Bedtime Routine Change

I am confused by your times....are you putting her to bed at 9:30 PM and then she sleeps until 8 am----do you mean she is waking at 1 am in the morning crying? I feel like maybe she isn't getting enough sleep and is overstimulated and overtired. At her age, she should be going to sleep between 6 & 8 pm, and sleeping 12 hours with one or two wakings to nurse only. She should also be taking three naps, one about 1 1/2 - 2 hours after she wakes, the next two hours after she wakes from her nap and the last two to three hours later. Each nap should be 1-2 hours in length. I would start her bedtime routine much earlier and see how that works for you and not go back to her when she wakes until 2am or later......

I am not sure what is going on either but I have had the same experience. What I realized with my daughter (who is now 11 months) is that she did not want to nurse herself to sleep. I made sure I nursed her after I fed her her dinner solids and then I let her play some more. She pretty soon started putting her head down and resting as she was playing so then I pick her up and rock her until she is almost asleep. I am then able to put her in her crib successfully. It was several months later (just now in fact) that she is just beginning to sleep through the night.

For me, even though I would have happily nursed her to bed for a long time more, it took away the concern of how would I teach her to sleep without it.

My daughter is my third child. She is very different from my two boys. But what is the same is that I have learned to watch their body language and actions to know what they need or want.

You might try putting breast milk in a little bowl and added just a little bit of baby cereal.......that way she won't be hungry........and she'll still get the milk.

Is there any chance she is teething? I know she is young, but you never know.......check her gums............

Good Luck and take care.

I would think it's a combination of two things: 1) she's not getting enough nighttime sleep and she's getting over-tired, which means she needs to start going to bed earlier (it's about this time that they transition from 9-10pm bedtime to a 6-7ish bedtime), and yes, that means she will start getting up earlier (at this age, the "typical" night is from 6:30 or 7pm to 6:30 or 7am... which means your baby could bookend this by as much as an hour in either direction; it is unlikely that she will be sleeping until 8am any more, but should be getting closer to the 12 hours she needs, instead of the 10 she's getting now).

2) she's going through what I like to call "Distracto-Baby phase." The "Distracto-Baby" is easily distracted, and wants to do just about anything other than nurse, unless you try to put your breast away and stop the nursing session... then, oh no, it's definitely time to nurse... until you give her the breast, and she'll nurse hard for like 10 seconds and then.... what's that? a ball? let's look at it! oh, cool, there's my book, I was looking for that! hey, check that out! I can wiggle my fingers! have you seen my toes?! ... Wait, what, you're putting the boob away?! oh nonono, it's nursing time, mom! get that thing back out NOW!

seriously, she's starting to be much more aware of her surroundings, and her place in the world, and her ability to change/do/move things, and all of these are enormously exciting. you can help her focus on nursing by doing it in a dark, quiet room with as few distractions as you can possibly have. or, you can spend all day with your boob hanging out. but few of us can handle that one.... :) so I'd just make sure that you try to do it with as few distractions as possible, and when she's distracted, just try to put your boob away without her noticing, so that you're not starting to feel like your boob is a yo-yo.

at the same time, I would slowly move her bedtime routine back by about 15-20 min every couple of nights until you're putting her down closer to 6:30 or so (once you get to 7:15pm allow a week between changing the time, and that way you can start assessing the point of diminishing returns... when going to sleep earlier means getting up earlier, too, and so it's not worth going to sleep any earlier. you just want to find that window when she's getting the greatest number of hours of sleep, but when that window is depends from kid to kid). expect that she will wake up once or twice during the night to nurse, it will suck, but it will be temporary. just get up, nurse her, and put her right back to bed. in a couple of months that should subside, and if it doesn't, you can decide how to address it at that time (it will depend on how well she's napping, how much she's eating, how well she's growing, what your schedule is and your tolerance for sleep-deprivation....). then, during the day, really focus on getting her her 3 naps, so that she's not getting over-tired. it will take several weeks of focused work, but you'll get her back on track. she's just going through a developmental change right now, and you have to adjust her schedules accordingly. there will be many of these... :)

good luck!

I think your daughter can be going through a growth spurt or is she teething or anything like that?

Is she crawling or sitting up? For my son, every time he reaches a new milestone or about to reach a new milestone he would not sleep or would not sleep very long and have a hard time falling asleep. For my son who is 11 months, he has a hard time falling asleep if he is teething or reaching a new milestone. There are nights when he would just sit up in his crib and fall asleep sitting then eventually he would fall over to a sleeping position.

She could also be just going through a phase. Hopefully this is the case and she will be back to her normal self soon.

Good luck !