Sleeping at night PROBLEMS for my 8 month old

[KendraC]

Please help!  I have an 8 month old who only sleeps five or six hours at night.  Her typical routine is up @ 7am, nap @9am for an hour, nap @2p an hour, bath @7p, feeding @745 and bed @8p.  She then wakes up at 2am or 3 am.  She wakes up hungry!!!  We try to not give her a bottle, but sometimes it's the only way to get her back to sleep.  She then will sleep until about 7am.  We have had her wake up at 4am before! A whole 8 hours!!  My husband thinks we should put her bedtime at 10pm so the 8 hrs will work for our sleep schedule and she would be up at 6am.  We argue over this!!! I think we need to figure out how to get her to sleep longer! The recommend 12 hrs.  What to do.  It really is putting a strain on our relationship.   We put her down to sleep when she is tried but she then thinks it's play time and tries to crawl and pull herself up in her crib.     My goal is to get her to sleep longer and go to sleep on her own.    I am also dealing with separation anxiety.   She also has no teeth yet.     Here is her schedule:     7am wake up/6oz bottle,  730 cereal, 8am play, 9am nap, 10am play, 11 am 6oz bottle, noon lunch 1/2 veg 1/2 fruit, 1pm play. 2p nap, 3pm 6oz bottle/play, 6pm dinner 1/2 veg, 1/2 fruit  7p bath, 745 8oz bottle, 8 bed.  Up anywhere between 2,3,4 am.  Back to sleep with 30mins up at 7am

[Layla]

Hi there and welcome

If she's waking up hungry and settles well and sleeps until her usual wake up time once she's eaten, then I would feed her . I don't think putting her to bed later will help, in fact, it may cause more night wakings and I think your A at the moment before bed is already too long. The recommended is 12hrs but not all babies sleep 12hrs at 8 months without any night feeds. DD1 still had a NF at that age and stopped waking for her milk feed at around 9 months and dd2 needed a feed until 12 months or around that time.

You mentioned your goal is to get her to sleep on her own... does she rely on props to go to sleep? How does she fall asleep at the moment?

At 8 months, our routine was:
6am - wake
9-9:45 - morning nap
1-2.30/3 - afternoon nap
6-6.30 - bedtime

I would probably work on spreading her naps out a bit during the day so that she isn't awake for 5 hrs before bedtime as I believe that's too long of a stretch for an 8mo.

If you are going to wean the night feed, you could try offering her less and adding more during the day. Eventually she will make up during the day what she is taking at night.

Good luck and let us know how you go

[KendraC]

To get Olivia to go to sleep we try to lay her down to go to sleep on her own.  She seems tired but then tries to get up and play.  My husband will try to gentle rub her head or pat her leg, also makes shoo sounds.  She fights it though.  Sometimes if we place are hand on her chest she will sleep after awhile.  It can take over an hour to get her to sleep.  She wants to always be feeling a blanket too.   When she wakes up at four am, she will want a bottle and then wants to play.  She tries to "run" from us smiling and laughing. 

[Layla]

She's probably fighting you at nap times because she isn't tired enough - and this is where I mentioned earlier that she probably needs more A time in the morning (3-3.5 would be more appropriate). Also, you don't need to be there if she's playing and things like that. Do your windown routine and leave her alone. She'll play around and go to sleep on her own. If she's crying, then you go to her and do pu/pd but otherwise you don't need to be there.

I still think 1 NF is ok at this age. Feed her and leave her and as work on giving her less and less over time and hopefully she'll start making up for it during the day

[KendraC]

What is A time?  I no NF is night feeding.  Sorry newbie.

[Layla]

Sorry, A is Activity  - so the amount of time she is awake before she goes down for a nap