nighttime sleep - or lack of it

[artpen]

My LO is almost 8 months, and she has never slept well at night. She's had two fluke nights where she slept a 3 or 4 hour stretch, but her normal nighttime schedule is something like this:

8:30 - fall asleep, put in crib
9:15 - wake up, cry, nurse a tiny bit, fall asleep, put in crib
10:00 - same as above, except I try not to nurse unless she forces her body down to my breast, put in crib
11ish - same as above, trying not to nurse, put in crib
MAYBE 1ish, if I'm lucky - wake up, cry, bring to my bed, nurse, fall asleep, put in cosleeper.
Every 1/2 to 1 hour thereafter, sleeps on me switching breasts until she has to poop around 7AM.

Is there anything I can do to stretch out her nightwakings? She's typically on all fours, sitting or standing as soon as she wakes up, so I feel like she is working on her developmental milestones, but her sleep pattern has pretty much been like this since birth.

TIA!

[Knitting Mama]

Have you tried cosleeping with her? It might not make her wake up less, but I can tell you, I hardly wake up at all to shove a boob in my baby's mouth at night, and she doesn't really wake up either. We both fall back asleep pretty much instantly.

[artpen]

We do cosleep, from about midnight or 1AM on. That is when she is up all the time switching back and forth. She cries to be switched.

[karika]

my suggestion is to go to bed together, in the same bed (one that is safe for cosleeping of course) at 8:30 pm. Nurse her to sleep and go to sleep yourself. Your best bet at a solid stretch of sleep is when the baby first goes to sleep. I would venture that her repeated wakings are the baby seeking you. If you are in the bed with her, she will feel a reassurance and probably not wake as often. If there is physical contact, the baby can sense it, feel your vibe and it comforts them. If you are trying to stay up after the baby to do things, consider putting them off until baby is older, or you may be able to leave baby sleeping in morning while you do a few tasks. It is more likely baby will continue to sleep alone in the morning than at night IME.

I am also conjecturing from your signature line that you drink coffee or otherwise have exposure to caffeine. That will affect a child via the breastmilk. In a baby 8 mo old, the peak affect of caffeine is from 3-7 hrs after ingestion if I am interpreting this right http://www.kellymom.com/health/lifestyle/caffeine.html I went caffeine free many years ago, and I highly recommend it. I sleep better, I eat better and I feel more alert in my waking hours.

also, I forgot to put it in, but is your supply good? Could it be that the baby is not getting enough? Or maybe is thirsty? My 18 mo has always been a good nurser, but she does like the occasional sip of water in the night too. But I say that only if your supply is good. If not, to give water instead of nursing would not be good for supply.

[kismetbaby]

I'm right there with you mama. I posted my own thread about sleep today.

I agree with the above poster that going to bed with your LO can help. . I know my son wakes b/c he wants me there. But I don't want to go to bed at 8:30pm. I want some me time dang it! So. . ..I don't know.

I am reading the no cry sleep solution. . .might be helpful to you too. Also, do you work away from home? If you are gone during the day she might be trying to make up the time and the BFing with you at night.

[LadyCatherine185]

at 8 months my DS was waking very often too-- every 15-45 minutes. It was our WORST sleeping time. It will get better soon! He went back to his hourly waking and stayed there until his first year, when he began sleeping 1-2 hour stretches. Then at 18 months we started the nightweaning process (google Dr. Jay Gordon's Nightweaning, for babies 12 months and older) and took it slow (about a month overall)... he began sleeping 3-5 hour stretches! Then we moved him to his own bed and he began sleeping 8 hour stretches! We have even had a few 10 hour stretches! Of course as soon as all this great sleep happened, he started getting his 2 year molars, so he is waking a little more the last couple weeks.. but DH attends to him at night now, since I am pregnant and I won't be able to wake up with 2 babes all night. DS is an extremely light sleeper, it sounds like your DD is too. Have you tried white noise and blackout curtains? This helped us a lot. Also, DH took DS for the morning while he got ready for work and I slept in an extra hour. He also takes DS out every saturday morning for a breakfast date and errands and I get a couple extra hours.

hang in there, it will get better soon! A lot is going on at 8 months.. I NEVER thought I'd be out on the other side but here I am, and I can promise you that things will get better. For my DS it took waiting long enough for him to understand/be ready for nightweaning and moving him to his own bed. This surprsingly produced NO tears, just a little fussing (this is how I knew he was really ready) and we got results.

I would also recommend reading Sleepless in America. It has great strategies for structuring your day to help maximize nighttime sleep.

[Mom2M]

Wow, that would drive me nuts, you have my sympathy!
What is her nap schedule like? I find that with my 7 month old, the naps she takes have a huge impact on her night sleep.
I know this doesn't affect every baby in the same way, I've read on here that it didn't work for some people.

Anyway, my DD needs to have her naps the right way in order to sleep at night. She can be tricky for naps also because I have to catch the window of time where she is tired but not overtired because if she is overtired, forget it! Then I have to wait a lot longer, till her next nap time pretty much.
I really try to watch it because it isn't always obvious that she's tired but then I will pick her up and take her upstairs and she knows where we are going and starts rubbing her eyes, nurses and goes to sleep.
For her specifically, I have to get her in bed between 2-3 hours after she first gets up in the am, it's almost like clockwork.
If I do, her next nap is even easier, she looks tired and rubs her eyes and goes right to sleep.
A third nap is up in the air. If she doesn't take one then I try to get her in bed no later than 7:30-8 but I watch to see if she is tired earlier and get her up there if I notice it because again, there is that window of time where she will easily fall asleep.

Now, that is the "ideal" day! If it happens like that, I can count on getting a decent stretch of sleep, usually 6 hours and then another 3-4 after nursing.

Most days there is an impact on one or more naps but if I can get get her at least one good one at home, (the 1st seems most important) and maybe one in the car at one of the other times if we are out somewhere which happens often since DD1 is in other activities, it goes pretty well, minimal effect on night sleep.

I know I went on and on about naps, lol, but I wanted to just give you an example of how the whole day goes because when she doesn't get enough sleep during the day, she has a much harder time both getting to sleep and staying asleep at night.
She mostly sleeps next to me in a side carred crib or on me for a while if I fall asleep nursing her because she always wakes up at least once to nurse, sometimes twice.
If her naps have been totally messed up, she seems uncomfortable and exhausted but too tired to go to sleep and much more restless during the night.

So, to make this even longer, lol...my suggestion is to pay very close attention to her naps and if you can, take a whole day to really watch her tired cues and see where her natural schedule is. If you try to follow it, it might help with night sleep.

I hope that helps some. take care.

ETA We also have a fan running all the time and curtains over the windows to keep it somewhat dark. It isn't perfectly quiet while she's sleeping, there's some running around and banging stuff going on but the fan helps her get to sleep.

[maptome]

When you cosleep, do you wear a bra? Or does your baby have buffet access. I noticed that for my baby, I have to wear a bra at night, and when she's done nursing, put the boobs away and hold her a little until she falls asleep. Otherwise, she will just keep latching and unlatching forever.