8 Month-Old Not Sleeping Through the Night!

I have never agreed that adults "know" that a nursing child does not "need" additional nourishment -- breastmilk is meant to be metabolized quickly -- because we don't have their baby bodies in ours to sense this:)

Perhaps he is in a growth spurt and does need the additional nourishment. Both my babies were "long and lean" their first year nursing and both did the same 2x at night nursing. I co-slept at these times, which didn't disturb them or me as much with crying or lack of sleep. Their need-patterns changed every few weeks until around 1. It worked for me, and good luck to you and CONGRATULATIONS on continuing to nurse:)

A growth spurt is a possibility at his age. It is usually a little closer to 9 months. 5 hours at a stretch is a perfectly normal sleep period. Is he nursing to sleep?

Have you tried "dream" nursing? I don't know what time you head to bed, but you might buy yourself some time if you nurse again right around 10pm...and then maybe again around 6am.

I also found that cluster nursing in the evening during a growth spurt helped buy some more sleep at night. Try also to introduce some protein during the evening (soft beans are great at that age).

SOME babies DO need to nurse more often and will wake more often. That is the problem with babies...what they NEED is a guessing game.

Hi. J.,

Our baby will be 8 months old in 10 days, and she wakes up around 3 times each night. For example, last night she went to bed at 8:30 (which is unusual, but she took a late afternoon nap), was up at 11:30, 2:30 and 5:30, and up for the day at 7:15. I bring her in to bed with me, nurse her and put her back in her crib. Sometimes she falls asleep immediately, other times she babbles and fusses, and still other times, it's more of a challenge getting her back down. I generally follow a rule with her that unless 3 hours has passed, I don't respond to her if she wakes up (unless I think something is wrong). I have made myself crazy with her sleep patterns and now I've just adopted a more relaxed approach and I deal with it...I'm not entirely convinced that when she wakes up, she's not hungry...but even if it's just some cuddling she's seeking, I don't want to deprive her of that. As long as I can still function during the day (which I can), I don't mind waking up with her. The hard part for me is when *I* can't fall back asleep...

Anyway, you're not alone---many people have suggested to me to use a pacifier, as that has worked for their babies in similar situations. Unfortunately, our baby has always rejected the pacifier and bottle, but maybe it would work for you! Also, I tried dream feeding (picking the baby up while still asleep right before I go to bed) but she woke up the same amount of times so it didn't help much.

Good luck!

Not sure about a solution - but I was told by my Pediatrician that sleeping through the night is 5 hours. Good luck - I will be interested to see other responses so that I can file them away for my own use with my 7 month old.

try doing a dream feed - put the baby to bed like you are, then when you get ready to go to bed, say at 10, then you get the baby up to nurse it, then put it back down to bed. This will eliminate the 11 feeding and get you solid 5 hours of sleep at least.

Now the hard part... when he wakes up in 5 hours you have to do everything BUT nurse him to get him back to sleep. He is using the nursing as a crutch to go back to sleep and needs to learn other methods.

Make sure that you have music or nature sounds on continous play loudly in his room while he sleeps, that will help too. Also you may need to move your daughter to a different place for a week while you do the training. She will adjust just fine, and when he is sleeping better it will benefit everyone!!

Hi J..

For starters it's not uncommon. I don't know about breast feeding, my son was bottle fed. But 90% of the reason my son slept thru the night (from 9 to 7 in the morning) was due to his awesome schedule! At 6 months old he was waking up at 6:30-7:00 am, a nap at 11:30 for about an hour to an hour and a half. Then another short nap at about 3:00 to about 4:00 then 8:00pm he would get a bath with lavender baby wash then after the bath he would get a "baby massage" with lavender lotion-night time lotion. You'd be shocked how well the lavender "can" work.... and if you use it consistantly before bed every night the baby will start putting the scent with bed time :). He has had a bath and massage every night since he was 3 weeks old. and once he seeeeees the lotion bottle he starts rubbing his lil eyes lol. Gife it a shot I hope it helps.

