazzled mummy

As the mother of a 10mth old, I appreciate you are tired but have you stopped to consider this from your baby's pov? everything you have written makes it sound like he is an inconvenience to you. It's all about how tired you are, and how you were disturbed. How do you think he feels being ignored when he needs you?

Jeez, he's been out in the world, less time than he was in you - 8 months!He's really not doing it to piss you off. I know it's frustrating, but what did you think having a baby would involve?!

If you continue to ignore him, he'll probably learn not to bother you at night, so it'll all be fine and you can get your sleep. Do that CC thing where you go in every five minutes or something.

Sleep deprivation can make you desperate, so I can understand your post flumpytiger!

Because he has been such a good sleeper up until now, you find yourself in a situation that most new mothers are in. Babies go through 'phases' and it might just be a phase. If you have tried everything else i.e food/milk, temperature, illness, comfort etc then it is just something you will have to help him with. Comfort him until he falls back to sleep and hopefully he will get back into his old routine.

I found that not taking them out of the room, keeping the lights off/low and not talking too much, other than comforting helped and they still understand that it is 'night' time.

Have you considered all options as to why he may be waking? Is it a specific time? SOmetimes there is no reason behind it, and it will be tiring, but in a few months you will look back and think it wasn't so bad.

HTH

Umlellala, thanks for the really helpful advice there. I must make sure I return the favour one day.

This is 'MUMSnet', so I am writing my posts from my point of view. There is no need to patronise me I am well aware of how my baby must be feeling. Hence why I want to do something about it.

Additionally, FYI I don't ignore him when he crys. If he grumbles and moans loudly when he wakes up in the night then we try to ignore him so he can learn to settle himself. If he actually crys then I go to him. I don't agree with CC.

Please don't pass judgement on someone you know very little about, it's a pretty mean and unsupportive thing to do

Plantaseedwatchitgrow, thanks for your understanding, it means alot.
When he crys he does seem to settle better when he has a cuddle for comfort. I've also noticed that he is sometimes still asleep when he stirs and makes noise. I wonder if his little brain is processing his busy day while he sleeps and so has disturbed nights. May be this will settle over time as he develops?
Last night seemed a little better and in turn he was happier today bless'im, so like you say it may just be a phase.

I don't feel as low as I did the other day and so it all doesn't seem as bad today. Funny how much difference a little more sleep can make to the both of you

Thanks TarkaLiotta. I think you might be onto something there. Especially as his wake ups are so sporadic.

There has been a couple of days over the past 2 weeks where he has really fought his last nap of the day.
I've been wondering whether he may be naturally dropping it because he just doesn't need it anymore.

He didn't have his last nap yesterday at nursery and we did have a better night with him.

Fingers crossed!

I agree with tarka My DD did the same now she is down to one sleep midday (has to be midday, any later and she wont go to bed at 8) and she only has 1 hour, otherwise the same happens. She either dosn't go to sleep for a long time, or she wakes in the night for no reason.

It is very true that a good nights sleep makes you feel so much better about things, and you can see them clearly, and have the energy to face them to try and change it. I can remember when my DD was newborn and she just kept wanting feeding, well I just kept feeding her, but this meant she was having 1oz every hour or two, instead of 3oz every three hours or so. I was so tired I couldn't see how to change this, but with a little sleep and a little help, I managed to keep her going for a little longer each time, so that she would feed more each time (makes perfect sense NOW looking back), at the time, I just couldn't understand what to do.

Sorry, post a little long, but hope that your getting a little more sleep now.

Why not try to be supportive instead? I agree with the author of this post. My 8 month old is waking up 3-5x a night and is driving us insane!!! She used to sleep through the night, but has recently begun waking up. We are losing our minds. We love her to death, but my husband and I both get up at 5am and work full time. This has to stop! Any idea on how to get her to sleep through the night again? Thanks!

It's very common for them to wake more- 8-10 mo sleep regression as there's a lot going on developmentally, and often teething too.

Sadly baby sleep doesn't just improve, it can and does get worse too.

Hi flumpy
Try dropping a nap. One Sign to drop nap is night wakings. You mention she’s fighting it anyway...we had rocky nights while we went through dropping it but then things settled down once it was well established.
Hope it helps!