8m old and frequent night waking - help!

[zaharag]

Hi - hope someone can help us! Haven't posted on this board before but used the pu/pd one which has been so helpful.

We've always done pu/pd with our 8m old daughter and had gotten to the stage of putting her in the cot awake and either watching her toss and turn calmly to sleep, or keeping a hand on her and letting her fall asleep that way/ She was sleeping 6-10 hours at a stretch at night - then it all went wrong!

For 3 weeks now she's been waking up 3-5 times a night and at least one of those times is up for 2 hours, v hard to resettle, sometimes trying to play but mostly just hard to get back to sleep.

She had a cold, got 2 teeth and has started to crawl so I know there;s a lot  going on - I just worry that this is now her permanent pattern and that she's getting used to being picked up lots at night. We've tried teething remedies/infant paracetomol etc but nothing makes any difference. We've tried leaving the room to allow her to settle alone when she's calm (we never leave her to cry) but this doesn't work - she just gets worked up and then cries, so we do pu/pd.

does anyone have any experience of this, or any suggestions? we've had bad patches before, but they've never lasted this long.

thanks v much!
 z x

[Katet]

You proabably also have seperation anxiety thrown into the mix as well.

You are at a very difficult time developmentally for lo's so if it was working well, it should go back that way... but it can take a few weeks as there has been so much going on, she needs to adjust to it all.

Also you may need to "tweek" the day time routine to help the night one along. Awake time should be about 3hours with 2 naps of about 1.5 hours BUT the length of awake time needed to get a good night sleep & the length 8mo are capable of being "happy for" kind of doesn't add up to the same total, so you may need somedays to offer a cat nap & others an early bed time...

The key at this age is the consistent routine.

[zaharag]

hi there - thanks v much for that, it helps to have words of encouragement. hadn't factored separation anxiety into it, and yesterday i re-read the relevant bits in the book (again!) and gave her a late (extra) nap and in fact it was a bit better. fingers crossed - will try different bedtime too and stay consistent and hope it'll pass soon!

thanks again!