8mo awake times/sleep problems!

[Francesca123]

Hi i wrote recently because of sleep issues with my dd when she was 6/7 mo and i spent a long time working on gently pushing awake times to get rid of the catnap and i finally got there! For a week she was sleeping really well but now suddenly she is 8 mo and has gone back to sleeping awfully! I swear as she has got older her cues have got harder and harder to read and now they seem to be non existant she suddenly jumped from 2h15 am A time to 3 hr but will take a great 2 hour nap but then the afternoon is where it all falls apart. She fights her afternoon nap, being up for 4 hrs before it then will nap for 45/1hr then bedtime at 7:30 is just a complete battle. We're also back to having multiple night wakings and being up for 2 hrs at a time in the night somehow we have got back to her being unable to fall asleep without a bottle of milk which has completely thrown off our routine because shes having almost 3 bottles in the night so is not hungry enough to have a full morning feed. Sorry for the rambling im just so tired i cant even think straight enough to come up with a new plan so if anyone has any suggestions as to where im going wrong and getting back on track that would be amazing a woman at my baby group is really pushing cry it out on me but i know thats not the solution!

[jessmum46]

(((Hugs))) and good on you for resisting the pressure to CIO . Hopefully we can get you back on track without too much trouble.

Can you post me a whole day in EAS format? 

Has your LO ever gone to sleep independently or has she always had a bottle to sleep?  What sleep training methods have you used in the past e.g. Shh pat, PUPD etc

[Francesca123]

Thank you, iv never really agreed with it and its very difficult when someone is pressuring you when your very exhhausted and desperate!
Sorry yeah i realised i didnt actually put much detail in my first post :p
An average easy day was
E 7am wake and feed
A 7-9:30
S 9:30-11
E 11
A 11-2
S 2-3:30/4
E 4
A 4-7 dinner and bath in this time then
S bed at 7

But no its more like
E wake at 8:30 because of broken night
A 8:30-11:30/12
S 12-2
E 2
A 2-4:30/5
S 4:30-5:15
E dinner at half 5 because its too soon for more milk
A 5:15-7:30
S bed at 7:30
Then she will wake at about 10 then again at about 2 and will be up until 5 am then sleeps til half 8 and because we're both so tired we just cant manage getting up at 7 even though i know its completely throwing our whole routine
Shes always slept really independantly an iv never had to do any kind of settling other than white noise and a dummy and usually if she wakes in the night a dummy is all it takes to settle her. This bottle thing has literally come out of nowhere and i think its come from one night she seemed extra hungry so i gave an extra bottle to settle her one night and its just stuck :(this was only about 1 week ago so its not too badly stuck yet but i can see it getting worse and no matter how much i try to settle her without it i cant. Iv been seriously think about pu/pd but the thing that puts me off is that im doing this completely alone and tracy says in her book to not attempt it on your own but im going to have to. Im just a bit unsure of how to do it properly :/ sorry for the long post just getting very desperate

[jessmum46]

I think probably she needs some more A time actually - 2h45 day sleep in a less than 12h day (you're only aiming for an 11h day at present) is too much at this age.  It would probably be an ok amount of day sleep in a longer day i.e. 12h or slightly more.

I would start getting her up at her usual time in the morning again (ie 7ish, wake her 15 mins earlier a day until you get there), and then do a 3-3.5h first A time.  She looks like she can handle that well as she is doing that currently and giving you a 2h nap.  I'd then try around the same A time again for your second A time.

Your day could look like:

WU 7
Nap 10/10.30-12/12.30
Nap 3/3.30/4ish, may need to cap this to an hour or 45 mins if she resists BT
BT 7.30pm

What do you think?

I would go back to PUPD at night instead of giving bottles - if she was an independent sleeper before then she should get it quickly if her A times are right and she's tired enough

[Ajustyna]

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know I am in the EXACT same situation.  Right down to the waking and only milk helping my LO fall asleep! We were up from 2-4am two nights ago... We are also sleeping in till 8-830 because of the broken night.. I swear same exact thing.  My LO is also 8months (in 2 days) LOL. 

So.. hugs! and hopefully we will get through this soon!

[mrstired]

I just wanted to let you know I am also going through exactly the same thing!! I do wonder whether it's got to do with dropping the afternoon nap and me struggling to understand how much awake time she needs.  No doubt just when we sort this out, something else will crop up