8 month old won't go to sleep...what now?

[mrs.t]

My 8 mo DS will not go to sleep. I had a little routine where I would take him into our bed (we co sleep) lower the lights, put on his pjs, nurse him, sing some songs, and he would drift to sleep. This has been working fine since he was about 4 months old. He would go to sleep around 8 or 9. Now he flips over, sits up, crawls around on the bed....anything to avoid sleeping. This goes on until 11 or 12. I tried starting the whole process later, that doesn't work. Sometimes he will nurse to sleep, but that mostly doesn't work either. I don't think he's in pain, although he could be teething (he has 2 teeth already). The only thing that has changed is that he recently had a runny nose and at night it would get stuffy, but using the humidifier has worked to help him breathe. I'm afraid he made a negative association with sleeping because of it, though. Is that possible? Or is it just because he's learning tons of new skills and is trying to practice them? Or is it something I haven't even thought of??? Should I switch up our bedtime routine? He still naps 2x a day, although he is going way longer between naps.

I'm really at the end of my rope, when he was going to bed early I would at least have an hour or 2 to read my book, or use the computer, or have a conversation with DH. Now I feel like I have no time to myself!! I don't know what to think. I was fine with him not STTN because at least he was sleeping and only waking up to nurse. HELP!

[Louisep]

Ah mama, it's all just normal. 8 months is a very busy time for babies and they work through new skills in their sleep. My ds has never been a good sleeper and I've learned a few things a long the way. 1) sometimes you can change something like drop a nap and it will help 2) most often nothing you do will help and you'll just frustrate yourself trying 3) try and forget about what you're missing out on while getting LO to sleep. When they have flown the nest you'll have lots of time for that 4) everything is a phase, some short some long 5) get help from a dp if possible to give you a break. DH couldn't put ds to sleep until past 12 months but he could go in the room and take over while i left to cool down.

For us sleep improved at 12 months when we dropped to one nap, then 14 months when his teeth came through. Very rarely he sttn. Sometimes he wakes 4 times a night most often 1-2 times. Lately he's been taking 1.5 hours to fall asleep but I chalk it up to a phase that will pass and dh and I tag team bedtime to get through it.

Hugs