8 months - where did our sleep go? tell me i'm not alone

Omg, i am just barely hanging in there. My ds has decided that he isnt going to sleep during the day anymore. His night sleep has never been the best but its ok cause he always settled well and had long day sleeps - not anymore :(

Is this a normal 8 month old thing to do? I know we can blame it on teething, crawling, developmental stages etc but i just want to know that i am not alone.

Its been about a week now, he wont resettle, i just cant get him to stay asleep during the day or the night anymore. Yesterday he had a total of 40 mins in a 13 hours day :o and then woke 8 times last night. Usually he would sleep between 3-4 hours during the day and wake 2-3 times at night.

This lack of sleep for both of us leads to cranky/tired baby and mum which isnt a great combination.

The second i out him down he starts screaming. I cant and wont carry him around all day so he can sleep - he has never needed me to before so i'm not starting now at 8 months old.

I'm exhausted emotionally and finding myself getting cross with him so easily.

I'm not really after advice or settling techniques (unless you have a miracle cure ;)) i just want to know that i'm not alone and this too shall pass. I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all.

You aren't alone :hug: DD is doing the same on and off. Some days are better / worse than others. She is getting her top 2 teeth ATM which may not be helping but she is also being a little monkey and not sleeping through the day all that well either :rolleyes: Last night she was awake lots (I refuse to count - it makes me feel worse :lol:) so I am hoping tonight is better!!

Thanks Michelle :hug: I really appreciate it. Hope your dd starts sleeping better soon.

I'm usually so calm and can deal with what ever is thrown my way but i'm so exchausted that i'm crying at the drop of a hat. I feel so bad for my ds too, what ever it is thats keeping him from sleeping

Your not alone hun!

Jaxon has never had good day sleeps and good night sleeps, it is either one or the other. We went on holidays for a month back in July and it just through all of 6 months work out the window :rolleyes: I know they say you shouldn't let them scream it out but atm he cries for 5-10 minutes for his morning and arvo sleeps and last night he woke at 11pm and i swear he was in a deep sleep and as soon as i put him back down in his cot he woke.....grrrrr, anyway i tried settling him but he just cried again. He just wants to be in bed with mummy and daddy, but we need our sleep too!

Sorry for the rant

Of course you are not alone! We had similar issue with both children at around the same age. I found a great improvement around the 9-10mth mark. It most definately will pass and while it seems to be dragging on now, in a little while it will be much better and you will catch up on your sleep. I have discovered that the body can deal with a remarkable amount of sleep deprivision - so long as there is an end to it - and there is. Hang in there, it really is just a phase. :hug:

OOh yes I've been there too. Very frustrating and debilitating, esp if you have to battle on thru the day with no one to give you a break so you can go have a sleep yourself. In my case I had to get up and go to work like a zombie after being woken every 40 mins every night sometimes. This went on til my daughter was 11 months old.

We sought professional help from a lady who's got baby sleep techniques completely sussed and had success almost instantly. Not with controlled crying either.

I hope it passes soon for you and I know you don't want advice at the mo but just wanted to let you know that if you get to the point where you are desperate for a solution feel free to pm me for amazing sleep lady's details!

Cheers and may the force be with you. x

You're not alone. DS went through that at 8 months and to be honest nothing I did worked! It lasted about a month and now he sleeps pretty well most of the time. Hang in there, it does pass.

Thanks heaps ladies, yesterday was ok but today we are back to not sleeping.I can see another tooth about to come thru also. Hopefully it wont take much longer to pass

:hug: Kristy. Right there with you, hun.

Most days at the moment Emily won't sleep past 40 minutes/1 sleep cycle during the day easily. Some days she will, most days she won't. We're lucky to get 1.5-2hrs day sleep some days. She's also waking very early in the morning again too (she had done this previously on and off). This morning it was 4.45am :wall: She did go back to sleep eventually, but once she wakes early, any further sleep before breakfast is not very good quality. This equals (ta-da!) a very cranky, fussy baby too. I'm getting quite short at times, especially today. The whinging is getting inside my head at times, I tell ya.

She's got her top teeth all lined up, bulging, ready to go. Six of them! :doh: You can see the outline of them all when you look at the the front of her top gums.

She's also very close to crawling, starting to pull up and furniture cruise (can't get enough of standing up at her toy box or at the coffee table or couch - cracks it if you try to move her away lol :rolleyes:) and she's seeing the world a lot differently. She's wanting to explore everything that's not a toy lol (yes, toys are rejects now!), and she keeps tilting her head completely sideways to look at everyone and everything side on. She's completely fussy with food along with it too, which she never has been until now.

Have you read "The Wonder Weeks" or heard of it? It explains the developmental milestones that babies go through in their first year and the behaviour that is common at these times. It's helped me to be a little more able to cope with this current "stage" she's going through, to the point where I can say "Yes, it's driving me a bit (a lot) bonkers, but she will get past it, and it means that she's growing and developing beautifully". This is my mantra, and it does seem to help, even with the PND that keeps me feeling anxious and down a lot of the time anyway.

Don't want to offer any advice or suggestions, as I know you know what's going on, but just wanted to say that I really empathise. I know what's going on for us is not as full on as what you're going through, but I just wanted to say that I getcha. Hang in there, hun. Hopefully it helps to know that you're not alone.


Hope that tooth comes through quickly and things start to settle sooner rather than later.

Miss C :hug:

You're not alone. We had trouble until 11 months (at which time I took steps ;))..... I was soooooo over it.

It seems like some people just have babies that sleep. We weren't so lucky. I've heard that if you have a baby that doesn't sleep well its actually a sign of high intelligence so I'm hoping that there's an up side to the sleep deprivation.

Things will get better. :)

Miss_C - thank you so very much for your post. I'll def look into the wonder weeks. Ds sounds just like your DD (except for the food bit:)). Hope her teeth some through soon :hug:

Principessa, thank you too. Hmmmm, hope he is intelligent ;)