8 month old baby still restless at night

8 month old baby still restless at night

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ISO51200

Original Poster:

1,270 posts

193 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Hey all,

Not sure if I'm posting this for advice or more for moral support lol, but our 8 month old daughter wakes around 5-6 times a night, someone I was speaking to the other day said their 11 week old was sleeping through

The lack of sleep is starting to affect everyone in the house, it's testing our relationship to its limits frown

Is it normal for her to still be this restless?

I've stayed in the room to see if its noise related but there's nothing there to set her off.

throt

3,038 posts

169 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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The 11 week old could change at any time. All babies are different, some parents are lucky and some are not.

If, YOU ARE SURE, your 8 month old is eating enough prior to going to bed then you will just have to ignore the fact that she has woken and let her get on with it. All of you need your sleep and if you keep on going in to her she will get use to it and want it more.

Sort of,,, got to be crawl to be kind....

clarkey

1,365 posts

283 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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I have two boys, now aged 4 and 6.

6 year old slept really badly until 18 months old - very, very restless. My wife then stumbled across cranial osteopathy (like this:http://www.cranialosteopath.com) It was weird, it changed his breathing and he's not woken up at night since. Remarkable.

4 year old has never slept well. He wakes up every couple of hours, and always before 6am. Sadly alternative remedies didn't work with this one!

Just keep trying all the options. If cranial osteopathy works, it is remarkable.

MYOB

4,767 posts

137 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Yep, all normal!

toon10

6,140 posts

156 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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I have an 8 month old boy and he sleeps from about 9pm and wakes about 6am. We don't allow him in our bed through the night but tend to let him come in at 6am as he'll go back off for another hour or 2 before waking properly. He sometimes wakes once through the night but we don't talk to him or make a fuss. Just a quick dummy for comfort and he's back off.

He's well into a routine though. He'll only nap once through the day for about 45 minutes after his first bottle. He might get the odd 10 minutes after that when in the car but he's not a great sleeper through the day. Maybe that's why he sleeps well at night? We make sure that he's used to background noise too as the mistake with my first child was making the house as silent as possible when he was asleep and then the slightest sound would wake him. They're all different I'm afraid. Even if you do the right things, there's no guarantee they'll sleep through. I just make sure my boy is well fed and gets lots of crawling time which tires him out.

SystemParanoia

14,343 posts

197 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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MYOB said:
Yep, all normal!
Learn to love it! hehe

TwistingMyMelon

6,385 posts

204 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Hard isnt it

We are quite lucky my daughter slept through from 8 months or so onwards, but it means from 10 months onwards she went to bed at 8pm or 9pm and then slept through to 8-9am

Now shes in bed at 8.30/9 and gets 12 hours through, often takes upto an hour to fall asleep

I also try and tire her out , so running round park and mega soft play sessions and play fighting in house!

Try modifying your day routine, cutting down sleeps, putting her down later , tiring her out

My daughter has suffered really with food allergies and intolerances, if she had something with milk in she often had a really bad nights sleep, so maybe look at what she eats etc

Having said all that, its often luck of the drawer, some kids sleep well other don't, above is points that helped us

PostHeads123

1,042 posts

134 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
ISO51200 said:
Hey all,

Not sure if I'm posting this for advice or more for moral support lol, but our 8 month old daughter wakes around 5-6 times a night, someone I was speaking to the other day said their 11 week old was sleeping through

The lack of sleep is starting to affect everyone in the house, it's testing our relationship to its limits frown

Is it normal for her to still be this restless?

I've stayed in the room to see if its noise related but there's nothing there to set her off.
I feel your pain, I have a 7 month old I'm exhausted and trying to work at same time, he wakes 3-4 times during the night, never going longer than 3hrs, we have tried a lot of things, my misses is exhausted I could see the dread in her face last night as she went to bed so I did the night instead. I have found teething granules helped a bit to settle him even if he wasn't teething, what I found didn't help was telling her 'you went on daily about having a baby for the last 2 years don't moan about it now' .....

