8 month old sleep routine

[AK89]

So 2.5 months later, my DD is still waking up every 2 hours for a feed! To be honest I'm not even that bothered.. The thing that bothers me the most about it is that my evenings are a bit disrupted. Through the night it doesn't bother me at all really 'cause I pretty much just sleep through it as we cosleep. Oh and it does kinda get to me from time to time that I can't drink or leave the house in the evenings, but not too much, and I know it's just part of being a mum, and it'll hopefully pass soon..

BUT, now I think her daytime nap routine needs a bit of tweaking. She's been a bit harder to get to sleep lately, and been a bit restless in the first couple of hours of being in bed, and sometimes wakes up for a party in the middle of the night! My OH suggested maybe she's having too much sleep through the day..? She has two naps in the morning (one about an hour after first getting up, and one about 2 hours after that one) and then a catnap at about 4ish, then she's usually in bed asleep by 7 (we start bedtime routine at about 5.15-5.30) OH said he was talking to someone in work about it and she said her LO (who was a few months older - nearly one I think) was having problems sleeping at night, and she decided to cut daytime naps out altogether! I don't know HOW that worked for her 'cause it sounds pretty crazy to me, and I know it wouldn't work for us so I'm definitely not considering it, but I do think it's worth trying to drop one nap.

Saying that, her naps are never very substantial anyway. The first one of the day is usually the best. We come back to bed and she gets anywhere between 45 mins and 2 hours (if we're lucky!), then the second one is usually about 30-45 mins and the third one just about 15-20 mins. I usually just stick her in the car for her second and third. I just keep an eye on her and when she starts showing signs of being sleepy, I take her upstairs, put the white noise on and shut the curtains and try to feed her, but she often doesn't have any of that and we just go for a drive (it's less stressful for me and she sleeps longer).

Anyway, I've decided to try and drop the middle sleep and move the other two closer together. Hope this works.. It worked quite well yesterday, in that she was fine not having all three naps, but it didn't seem to have any effect on her nighttime sleep Today has been different.. She didn't manage to stay awake as long before her first nap, and it only ended up being about 45 mins, if that. Then she had a very short nap in the bed at about 1pm, but I'm talking like 20-25 mins (I had to wait for a phone appt so couldn't take her out in the car). I thought she'd get overtired if she didn't have another so I put her in the buggy at about 3pm and took her to the shops, but she didn't fall asleep! So now it's 4.35 and we're just gonna see how tonight goes..

This sleep malarkey is DIFFICULT. She's never been a very good napper, but she at least didn't used to sleep so lightly/restlessly at night. I feel like I'm constantly sitting on the edge of my chair, waiting for her to wake up. I can't relax

So it might help to hear a few other sleep routines of similar aged babies. Is 2 naps a day enough at this age..? Is it likely to help at night..? My OH suggested if she has less sleep through the day, maybe she'll sleep more soundly at night, and then in turn she won't need as much sleep through the day, so it'll go hand in hand, which seems to make sense... right? ANY other advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[AK89]

Also I don't know HOW OH is gonna deal with her naps when I go back to work next week... I'm only going back 3 days a week luckily so it won't be too bad, but I don't want her routine to just go out the window on those days! He doesn't inspire me with much faith in that department.. His solution to napping/sleeping problems is usually just to give up trying! Not sure if that's just 'cause he doesn't want me to stress about it (it's always me trying to get her to sleep 'cause I either breastfeed her to sleep, or drive - he doesn't drive) or if it's 'cause that's what HE'D do. I hope the former.. Like if I'm trying to get her back to sleep for her first nap, he quite often tries to insist on just giving up and taking her back downstairs himself ('cause I'm usually tired myself and want her to go to sleep so I can go to sleep myself!) which is obviously nice 'cause it means he's thinking about me and getting some kip, but it also disregards the fact that LO needs to get back to sleep! I think he thinks if she needs a nap, she'll just drop off really easily and if she doesn't that means you can just give up trying 'cause she doesn't really need to go to sleep. Sometimes at night he suggests just bringing her downstairs with us too, when I'm struggling to get her to sleep for the night! I'm like "NOOOOOO! That's where we were going wrong a few months back! How can't you see how much of a bad idea that is!?!" - and I don't mean that's something he's suggested once. He's said it a few times! I try to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's just doing it for me, so I don't have to bother trying to get her to sleep anymore.. but part of me worries that he's gonna be that lax about it when I go back to work and she'll end up missing out on loads of sleep!

 

[Rurin]

My two are 8 months and we have just dropped the third nap because they stopped sleeping for it. So you're about that time when they won't need three naps.
We are on a timetable of

6am wake up
9am nap (for about 45 mins)
12.15 nap ( for 2 to 2.5 hours)
6.30 bedtime lights out

Our bedtime is stretching them a bit to overtired but bringing it forward any further didn't seem to help them settle plus I go back to work next month and need their bedtime to be that time.

