8 month sleep regression - anyone else going through it? please?!!

[lovelymama]

DS has just entered the 8 month sleep regression. We suffered badly with the 4 month one but it wasn't as bad as this! I know it's normal and all that but no one else in my NCT group is suffering (they all sleep 13 hour nights blah blah blah) so I need to know that someone else is!

DS settles brilliantly at bed time and then sleeps well till 2am then is awake for about 3 hours. I bring him in to bed with me as I think he is going through a serious development phase (just learnt to roll over, trying to crawl AND stand up unsupported, just found out he can point at things etc) and I think he may be scared so want to comfort him. Nap times, which were always regular, long and self settling are now completely irregular and it's a real guessing game as to when he will sleep. Yesterday he only had one nap and did a 7 hour stretch from his morning nap until bed time without sleep. Grrrrr, just want it to be over as I'm sooooo tired and a little bit bored of constantly thinking about sleep problems.

Someone else going through this and want to share in my misery?!!

[hannahspanner]

I can sympathise completely.. My nine month-old has been sleeping through to at least 6am since about two months old and has suddenly taken a tumble. The last few weeks she's been getting earlier and earlier and is now sometimes 5am. She just won't go back to sleep. She sometimes wakes in the night too and takes about an hour of comforting to go back to sleep again. Is it common for them to regress at this age? I've heard of separation anxiety and have been putting it down to that but I'm going back to work in a couple of weeks and don't know how much I can take then!

I can;t decide whether to try controlled crying to try and get her back to sleep in the am... am running out of other options but I know it's not gonna be nice. We used that method before when she couldn't settle herself to sleep and it worked brilliantly but not sure how well it works when they've decided they're awake for the day?!

Hang in there, hopefully it won't last long for either of us!

[lovelymama]

Ah, a fellow frustrated mummy! Yes, 8 month sleep regression is v common. It's to do with separation anxiety but also the massive developmental leap they are making is supposed to keep them awake at night. We have tried controlled crying and it worked for us before but not now - DS seems to really need us in the night so that's why I'm not doing it again. I'm just telling myself that it won't last and eventually things will sort themselves out. I'm going back to work in May and have a very stressful job and need to be up at 5am and I'm just so worried that I'm gonna still be going through this then. Please no!!

Fingers crossed for you

[hannahspanner]

Maybe we should swap - as you have to be up at 5am anyway!! How on earth do you do it? At least you have a few more months to try and get sorted. Good luck and thanks for the understanding.

[beforesunrise]

AHHHHH [smiles with the relief of recognition] we are having this too, at 8 1/2 months. the 4 months growth spurt was horrid, and it took about 2 months to get better (although she never slept through), and now this... and i am going back to work next week... i am going crazy with tiredness...

[Smallstace]

Thank God I'm not the only one! Our little boy was such a good sleeper and had just gone from 6:30pm til 7:30am without a feed for a couple of nights when it all went pear shaped. Now he wakes several times a night and won't settle without a fight. Daytime naps are all over the place. Used to sleep for 1-2 hours at lunch. Today slept for 15 mins! Tried to put him down for another nap to make up for it but he refused. Sooooo tired of fighting with him. Why does this have to hit just before I'm due back to work?!
When you think about all they're learning though I guess it's no wonder they're a bit wired. In the last 3 days he's learnt to crawl backwards, suddenly got into rolling around a lot, did sign language for the first time and seems determined to learn to stand up ASAP

[sparklekitty]

Um, yes. At almost 8mo I feel we're regressing again :( The 4 month one almost killed me, then we had one at 6 months, now this.

My DD doesn't do sleep at the best of times, we co sleep and she had just started 2 decent hour naps a day (on my lap!) and 4 hour stretches at night (previously 2/3 hours) and now we're back to half hour naps, 2 hours at night and grumpy, grizzly baby. She has got all 4 teeth in the past week so I was hoping that was it but this seems to be following the same pattern as the other regressions.

I go back to work in 2 weeks too. Aarrggghhhh.

[Bean80]

Ladies, did you get through it? We have entered this big style and DS has never slept well anyway. Currently up every hour :(