My 8 Month Old Has Sleep Problems

Try putting him to bed earlier, around 7:30pm. It sounds to me like he is overtired by the time you put him to bed at 9pm. He might fuss for the first few nights, but in the end he should sleep better.

First of all, sounds like your son is going to sleep way too late. He should be going to bed between seven-eight at the latest. his naps should be around nine in the morning, and one or two in the afternoon. 30min does not sound like a long enough nap. i would not go to him when he wakes after 30min. let him cry for a bit. when children wake through the night, it usually means they are overtired. a great sleep book is healthy sleep habits, healthy baby by marc weissbluth, you should check it out.
good luck

I am reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth right now, after having seen that a lot of mamasource mamas recommended it. I've only finished chapter 1 but it seems like a really helpful book.

In the first chapter he had 3 case studies where the baby went to bed late and just moving the bedtime to 7 or 7:30 solved the problems.

I think babies this age on average get about 14 hrs of sleep a day.

My son (almost 6 months old) is still on 3 naps a day,
although he's a really inconsistent napper. About 6 pm, he
stops being his normal happy self and it's pretty clear he wants to go to bed. I think I see a correlation between is night wakings and when we get him to bed. The earlier we get him to bed, the fewer times he wakes up and cries during the night.

I highly recomend the book, Happy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child by Marc Weisbluth
Some of his ideas are a bit extreme, but for the most part they work! I read this book when my daughter was 7 months old and she went from waking up 6-8 times a night, to waking up once a night (just long enought to nurse) in just 3 days!
The key to my daughter sleep was finding the right bedtime....for her it is 6:30pm. I know it seems rediculously early, but when she goes to bed at 6:30, she will sleep through the night ( she is 11 months now and has droped her midnight nursing) to 6:00am and then take two 1.5-2 hour naps. If we push her bed time back even a half hour and put her to bed at 7, she wakes up much more and will not sleep as late.
The key points of the book are:
Find the right bedtime, put them to sleep before they get over tired. Once they get their "second wind", their bodies have produced cortisol which makes it harder to get them to fall asleep.

Sleep begets sleep. Until a good nap routine is established, put him down for a nap after less then 2 hours of wakefulness. Again, once they are over tired it is much harder to get them to take good naps. Try to make sure he naps for at least 45 minutes, his naps will probably become fewer and longer as he gets older.

Definately try the book!

Good luck,

M

He needs more sleep actually believe it or not, most likely. Does he take a nap in the day at all? I actually read in really great book ( I will have to go find the name of it) why babies dont sleep deeply is because they may most likely need more sleep.
Maybe try it for a week to see what happens.
~DEA

Have you tried letting him cry it out for a few minutes to see if he goes back to sleep? I didn't do that with my first child (my son) because I was afraid I would somehow damage him if I let him cry. But, I have a 5 month old daughter now and have let her cry from time to time and she always goes back to sleep on her own. I don't let her get hysterical, and I just watch the clock to make sure it doesn't last too long. Sometimes a 2 minute cry can seem like hours, so I found it wise to actually watch the clock. Usually after a minute or two, she fusses herself back to sleep. Your baby has just become accustomed to waking up and has made it sort of a routine, it seems. So, it may take a week or two to break the cycle.

Your baby should start transistioning to a better sleep pattern around now. Maybe you need to shift his nap schedule a little. Or, have him take two 1hr naps, one at 9am and another at 2pm. If your son is stimulated enough during the day, he should be tired enough by the time 7 or 8pm rolls around. Don't feel bad about letting him cry a little either. Babies are smarter than you think, he probably realizes that crying brings you into the room. He's still young, I wouldn't let him cry that long, but if you go to him as soon as he whimpers, he's going to get used to that. Not only that, but he may not even be fully awake. The first time he gets up, let him cry for 5 min., the next time 10 min, and so on. Hopefully, when he gets tired of waiting for a response, he'll give up or tire himself out, and go back to sleep. Good luck!

Hi! I agree with some of the other ladies that your son sounds overtired. Is there a way you could drop a nap (I think by 8 months they should only be taking 2 naps) and make them longer? I was a big fan of Babywise and one of the tidbits I took away was that if your baby wakes from a nap crying, they are probably still tired and just need to be resettled and allowed to sleep more. Is that the case with your son during the day? I have a 6-month old who takes two naps a day: 2-3 hour morning nap and a 1-2 hour afternoon nap.

She also goes to be bed much earlier than your son: 6:30-7:30PM. That may be something to try tweaking. At least that way, if it still takes him some time to settle, you are dealing with him at a much earlier hour.

The only other thing I can think of is maybe he isn't settling down until you are in the room. You may want to try transitioning him to a crib in his own room? My daughter sleeps in her crib in her own room with a sound machine set to white noise. You could try one of those as well; it seems to help her tune out other things and relax. HTH!

Hi J.,
It sounds to me like your son may be overtired. A 30 minute nap isn't enough to really make a baby well rested. Even if he does 3 of them a day. An overtired baby will wake up a lot at night before they can finally settle for a long stretch of sleep. That said, it can be difficult to get him to nap longer. Depends on why it is so short. At 8 months old, he should be taking only 2 naps a day. Dropping the 3rd nap may help make these two naps longer. The 1st nap should be about 3-3 1/2 hours after he wakes in the morning. So, if he is up by 6am, then the first nap would be by 9:30am. It should last an hour to an hour and a half. If he wakes early, you can try cry-it-out to get him back to sleep or you can assist him back to sleep. Try for at least an hour. His next nap would be around 2:30-3:00pm. This one should also last at hour to an hour and a half. His bedtime should be no later than 3 1/2 hours after his second nap ends. My daughter was a half hour napper and through cry-it-out was able to sleep at least the hour. The crying was only bad the first two days. If she woke happy from the nap, I would just leave her to "rest" alittle longer. This also prevented her from becoming overtired. Good luck.

get him out of your bedroom. children need their own room, and quiet for proper sleep. obviously he's hearing you guys in the room, lights on/off, etc.