8 months old, night time sleep?

[Punchy Kaby]

What is your baby's night time sleep schedule like?

I so want to get a larger chunk of uninterrupted sleep! DD is almost 8 m and goes to bed at 8 (right after nursing), nurses around 12, 4 and 7am and is up for the day. On a rare night she might skip the midnight feeding.

I am so exhausted from not having continuous sleep for 8 months. My DS was an amazing sleeper and was out for the night by this age and took long afternoon naps so I could always count on getting in a nap for myself.

We have tried co-sleeping, but I felt like I was up the whole night, sleeping so lightly. DD was up a lot more too, smiling and crawling in the middle of the night. She definitely sleeps better on her own. I have tried extending when she feeds by going in to comfort her and getting her back to sleep. DH wants to use CIO, which I am totally against. So now he mostly sleeps in the guest bedroom and I get up to nurse the baby/comfort her.

[BetsyS]

That sounds about normal for my babies.

If it's any consolation....things do get better!! Around 9 months or so, they both seemed to drop to one feeding, instead of the 2. One child kept the first feeding, just skipping the second (so your 4am one). The other child sort of meshed the two together (so, in your case, a 2 am waking instead of 12 and 4).

Hang in there! I always seem to get the most frustrated with a stage right before things change. And, with a baby, they always do!

[Bokonon]

I would love to have that sleep schedule, honestly! My baby is 8 months and goes to bed around 8, wakes to eat about 4-5 times until 7am.

Have you read The No-Cry Sleep Solution? I tried it about a month ago and got good results, but I was too tired to really follow through seriously (it's just easier to feed the baby and go right back to sleep than to work at getting her to fall back to sleep without nursing). I plan to try it again in earnest soon!

Hang in there, like everything else in the baby stage, this too shall pass!

[Auraji]

Sophia used to sleep for 5-6 hour stretches between feedings, for the past 4 weeks she has been waking every 2-3 hours. I dont really know why, she was teething before and she has her two bottom teeth, but I dont think she's teething now.

She goes to sleep anywhere between 10-12 and wakes to nurse every 2-3 hours, she wakes up for the day around 9-12. We cosleep, so I feel like I dont really WAKE up to feed her, but sometimes I do have a hard time falling back asleep. I sometimes feel like I should get her use to fall asleep earlier, wake up earlier, but she seems to have the same sleep schedule as I do. Goes to bed late, wakes up late.

[kdtmom2be]

Same here, DS was sleeping 6-8 hrs at night without waking, now he's up anywhere from 3-9 times a night. Last night he went to bed at 9, was up at 10, 11, 12:30, 2, 3, 3:30, 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30. I am SO exhausted today. Plus, DD is sick a bit and wanted to sleep with us too. I finally had to put her back in her own bed at 4am so DS would stop waking her! That lasted until DH left for work at 6am and DD climbed back in with DS and I at 6:15.

And DS is not teething (he just got 4 teeth in 4 weeks but has stopped for now). DD was a terrible sleeper, still is. Count your blessings, at least you get 3-4 hours at a time!

[Amydoula]

We go through good sleep and bad sleep, seems to coincide with developmental milestones, he slept poorly for the last 4 weeks but is now jumping and doing mobile rolling and finally sleeping well again.

[evening start]

That sounds like DS (also 8 months) on a good night, some nights he's up a third or fourth time. I put him down in his crib between 8:30 - 9:00, and if he wakes up before I go to bed, he goes back in his crib after nursing. If I am already in bed, I usually just bring him in with us. It's true, in the beginning I slept really lightly while co-sleeping, but now I get a pretty restful night sleep even if he wakes up more frequently. It helps that my natural sleep schedule included me waking up briefly a couple times a night, and his feeding seems to coincide with when my body is naturally ending a sleep cycle. I think if you are really tired you might want to find a way to get a solid good night sleep before co-sleeping again, but you may find if you are well rested to begin with you will become comfortable co-sleeping normally after a few days. If that still doesn't work for you, I have heard good things about Elizabeth Pantley's "No Cry Sleep Solution." I read the book, but it seemed like my work then I wanted to do given my current level of sleepiness, but if you are really getting exhausted the work might be worth it. Good luck getting everyone the sleep they need/want.

[teachma]

Originally Posted by kdtmom2be

Same here, DS was sleeping 6-8 hrs at night without waking, now he's up anywhere from 3-9 times a night. Last night he went to bed at 9, was up at 10, 11, 12:30, 2, 3, 3:30, 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30.

The above, while pretty crummy, would be a great night for my 8.5 month old! He typically wakes every 45 min- 1 hr from the time he goes to sleep until morning. And...he, at one point, was sleeping 7+ hour stretches! Those days are looong gone.

[Punchy Kaby]

Originally Posted by teachma

The above, while pretty crummy, would be a great night for my 8.5 month old! He typically wakes every 45 min- 1 hr from the time he goes to sleep until morning. And...he, at one point, was sleeping 7+ hour stretches! Those days are looong gone.

Makes DD look like a great sleeper. Sorry you have it rough right now. We have had a couple of nights like this when she didn't feel well.

I looked for the No Cry Sleep Solution at the library today but it was out, I have to request it. DD always gets to sleep fine but wakes up, and not always to eat. She is going through a lot of milestones, I guess this challenging period started after she started crawling. She would be sleeping with me and start crawling all of a sudden, almost in her sleep.

I know this phase will pass, I want it to hurry up!