Edited by PostHeads123 on Tuesday 20th September 13:18

Smitters

3,995 posts

156 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
quotequote all
ISO51200 said:
Hey all,

Not sure if I'm posting this for advice or more for moral support lol, but our 8 month old daughter wakes around 5-6 times a night, someone I was speaking to the other day said their 11 week old was sleeping through

The lack of sleep is starting to affect everyone in the house, it's testing our relationship to its limits frown

Is it normal for her to still be this restless?

I've stayed in the room to see if its noise related but there's nothing there to set her off.
I think with babies, there is no normal. Everyone knows someone who has a child who slept through from night one, could walk at six months and was a powerfully built CEO by the time they were three. These people are freaks and liars. Everyone else is suffering just like you. They are out there, shhhhing, pacing, climbing and descending the stairs (normally 13), rocking, humming, warming milk one handed, in the dark, with SAS levels of stealth and going slightly mental.

Our boy was quite variable, so "the norm" was to expect whatever was happening this week not to be happening next week. I'm sure everyone has advice on what worked for them. For us, it was a quiet radio (R3, barely audible), a nightlight, a bath every night and a full tummy 30-60 mins before going down, usually something warm like Readybrek or Weetabix. We arrived at this through experimenting, but it's still thrown out by the room being too hot, too cold, him being ill, him sleeping too much in the day, not eating enough and waking hungry, bad dreams, thirst in the night, all sorts.

I would say a few things:

First, if you change things for baby, give them a chance. Swapping routine every few days will harm more than help.

Second, communicate as well as you can with your OH. If either of you have something important the next day (like a meeting, a trackday doesn't count...) then the other should shoulder the responsibility. Equally, consider splitting the work - before 1am (or whenever) falls to one of you, after 1 am to another, or one night on, one night off. I think this works better than alternating through the night as you know there is period where you have no responsibility and can sleep, even if you wake initially. This also stops middle of the night discussions on whose turn it is. Rational discussion isn't easy when bleary eyed, but being snappy and grumpy is.

Third, think about everything you're doing in the evenings, and if it's more important than some extra sleep. If it isn't, go to bed. I'm not judging you for going to bed at nine pm. Because I've been in bed for 30 minutes already.

Fourth, tell you OH you love them. Lots.

Kids are bloody hard work. Anyone who says different probably has a live-in nanny. Stick with it. Apparently they don't give you a refund.

BoRED S2upid

19,641 posts

239 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Very normal wait until they can walk into your room with their own pillow! Or decide that 5am is an appropriate time to start the day.

zedx19

2,701 posts

139 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Sounds normal to me and nothing to worry about. We have an 8 month old boy who will sometimes sleep through, sometimes wake 4 times, sometimes wake 6 times, sometimes sleep till 4am, sometimes till 6am. Every single night he has the same routine at the same time. Our other 2 boys both slept through at 6 months, same routine. Although the eldest (3 and half) now gets night terrors so quite often the baby can be awake an hour, nod off only for the 3 and half to wake with a night terror. Sometimes he shouts so loud he wakes the 2 and half year old up. Sleeps overrated anyway...

ATG

20,480 posts

271 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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If your ask 10 people you'll get at least 11 contradictory bits of advice.

Some say that getting a pattern of naps established during the day and making sure the kid goes to bed at night BEFORE they are completely exhausted and wired is key. I.e. they're is a risk that the "wear them out" approach can backfire; physically and mentally tired being different things.

It's easy to accidentally reinforce bad sleep patterns by "rewarding" the kid with milk, hugs etc every night at 2am when they howl. It's painful, but a few nights of extended howling is worth it if it breaks the habit of waking up at 2am.

Equally you don't want to leave them howling if they're not just waking up out of habit. Give our 1yr old a sausage and you can pretty much guarantee he'll wake up in the middle of the night at least once, howl for a while in pain, fart copiously, then go back to sleep. No more sausages since Mummy and Daddy figured this one out.

olimain

949 posts

134 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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As others have said, completely normal, they're all different - 8 months is nothing, I'm still going at 3y6m with my eldest banghead

With babies everything's a phase and that includes sleeping through, just as soon as you think you've cracked it - bam, teething, bam, cold and everything gets reset. Our 9 mo old is still breastfeeding so wakes about 3 times, better than the toddler! Tried the cry it out thing a couple of times when the toddler was young (about 10 months) and it was brutal, making herself sick etc. To be honest I'd rather just wake up in the night than put her through it but do know people it has worked well for.

