Please tell me this is just a phase! 8 month old and crazy nights!

[Loveinamist]

hi I hope someone can give me some hope here as i am tearing my hair out.
We cosleep with DS being put down in the early evening in our bed and us joining him later. We do have a cot attached to the side of our bed but DS never really took to it and i have given up trying to put him in it. It serves as a little extra leg room for me and a play place for ds when we want more sleep and he is already awake. Anyway this was working beautifully until this week when ds started crawling. Now he won't go to sleep as easily and wants to crawl and climb things as i try to feed him to sleep. It is so bad now that i know he is close to sleep when he either cries inconsolably or whacks himself on something and screams then he is close to being able to be fed to sleep. I have tried rocking, singing, walking etc. Eventually he does sleep on the boob but it is a fight. I don't want to control cry but it pretty much feels like that is what i am doing.
He also is starting to wake when we go to bed and either plays about or tries to sleep and cries and fidgets. I don't want to stop co sleeping! Will he ever go back to snuggles and falling asleep dreamily on the boob?0
oh and i have tried different bedtimes and cutting out the bath as it seemed to wind him up more then down.

[onthefly]

Have a scroll down the comforted sleeping or baby & toddler info forums... you'll find lots of people posting almost identical stories.
It is very common to have sleeping problems around 8-10 months. It's also common when they learn to crawl or walk. It's also common when they are teething. Or pretty much any time anything is going on...
You may find doing something different helps. You may not - it's just trial and error. With any luck things will settle down a bit once the novelty of crawling wears off.

[MummaSue]

Could you maybe swaddle him again for a bit? Would he tolerate that? Just to get him over to sleep and then unwrap him when he is asleep?

Just a thought

[miss.cinders]

Have a scroll down the comforted sleeping or baby & toddler info forums... you'll find lots of people posting almost identical stories.
It is very common to have sleeping problems around 8-10 months. It's also common when they learn to crawl or walk. It's also common when they are teething. Or pretty much any time anything is going on...
You may find doing something different helps. You may not - it's just trial and error. With any luck things will settle down a bit once the novelty of crawling wears off.

Agree 100%. Every time they learn something new *nods*

[Loveinamist]

Thanks ladies for your replies. I realised after responding to mummasue's thread on routines that I had been going completely against my beliefs and had been trying to force a routine on DS! I had been trying to get him to sleep at 7pm because all the mums at my mg had been doing that. Of course he was fighting! He usually wasn't tired! So I have gone now to take him to bed when he is tired. It is working alot better. Some nights that has been 730ish and others 10! It still takes a bit of work getting him settled to feed to sleep but it is a hell of a lot easier. Much less of a battle!

[miss.cinders]

That's great You sound alot better in yourself too

[MummaSue]

Awww, that's great Poppyfairy!!

Sue xxx