how can i help her sleep more?

[atinygiraffe]

I think my 8 month old is chronically overtired. She's fussy and sleepy all day, but fights sleep. I can only get two 30 minute naps out of hwr during the day, then she's too exhausted to stay up later than 6 or 7 pm, and she only sleeps 8 hrs at night, so she's up for the day at 4 am.

I read that babies her age should be getting 10-12 hrs at night and 2-4 hrs during the day, so she's 3-6 hrs short. I know that more sleep would solve our fussiness issues during the day.

How can i get a stubborn sleep fighter to sleep more?

[gbutterflykissesm]

I have the same problem. The only way we can get DS to sleep during the day is while moving. It used to be that he would sleep while swaddled and we could rock or bounce him on the exercise ball, but now, if we're holding him, it is too much stimulation and he won't sleep. So he naps in the arm's reach cocoon. We have to swaddle him and bounce/rock him in there. I used to be able to get him to sleep in a wrap/carrier on my front, but even that is difficult these days.

When he wakes up early in the mornings (he goes to sleep around 6:30 and usually wakes at 5:30 or 5:45), I either bring him into bed with me and nurse him so at least I get another 20-40 mins of sleep and he gets another 20-40 mins of rest, and sometimes he falls asleep while nursing, but usually not. But at least he got the extra "rest".

If he wakes up earlier (there are times he wakes at 4 or 4:30) I nurse him in a chair, then swaddle him and rock him in the cocoon (because when he wakes in bed next to me he wants to chat and play). I never turn on the lights, and I don't really talk/interact with him if he wakes before 5:30 so he realizes this is sleep time.

Sleep has always been our biggest challenge, and getting to where we are now was quite a road of experimentation. We tried getting him to sleep everywhere in the middle of the night... our bed, the crib, the cocoon, pack and play, carrier. We would switch it up periodically, and change up whether we swaddled him or not. This is where our experimentation has led us to now, but watch... it will probably change in a week!

[Maluhia]

You are at a prime sleep regression age, so that may have something to do with it. Also the 10-12 hours is not true for all children, I think expecting that is frustrating and I wish books would minimize "should" things like this.