Also try and feed the baby more durring the day so he's not waking up so hungry at night. but at this age not many babied are sleeping more then 6 or 7 hours a night. I was just lucky. But I really hope this helps and works for you. It most likely wont work the first night you try it. Might take a few nights but hey, what have you got to lose? Right?

Kimmie

Personally, I think you're lucky if your breast-fed baby is only waking up twice at night. My 7mo wakes up at LEAST 3 times, and sometimes 5. My best friend's son woke up 6-8 times at night!

I do not recommend allowing your baby to cry. There have been many studies that show that cry-it-out causes brain damage. If your baby is crying, they need you. Sometimes babies have an actual NEED to be held and comforted. Babies that cry alone have cortisol levels so high that they might as well be in pain. Babies have a need to be parented at night as well. Your baby will eventually sleep through the night (which is only 5 hours anyway) on his own.

J.,
I just went through this with my 7 month old daughter. I too was exclusively breast feeding until about a month ago. At that time I was sick of getting up every 3-4 hours to feed. I started giving her a bottle of formula as her last bottle of the night before bed (7-8 pm). I had already tried rice cereal in the bottle, solid foods, bottle of water etc. This helped her sleep til about 3-4 am. We let that go for about 2 weeks and this became her consistent routine. We then tried the cry it out method to a degree. I wanted her to know that we were still there so she wouldn't feel abandoned. We would get up at the 3-4 am wakeup and I would put my hand on her chest or cheek, give her a pacifier (which she is not a big fan of), shsh her, calmly whispering to her that I was not picking her up, feeding her or changing her. The first night I was up 50minutes doing this and then she fell asleep til 7:30 am. The next night hubby was up for 10 min doing the same. The following night I was up 10 min. Since then there has been only one time I gave in and that was at 5:30 am she'd had her first teeth come in the day before and had been very fussy and didn't eat well the night before. She now sleeps til about 7am every day. Not saying all kids will respond to this technique but it worked for us. Tough love and I swear by the last bottle being formula. The one time she fell asleep before the formula bottle (rihgt after dinner)she was up at 2:30 am looking for some food. She had had a full meal with breast milk bottle at 6pm so I had to give in around 4:30 am that time. I figured 10 hours was long enough. It may make your daughter a better sleeper if she has to learn to sleep through the crying or another option is try moving your daughter out of the room if you are going to try letting him cry it out for a week or two. Good luck with whatever you try.

I think your only options are to:

1. Keep getting up to breastfeed him and putting him back into his bed
2. Bring him into your room (cosleep or playpen) and feed him then put him in the bed in your room OR let him cry it out in your room.

My son is almost 7 months old and for the past week has had HORRIBLE sleeping. He was getting up 2-3 times a night like your son but now is up every 1-2 hours SCREAMING.

I have tried Motrin, Tylenol, Hyland's Teething tablets, Mylecon, breastfeeding, rocking, walking, etc. I still don't know the problem but he eventually falls back asleep - usually with a bottle - even though he doesn't drink much. He had resisted nursing in the middle of the night too.

Unfortunately, there are no fool proof answers on what to do! Hopefully this is a short lived thing...good luck!

I found with my son that when he was going through, or about to start, a growth spurt, that he did need to nurse more often. It would go on like that for a week or so, then he'd settle back into a more regular sleep pattern when he didn't need the extra food.

What time do you go to sleep at night? My suggestion is to wake him up right before you go to bed and nurse him. Unless you want to add this to his wake schedule, which I did, and had his bedtime later, be very calm and quiet, and put him right back down. I ran into this when we tried to put my son down too early. I would get to bed and be woken up an hour later. He got his big stretch of sleep, but it didn't coincide with mine. By putting him down later, I got a good 5 hour stretch and was only having to get up once a night, and then not at all. As he slept longer, I was able to move his bedtime earlier and earlier.

I've heard lactation nurses recommend that daddy go into the room in the middle of the night to sooth the crying baby...only by patting not picking up. The baby doesn't associate dad with feedings & may just be soothed back to sleep. After a while he may stop waking since he's not being fed.
I suppose there's no chance to move him to a different room?