I find naps/sleep the most stressful thing about parenting but as we go along I realise that some days are good and some days are bad for all of us and often it's got nothing to do with what we're doing.

 

[AK89]

Wow you're lucky with that big afternoon nap!

Yeah hopefully dropping one nap will help then...

 

[Rurin]

Yeah most of the time it's 2 hours but I do have the dreaded 30 minute-ers occasionally!
My OH is pretty good at following routines but my problem especially during any transition is I'm trying to work out what the routine should be and I keep changing my mind! Best results are with consistency though so it's good to try to get both of you on the same page as to what you're going to do. Eg if after 20 mins of not settling take 5 minute breather with baby then try again....

 

[snickersbar]

Up until this week lo was napping 8.30am, 1pm and 3/4pm but we've just dropped the last nap as we had same issue as you and lo was waking constantly through the night. She's still fairly restless and a light sleeper so i still have to go in and put the night light and ewan on, but at least she now goes back to sleep. Like pp this has meant she is very tired by bedtime and her bedtime has moved forward from 7pm to 6.30 (sometimes earlier than that).

I think it may partly just be an age thing as she slept through from about 6-8 weeks and it was only at 6 months she stopped sleeping well. So maybe separation anxiety or weaning have played a part in it.

 

[AnonymousCAT]

My baby is younger than yours but we are in a 2 to 3 nap transition right now too. Having 2 or 3 naps for us is not set in stone and all depends on how the day is going and the length and timing of the other naps. We adjust as needed. Usually my lo has a long morning nap if we are home. Then the afternoon nap sometimes varies in length. If it's short, he'll have another 3rd cat nap later in the day. But if it's long we skip the 3rd nap and instead move bedtime earlier. So our days look something like this usually:

2 naps:

7am wake
9am-11:00 nap
1:30-3:30pm nap
6:15-6:30pm bedtime

Or 3 naps:

7am wake
9-11am nap
1:30-2:15pm nap
4:30-5pm nap
7:30pm bedtime

What worked for us in lengthening his naps was increasing his wakeful times a bit from 1.5 to 2-2.5 hrs, nursing before naps so he doesn't wake early from his nap hungry (but not nursing to sleep) and having a consistent prenap routine (shorter version of bedtime routine) and a consistent sleep space ie his crib. If lo has a nap on the run I can almost guarantee it will be a short nap now and it throws off our days usually. We did do some gentle sleep coaching too so lo does fall asleep on his own when put in his crib. We did not CIO though.

 

[cjwn]

My 7 month old's routine is:

Bed lights out 7-8pm (own room)
Wake up and re-settled 10-11pm (own room)
Wake up and breastfed back to sleep 5-6am (my bed)
Up for the day 6-7am
Nap 1-2 hours 9-10am
Nap 30m-1 hour 2-3pm

We're in the process of weaning so he only gets one early morning breastfeed, plus three meals a day and three 7oz bottles of formula a day. Is it possible that you are keeping each other awake at night by co-sleeping? I co-slept with both of mine for the first six months because they were crap at sleeping from birth, but sleep drastically improved once they had their own space at night. For me co-sleeping was the only thing that allowed me to function as a human being, but there definitely came a point where it changed from being the solution to being the problem.

 

[luckyhug]

My DS is almost 9 months, but he was a 35 weeker so he should have just been coming up to 8 months. We've been on 2 naps a day for 3-4 weeks now, his wake times are around 3 hours so if we get up at 7, he'll nap at 10 for anything from 30-60 mins and then again at 2ish, this is usually (but not always) a bit longer and can be upto 1.5 hours. It works really well as he has his milk just after waking each time and then an hour-ish later its time for his grown up food!

DS has always been quite a good sleeper but my DD was terrible - she dropped all naps at the very young age of 19 months and thats about the tine she started sttn so maybe you will find that her sleep improves with less day naps? It does of course depend on the baby but she sounds like she's getting ready to drop a nap if the last one is so short.

 

[Buttercup84]

My baby girl is coming up to 9 months and has had 2 sleeps a day for quite a while now, at least a month i'd say. My 3 year old was down to 1 nap a day by 10 months and it looks like her sister is following the same pattern. Only thing is the 3 year old dropped naps altogether just after her 2nd birthday which is a bit earlier than I would have liked

 

[AK89]

I dropped one nap so she now has a decent morning nap about 1 1/2 to 2 hours after she gets up and one at about 1-2pm. She seems to be sleeping more soundly and isn't as difficult to get to sleep so was definitely the right move for us! Thanks for the advice/input as always everyone

Now it's just fingers crossed she eventually won't need to feed every couple of hours through the night!