Please tell me this is normal! I had a very easy little DD until about 3 days ago. She is 8 months today and i think she is starting to develop a bit of separation anxiety especially at night time. We used to have a great sleep routine where she would have dinner, bath. bottle and bed by 7 but all of a sudden she does not want a bar of it. She was unwell at the start of the week with a cold but she has gotten over that and is now driving me bonkers. Admittedly things have been very hectic with xmas and i am looking forward to things going back to routinely normal in the next week when everyone goes back to work etc and i am hoping this will help.
Last night for example DH tried to give her the bottle at 7pm. she screamed and threw herself around and then we tried relentlessly until 8.45 to get her to sleep. Eventually i picked her up and gave a cuddle and she pretty much fell asleep in my arms. The last few nights she has been waking at about 1am screaming and as she was sick i got up to her and gave her a cuddle/bottle (she has been sleeping through since she was 7 weeks give or take a few nights here or there). When we went in to her she would be inconsolable for at least 10 min. So last night when she woke up i left her to cry for a little bit and she eventually put herself back to sleep.
During the day i struggle to get her to have a nap and sometimes she will have 30 min and others she will have 3 hours! I have to keep going into her room and laying her down as she has learned to sit up and pull herself up in the cot. It can take me an hour and a half to get her to have a nap!!!
I know things have been changing considerably for her in the last few weeks. She has started crawling and is into everything so i am thinking that this is just another adjustment time but someone please tell me this will pass, i don't know how to calm her!
Growth, milestones, mental development, hectic and disruptive routines (or lack of over Christmas etc) can all lead to disrupted baby.
Lots of cuddles and flexibility should help make it easier on all of you, but remember, even if you can't stop her crying, which let's face it, at least 50% of the time you can't, you can be there with her through it. This is how they learn to self-soothe - not from being left alone in hysterics, but by being comforted through their distress, the knowing someone is there even if you can't "fix" the problem.
My DD has just gone 9 months old, and you've pretty much described the last month or so in our household! It really threw me as we'd been cruising along pretty well, so I've just been trying to go with the flow and comfort her as much as I can. At times I'll admit I've felt frustrated, as it just seems I cannot make her happy, but then I remind myself how crazy the world must seem to her, and it gets a little easier. FWIW we have moved her bedtime a little earlier, and added in a couple of books after her bedtime BF and she is going down to bed without tears again. That's just our own situation, and it's probably just coinciding with the wonder week calming down, but it does get easier
No doubt things will really settle down just in time for the next developmental leap!
DS is 8 months old tomorrow and we've had a few ups and downs with sleep lately too. The week or so leading up to Christmas was horrible with no afternoon naps at all. The past week or so day naps have been mostly short ( 30-45 min instead of the usual 1-2.5 hour nap). He's been so clingy with DH that he was unable to put him down for a nap at all and DH pretty much had to have him the whole time he was awake as he'd scream and cry if he wasn't with him. He will pretty much ignore me if I enter the room but if I have him and DH walks past he goes OFF with excitement or tears until DH takes him. Once DH leaves the room and he's forgotten about him, he's absolutely fine and will play much more independently.
Nap times started to go downhill once he could sit up in his cot and now that he pulls himself up to standing we've had to rethink the whole bed routine - no more cuddles and lying down/patting to settle as he immediately sits then stands up. We just cuddle, put him down and leave - takes longer for him to go to sleep and there's more grizzles, but he does self-settle eventually most of the time.
We've just come out of a period of night wakes too, anything from 1-4 times a night and awake for the day at 4:30am. The past few days have been great, with no night waking until 4:30am, then back to bed until anywhere from 5:30am til 7:15am.
The past month has been huge for him though - he's learnt to crawl, pull himself up to standing, walk along holding furniture and babble incessantly. And despite the sleep hassles and clinginess to DH, he's sooooo much happier in himself now that he's mobile. I wonder how he'll go when DH goes back to work on Tuesday...
GL - I'm sure as soon as this phase passes there'll be another (more teeth, more mobile, talking etc)...
8 month old completely changed
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