8 Month Old Naps and Early Waking Time

Mine used to make me batty with her 45 minute naps and crazy sleep schedule and then I realized it was normal. Kids will have a sleep pattern for a while and then switch for a while and so on. It's infuriating! I thought we'd be done with that at her age (almost 3) but such is not the case. Does she need the dreamfeed? I'm wondering if that's what's making her hungry at 2 or 4 am. Just a thought, I have no idea. I know if I eat at night I wake up a few hours later ravenous so maybe kids do too. She might be going through a growth spurt or it could be teeth or she's about to master a new skill. They do teethe constantly but in our case she only had trouble sleeping/fever/etc... for about a week and then moved on. A few weeks later the teeth would pop through.

What I learned is whatever it is will probably only last 2 weeks maximum. Just follow your gut. If your gut says feed her, feed her. If it says let her go, let her go. Instinct is beyond helpful when parenting. Good luck!

My son is in general a very good sleeper. All the same, there have been various passing phases where he does things like wake up at 5 am for a couple weeks. Stay consistent and have your reactions be age appropriate and it should pass.

I would get rid of the dreamfeed. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on if that's a good idea or a bad one. I would give that up and then when she wakes at night I would feed her ONCE - so if she wakes at 2, change her, feed her and put her back down. If she wakes up subsequent times, I would not feed her as she isn't hungry, she is just working on forming a bad habit. Make sure you are working on not rocking or feeding her to sleep so that she is able to put herself back to sleep when she wakes at night. I think your bedtime is spot on - kids this young need an early bedtime. When she wakes at 5 and you know she has recently been fed (for example if you fed her at 2 or 3) I would say leave her be - my son when he does this will often fall back asleep after even an hour or so and sleep a few more. You can set in your mind a time that you will go to her to get up but no earlier - so if you say 6 am is the earliest you will let her be up - let her fess from 5-6 before going to her. Be consistent.

As far as naps have you done sleep training? It is probably just temporary, but I would leave her in her crib for no less than an hour, even if she wakes after 45 minutes. This will give her an opportunity to learn to fall back asleep. If she doesn't then just know she is going to be overtired and make her next sleep time a bit earlier. Overtired children (which yours sounds like she now is!) will not sleep well during the next sleep so I would focus on getting her extra sleep. When my son did things like your daughter is doing now, we would put him down for ultra early bedtimes - try a 6:30 bedtime for a week or so. You would be surprised to find that going to bed EARLIER (when she is overtired) will actually allow her to sleep later. Try it :) Then, when she is caught up on sleep again, you can get her back to 7pm bedtime.

Soon, in the next few months she will no longer physically need night time feedings and you can work on a whole new battle :p

She is waking up for feeding and you're making it last longer by not feeding her. This is just making the whole situation worse. Feed her when she is hungry. It is normal for kids to wake up during the night hungry....

She is going down awfully early too. She might sleep after 5am if you adjusted the schedule a couple of hours now, it would take time for her body to get used to it but you would see the benefits eventually. Then you could get more sleep and she'd be getting a full meal later in the evening and start sleeping through the night when she's old enough.

She's also nearly old enough to be going down for one nap, it should be a longer nap too.

Well, I'd stop dreamfeeding her and see if she wakes up on her own. Then, if you want her to get better sleep and break the night feeding habit (one wake up till 12 months is normal and necessary for most babies, but it should be closer to 5 than 12), start reducing the time you nurse. So, you nurse but do 1 minutes less, taking away a minute every 3 days. When you get down to a few minutes, they usually just keep on sleeping.

Mine is 12 months and also breastfed. I didn't have the nap problem but at exactly 8 months he started waking up screaming. He goes down about 7pm and would wake about 2 or 3 screaming to be fed. I decided just to feed him and change his pants. Sometimes I gave him tylenol if it seemed like his teeth hurt or if his legs seemed crampy (he had just started standing a lot so I would notice his leg muscles being all tense) to help him out occasionally. It passed and within 3-4 weeks he was back to sleeping all night. He started again at 11 months but I decided it was because he isn't nursing so well when he goes to sleep. I don't think there is a ton of milk there anymore although I am reluctant to stop nursing because I know he is very comforted by it. I decided to supplement his dinner with some baby cereal and that did it - back to sleeping through the night from 7pm until I have to wake him at 6:30am to get to daycare and work on time.

I would definately stop dreamfeeding and just feed when she is hungry and wakes up. I think by dreamfeeding your are interrupting her normal sleep patterns and now she is eatting twice instead of once.

As for naps, mine has occasionally had 45 minute naps from about 6 months on. It isn't consistent and I don't go in to get him until he has been there for 60 minutes. Sometimes he will go back down and sometimes he talks to his blanket and his giraffe until I go to get him.

Hang in there! Just when you figure out the rules at this age, they change!

Feed her. Seriously, as soon as she wakes up, go in and feed her. I know it stinks that you still have to do this, but it sounds like she really is hungry.

It's completely normal for an 8 month old to still want to eat in the middle of the night, especially one who is breastfeeding. Also, their sleeping habits really do change. They can easily have a particular patter for a few months and then change. It might be a growth spurt, maybe she learned a new skill (like sitting up) that keeps waking her up.

I always tried to just go with the flow rather than fight it. She's waking up, do what works. She's goes back to sleep when you feed her, so until it stops working just feed her. You'll both be happier.