That said no sleep is terrible and I know exactly what you're going through - no wonder it's used as a torture technique!

XMT

3,778 posts

146 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Its normal - If anyone tells you otherwise they are LIEING! LOL
When we had our first child we were given the suggestion that something might be wrong with him or we were doing something wrong because he got up so much at night but the simple fact is every kid is different.

our first is now 2.5 yo and he still gets up 2-3 times a night but its to go to the bathroom!
Our little girl on the otherhand since birth generally sleeps through the night.

Its bloody hard work but its normal - just pray he/she grows out of it. In our case he didnt! frown lol

covmutley

3,012 posts

189 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Suck it up!

...But to try and be more helpful, controlled crying is the way forward. At 8 months your child should be able to get through the night with no, or maybe 1 feed. So whats with the crying?- attention!

It is tough to let your baby cry, but if they are not starving and not ill, it will do no harm.

Someone I know complained to me that they had such sleep issues with their 3 or 4 yr old that they were up most of the night watching Disney films. The kid must have loved it!

Huntsman

8,026 posts

249 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Baby's don't read the books or mumsnet or PH!

Have you tried co-sleeping in your bed? I know alot say its dangerous, but worth trying, it may be the little mite is lonely.

Ours is 8 months corrected, 10 months actual, will go 5 mins in a cot but most of the night in our bed.

HTP99

22,441 posts

139 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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Huntsman said:
Baby's don't read the books or mumsnet or PH!

Have you tried co-sleeping in your bed? I know alot say its dangerous, but worth trying, it may be the little mite is lonely.

Ours is 8 months corrected, 10 months actual, will go 5 mins in a cot but most of the night in our bed.
Good luck with getting them out of your bed and sleeping in their own cot/bed.

Matt_N

8,900 posts

201 months

Wednesday 21st September 2016
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HTP99 said:
Good luck with getting them out of your bed and sleeping in their own cot/bed.
Yeh sod that!

Huntsman, you had issues with sleeping a few months ago didn't you? How have you got around them, co-sleeping I guess?


Matt_N

8,900 posts

201 months

Wednesday 21st September 2016
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ATG said:
If your ask 10 people you'll get at least 11 contradictory bits of advice.
Ain't that the truth!

Although it's good to see that the majority here are agreed that they are all different, and they are.

Our 20 month 90% of the time will sleep through from 1900-0600, he only wakes in the night when he is ill, teething (which I think we're done with for a while now with a full set) or over tired.

The decent sleep pattern seemed to build at the 9 month ish period for us, from very early on we had a bath / bed routine and have stuck with it, we went through the 2-3 feeds during the night, down to 1 after bath and 1 at about 2200, then no night feeds at around this 9/10 month old period.

He still has a mid day nap of around 1 - 1.5hrs too.

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

144 months

Wednesday 21st September 2016
quotequote all
ISO51200 said:
Hey all,

Not sure if I'm posting this for advice or more for moral support lol, but our 8 month old daughter wakes around 5-6 times a night, someone I was speaking to the other day said their 11 week old was sleeping through

The lack of sleep is starting to affect everyone in the house, it's testing our relationship to its limits frown

Is it normal for her to still be this restless?

I've stayed in the room to see if its noise related but there's nothing there to set her off.
Yep, perfectly normal, I haven't had a proper nights sleep in over 5 years, you get used to it in the end. Everyone says it gets easier but then you do something daft like have another one, and then even when that one is three it sometimes still gets up in the middle of the night shortly followed by the click of the light switch on the landing and it arriving in our room to get into bed. This is followed by me departing to get into its bed (buy full sized single beds for your kids as soon as they are out of a cot). When it eventually cracks sleeping through then I'm sure we'll have other stuff to keep us awake and then before you know it they'll be going out of an evening and you'll be waiting up for them to come home or worse still having to go and pick them up from somewhere.....