8 Month Old Sleeping Patterns Have Changed

It's extremely hard to do, but let her cry it out. It really does work! I learned the hard way that the more I nursed him when he woke, the more it became a pattern. I had to break the pattern for me to sleep. At first, I just started to go in and pat his back, but I refused to pick him up. Then I started making that time shorter each night, but he still woke up every night crying. Finally, I just started letting him cry. Each night he cried less and less. After less than a week, he didn't wake up anymore. Now he sleeps great! If you think she's teeting, give her some tylenol before bed, and use orajel. This always helps my son sleep better when he has teeth coming in.

And to answer your question about the breastmilk, it does change as your baby gets older. It amazes me how your body just knows what your baby needs! As she eats more food, she doesn't need all of her nutrients from the milk, nor as much.

I agree my doctor told me when I was breastfeeding my daughter that if I continued to feed her during the night to be expected to do it for at least a year. I didn't so I stopped very quickly. She needed to learn how to self soothe. She was basically using me as a midnight snack and pacifier. It will be rough the first couple of night, but she will learn to get herself back to sleep. You could also try a pacifier to see if it helps.

My doctor told me if I fed her when she awakened, why wouldn't she wake up to eat? Therefore I began giving her a good meal with cereal to fill her up before she went to bed. It seemed to do the job as she doesn't even wake up in the night now- thank goodness as I now feel more normal with a good night's rest. When she did wake up in the night, I would just rub her back for a couple of minutes and she would soothe herself back to sleep. This might also help with transitioning her to formula.

All these moms are right. It's going to be your choice. Do you want to keep getting up, or ate you going to train her to go back to sleep on her own. She's old enough, the lack of milk at night is not going to hurt her. More likely, you are being her pacifier.

Both my kids started waking up at night again at around this age. You can be back to normal in about a month if you train her to cry it out.