8 month old tossing and turning all night

[atinygiraffe]

My 8 month old bed-sharing daughter, Alia, who is normally a fabulous sleeper, has been up most of the night for the last 4 nights in a row tossing and turning. She's not fussing or seem to be in any pain that I can tell, she's just tossing and turning and nobody is getting much sleep.

Is it normal for babies to go through phases of poor sleeping, or is this the way it's going to be from now on? How can I help her to sleep? Even nursing doesn't help, she kicks and rolls around while nursing too.

Please help us get some sleep
Kara

[woodchick]

It sounds totally normal to me. DD2 just went through a similar phase and it was killer. I think it has something to do with teeth + new milestones. We muddled through the best we could making sure she was fed and dry. Sometimes it helped if DH "walked the floor" with her, sometimes it didn't. For about a month she wouldn't sleep unless she was burrowed up into my armpit.

Now, at almost 10 months, things have settled back down and she is sleeping better. We have a side carred crib and I can nurse her down and roll her into her own space and she'll sleep there for a few hours at a time.

The tossing and turning you mentioned makes me suspect gas. Have she had gas issues before?

I hope others chime in with advice. It never hurts to have more things to try! Good luck!

[jeliphish]

yeah...i think it's completely normal for babies to go through periods of different sleep patterns. Maggie, our 8 month old changes her patterns weekly. One night she was up all night (miserable), another few nights she slept happily in her bed and then came to be with us around 1am (normal waking to nurse time) but the she slept horrible. Then for a week or two she would come to bed with us at her first waking and sleep like a log. Several days mixed in there, she slept through the night...including last night.

I think because they are working on so much mentally it's difficult for them to establish a solid sleep schedule. The to not (in theory) rest well when they are working on a milestone like crawling, establishing pincher grasp, working on pulling up, teething, etc.

GL! and welcome to MDC!

[jeliphish]

Forgot to add- i don't really have suggestions. In our experience....we just ride the "crappy sleep" wave until she gets over it a week or so later. Are her teeth coming in? That makes it painful for my LO to nurse sometimes.