Help! My 8 month old baby is the worst sleeper!?
I’m on the verge of losing it with the lack of sleep I get. Since he’s been born, I can count twice that he slept for a 4 or 5 hour stretch. Ah, bliss! Otherwise, it is usually 2 hours or less at a time – and we’re talking almost 8 months now. Everyone said, oh, it will get better, but it’s not! I’m breastfeeding but he’s now on solids too. Very good healthy eater, 3 meals a day with a small snack in between. We eat primarily organic and I have no caffeine and very little sugar in my diet. He’s not a gassy baby and it is definately not teething or a growth spurt! Wondered if I am not a big milk producer, but even with a large dinner for him, and we tried supplementing with goat’s milk a few times before bed, it made no difference. He’s grown well with exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months.
He co-slept off and on with me for the first 6 months, and then we started using his crib exclusively for the last month or so. Makes no difference where he sleeps. It wasn’t a big deal as much when I could half asleep just roll over and feed him, but with the crib I obviously have to wake up. My hubby works nights so it’s just me doing the night care. Now hubby is starting parental leave and will be off with me, so he can help with some of the wakings. He’s of the mindset of ‘let him cry it out’, but he’s cried so hysterically that he’s given himself a nosebleed and coughed himself hoarse. Is is possible that he just needs to eat through the night with this frequency?
So as an example (this was last night, so I kept track), he goes down easily at 7:30 after a final breastfeed, then wakes at 8, 9, 10:30, 11:45, 1, 2:08, 3, 4:30, 6, and awake by 7:30. He definately wants more of a ‘nurturing’ breastfeed at 8 or 9pm since he cannot possibly be hungry, but how do you explain the rest? It seems as though he awakes just to check where I am but then needs to nurse to fall back asleep. When I don’t, such as last night at 8 and 9 (since there was no way he was hungry), I don’t pick him up but he screams and cries almost 45 minutes until he falls asleep from sheer exhaustion. I don’t know how much more I can take of this, but this seems to just be a pattern he is so accustomed to that he just automatically wakes up. Even during the day, he sleeps once at 9am for 1 or 1.5 hours, and again naps at 1pm, for 1 or 1.5 hours. Not much sleep for him, and he does look tired a lot. How does he do it and still look wide a wake at dawn, and I am barely functioning, even when I sleep those times???
I should mention, he does not like soothers. We’ve tried it all – music, rocking, homeopathy, reiki, chiropractic, we’ll try acupuncture next. Could it simply be that he is just an insecure little guy and wakes to see where I am? Did I make a mistake by always allowing him to nurse to fall asleep? It seems he just cannot ‘self-soothe’ as many books describe. I had a great pregnancy, but he was born by c-section because he got stuck- could he still be affected by that?? Anyone else have a baby that slept such short intervals? Any suggestions?
The Best Answer for : Help! My 8 month old baby is the worst sleeper!?
Answer by Proud of my Darren and Karleigh
Wow that is quite the dilemma. You sound like you have tried everything you can possibly think of to help your son. I REALLY don’t think this will help much, but maybe try not letting him sleep after 2 or 3pm or keeping him up until 8 or 8:30 if possible. Maybe he’ll get so tired he’ll conk out for a few hours? I have no other advice except, I didn’t read if you were using a pacifier or not. If he wants to nurse to sleep maybe he still has that sucking instinct/need that little babies have and he just wants to suck on something..? I don’t know. I thought my 3 month old was bad, going to bed at 8:30, waking up twice per night, and up by 5 then only taking three 30 minute naps in the day. I’m tired now, I couldn’t imagine keeping your baby’s schedule. I feel for you, I really do and I hope for your own sanity you can figure something out. (Maybe call the supernanny or something..lol)
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Help! My 8 month old baby is the worst sleeper!?
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