My 8 month old wakes in the night

[imoan_nat]

Hi there

My 8 month old wakes 2-3 times in the night at the moment. He is cutting teeth and is learning how to pull himself up and pull forward. I don't feed him in the night but I will give him water and a dummy. He gets roughly to 1-1.5 hours twice a day if I'm lucky. He doesn't settle himself to sleep really, although he will go down without a dummy. I don't really want him to cry it out either. I need a strategy to follow - I'm bombarded with info and what is best to do.

Please help! Thanks!

Naomi

[Layla]

Hi Naomi & welcome to the boards!!!

Could you please tell me what his day looks like. What time he wakes, naps, what time & bedtime, etc...

Layla

[imoan_nat]

Hi Layla

Thanks for replying.

His day looks like this...

Wakes up normally around 6am

Breakfast followed by bottle at 7.30

Morning nap normally 8.15 - 9ish, sometimes longer

Lunch 12pm

Sleep 12.30/1pm for an hour sometimes longer

Dinner 4pm

Nightly routine starts at 6.30/7, down for 7.30 latest.

He is cutting teeth at the moment and is starting to pull himself forward.

I tried letting him cry last night, we both got stressed and in the end he was sick. At the moment he is waking 1-2 times a night and waking early. Last night he woke 30 mins after going down and then 2pm followed by awake for the day today at 5.15am.

He has slept through several times sinceroughly 6 1/2 - 7 months but his teeth really affect him.

Thank you

Naomi x

[Layla]

Naomi, please don't leave him to cry. He is extremely overtired. Waking up early in the morning (like 5:15) & 30mins into the night is an indication of overtiredness.

I would suggest the following schedule:
6am - wake
9am - morning nap
10-10:30 - morning nap ends
1-1:30pm - afternoon nap
3pm - nap ends
6-6:30pm - bedtime

You should be able to stretch his morning A time to 3hrs at 8motnsh. But before you can do that, I would start putting him down for the night as early as 6pm so that he can have a full 11hrs at night & be better rested in the morning. An earlier bedtime will give him the opportunity to catch up on sleep. Also the stretch before bedtime is very long for an 8mo. He shouldn't be awake more than 3.5hrs before bedtime so thats why you need to space the naps out a little.

If he wakes at night, I would do pu/pd rather than letting him CIO. So you walk in, pick him up until he is calm & then put him down. Repeat until he is calm & will go to sleep. I really believe the new schedule will allow him to be better rested and he won't be waking at night so much & will be able to return to sleep even when he does. Its just so much harder to settle at night when babies are overtired. They cry out of pure exhaustion & you really need to be there to help him.

Start with the earlier bedtime & then add 10-15mins to his morning and afternoon activity time until you come to those nap times.

Good luck & let me know how you go
Layla

[dorninger]

I wonder- and truely this is a question not meant at all as a suggestion- but I wonder if he is hungrey?  To have his last food at 4pm and then nothing until the morning?  (is that the case?)  just a thought...

[momofclaire]

I was thinking the same thing.  Does you night routine include a bottle? 

I also think the little guy is way overtired. He isn't getting the kind of sleep he needs during the day. Add to that the milestones and teething he is really struggling right now. 
I also have to second the idea of not letting him cry.  He needs you right now.  We will certainly help you figure out how to best help him and get both of you some more rest.
Myia

[Layla]

Thanks ladies, I didn't even pick that up . I give my girls dinner at 5pm (they go to bed at 7pm) but they both have a light snack around 6pm (something like fruit or crakers with cheese or yoghourt). Isabella will have her milk with snack & J just before bedtime. They also at 8months had breakfast, lunch, dinner & snack in between

[imoan_nat]

Hi Layla and girls

I will try that, thank you for your great suggestions. Louis has a last feed before I put him to bed, normally a good 7-8oz. Do you think that is reasonable? He has a rusk in the morning, a jar of pud and din for lunch and dinner so I feel he is getting enough, do you think? I normally settle him in his cot with a dummy mainly because of his teeth, what should I do about that?

Sorry for the late reply, been working so exhausted...!

Thanks again

Naomi x

[Layla]

Hey Naomi, sorry I just picked up that I didn't answer this post. How are you doing???

Are you finding that he needs to dummy to fall asleep with & to resettle with? I can understand the teething part but they are teething until at least 2 & are you happy to keep the dummy until then???

[imoan_nat]

Hi there

He doesn't always go down with a dummy, but will resettle almost instantly with one when he wakes.

The health visitor and doctor has told me to do CC. I don't know which advice to follow. Maybe when he starts crawling he will wear himself out some more?

I tried putting him to bed earlier for a few days and it didn't have much affect.

At the moment I just feel like I should go along with whatever Louis wants to do- I have no energy!

Nx

[Layla]

Nat, don't do cc please. Have you had a look at the pu/pd board? Or you could just do pd.

Would you be willing to get rid of the dummy altogether - it seems like its a prop if he's settling with the dummy and unable to settle without it.

You really need to give the earlier bedtime a go for about 3-4 days or until he is napping better.

[momofclaire]

Nat,
I know what it is like to feel so tired and frustrated.  Sleep training is not easy but it is worth it.  You have to pick a plan and stick with it.  We will be here to help you through this.

There is a lot of reseach out there about the negative effects of using CC to sleep train. 
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63839.0
The above is a link that discusses CIO and CC.  Please have a read before going forward with that option.