HI J..
I also nursed my son until he was 11 months, and we chose to do a modified cry it out at 5 months when he was getting up every 45 mintues to nurse. If you don't want to let him cry, you can go in and rock him each time or offer the bottle filled with water. After a few nights, he might realize its not worth it to get up. Good luck and hang in there. Way to go for breastfeeding this long!

J.,

I have a 3 and a half year old girl and an 11 month old boy. My 11 month was still waking up twice a night to eat until about a month ago. My daughter was still waking once a night to eat when she was a year old. My personal opinion is that it is about shifting their eating schedules so that they get the calories during the day rather than at night. As your son eats more solids, he wills start getting more calories during the day.

That being said, I stopped nursing my son when he was 9 months and I thought that switching to bottles would lower the amount of times he was waking up at night. He went from 3 times to 2 times a night once we got him up to 8 ounce bottles, but it wasn't the drastic change I was hoping for. I decided that at 10 months we could try to adjust his schedule so that he would only take one bottle a night. I took him downstairs when he woke up the first time, which was at 11 pm and I made him wait until 1 am for his bottle, which would be 5 hours from his bottle before bed. The second night he slept until about midnight on his own and the third night he made it until1. I made sure that he got a full bottle before bed and then I offered him a bottle when he woke up as well. Now he is waking up at about midnight every night for a bottle and then sleeping until 6.

After my son turns a year I figure I will work on getting rid of the last bottle, if he doesn't give it up himself. I don't remember ever working to get rid of the last bottle with my daughter, so I am really hoping he gives it up himself after a year. He definitely likes to eat more than my daughter, so I am not holding my breath.

Good Luck,
D.

Have you tried Dr Karp's 5 S’s to calm to sleep? http://www.happiestbaby.com/
• Swaddling - Tight swaddling provides the continuous touching and support the fetus experienced while still in Mom's womb.
• Side/stomach position - You place your baby, while holding her, either on her left side to assist in digestion, or on her stomach to provide reassuring support. Once your baby is happily asleep, you can safely put her in her crib, on her back.
• Shushing Sounds - These sounds imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb. This white noise can be in the form of a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a fan and so on. The good news is that you can easily save the motors on your household appliances and get a white noise CD which can be played over and over again with no worries.
• Swinging - Newborns are used to the swinging motions that were present when they were still in Mom's womb. Every step mom took, every movement caused a swinging motion for your baby. After your baby is born, this calming motion, which was so comforting and familiar, is abruptly taken away. Your baby misses the motion and has a difficult time getting used to it not being there. "It's disorienting and unnatural," says Karp. Rocking, car rides, and other swinging movements all can help.
• Sucking - "Sucking has its effects deep within the nervous system," notes Karp, "and triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain." This "S" can be accomplished with breast, bottle, pacifier or even a finger.
GREAT video clip with Dr Karp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6KnVPUdEgQ
good luck!

Hi J.,
I had the same issue with my very social son. He was killing any attempt at sleep for me. I offered to feed him. When he stopped accepting the breast, I would sing our song, say night night and hope. When that stopped working, I took him physically to another room in the house without the offer of food or song, and left him in the play pen. I got ear plugs in right away, and crawled into bed. My husband would cock an ear for 30 minutes and take one for the team.
It worked. He got the message 2 weeks later and we did not have to take him out of earshot for me. Devin did not cry or fuss as long as he had a toy when left him in the playpen downstairs. Using a toy then set up the habit they have now where they choose a toy for bedtime.
Good luck with whatever you try.
L. L.

4 to 5 hours!?!?! I would have KILLED for that!!!! That is fantastic!!! I recommend reading Dr. SEars website about babies and sleep. It explains why they do what they do, which can make youfeel a tad bit better about those late night wakings. There is a boook called the No cry sleep solution for babies...but in the end baby is teething and going through a lot of stages and sometimes they just need the comfort of mothers breast . teething makes them wake more as the nursing action soothes their gums...your baby is in pain and knows you are there to comfort. It would be sad to have baby cry it out when they need you most! Trust your instincts mama and keep up the great job!!!!