My 8 month daughter is STILL wakening at least 6 times a night, please help!!?

Question

We have tried everything we can think of to try and get her to sleep for longer periods at night.
She has 5 ozs before having her nice relaxing bath, she then takes another 4 ozs.
She goes down about 8.30 and will be awake again about an hour later. This will go on all night, she just cant seem to settle into a sound sleep.
We have tried putting baby rice in her bottle, trying her with a dummy, keeping her up a little later at night, keeping her awake all day, making sure she is active all day, putting a pillow in her cot, giving her nurofen before sleeping, bringing her into our bed, massaging her after her bath, putting lavender drops onto her pillow, giving her a dream feed, etc etc.
So if anyone has any more suggestions they would be more than welcome

Answer 1

i am going through exactly the same thing, i have tried ignoring etc- but it breaks my heart to hear my little 7 month old boy screaming at night. he had however slept all the way through the night from 4 weeks old, and over the past couple of weeks he has taken to waking 4 or 5 times a night. the best thing i have found, is using the 'tomy winnie the pooh moonlight dreamshow' strapped onto his cot which plays the winnie lullaby and projects images onto the ceiling. the true selling point for me with this item was the fact that is also triggered to come on by the sound of a baby crying. this is great because it means that you don't have to get up to reset it at night time, and they just fall asleep while watching the pictures dancing above them! good luck, and i hope that everything settles down soon!

Answer 2

U are not mentioning what she eats? DId u start with solid food? If not u are late! If yes it may not be enough - she should have at least 3 meals a day - my daughter has four but she does not snack.
I understand why did lots of these things but stop them - take out the pillow - SIDS she is still in danger, stop neurofen - that is truly wrong she will get used to it.
If she is not hungry this is a habit also many books say that sleep does not consolidate before 40 weeks so she still has time to get better. Make sure that there is only a nite lite in the room, room is not hot and not cold . Do you cover her with blankets or does she have a sleeping bag (grow bag)? she needs a bag because if she wiggles she will not be cold.
Do not talk to her when she wakes be silent and boring even if you pick her up do not talk at all but be gentle. If she does not cry do not pick her up maybe she will go back to sleep. ALso important thing is to fall asleep on her own, then she will be able to go back to sleep on her own during the night. If she does not do this you have to start teaching her - go slowly this takes time.
I recmmend a book - No cry sleep solution by E. Pantley

Good luck

Answer 3

I know others have given similar answers, and I know this will come as cold comfort, but it could just be possible that your baby is enjoying all the attention. We went through exactly the same with our first daughter. My wife and I got to the point where we took it in turns to not get any sleep! This went on, pretty much, until she was 4 and we had our second daughter. She settled down pretty quickly when we didn't have the same amount of time to devote to just her. It sounds a little cruel I know, but just try the controlled crying technique for a few nights and see how it goes.

Answer 4

Hi , We have a 8 month old daughter and ever since she was about 3 months she sleeps with a radio on very low in her room all night.She usually sleeps all the way through maybe sometimes waking once.We tried the other week to stop the radio but she would wake up about every hour so for our sanity the radio went back on. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Well hon I do have sympathy for you and I know exactly what you are going through... the only difference is my daughter nursed. What it came down to being was habit for her. She would wake up that many times a night because I would come running that many times a night. We did that until she was a year old and I just couldn't do it anymore. We had tried numerous times to let her cry herself to sleep but she wouldn't ... but finally the last time we tried it worked. It sounds very cruel and mean I do know. But she has no problems now and she is just over 2. She knows she is loved and is so very secure. It may be very hard for you and others may not agree with it. But you have to try it for you. Well you don't have to but I will tell you it truely worked for us. Also have you tried putting background noise in her room. We had a white noise cd that helped sometimes. Good luck and I hope all works out.

Answer 6

shes lonely stop putting baby rice in her bottle its not the thing to do and no more nurofen its for pain not for putting kids to sleep go to your child care provider doc nurse etc and ask for advice maybe she is just a child that doesn't need a lot of sleep don't put lavender on her pillow put it near her bed as this may disturb her in the night i know its good for children but some have a problem with it also Mandarin oil is good for children again dont put it on her or her pillow but near her cot on a hanky or somthing simular if you keep changing her routeen ie in your bed then in her bed she will never settle use one thing for a while and see if it works you are over stimulation her system and that is why she cant sleep

Answer 7

Honey maybe you are trying too hard,
I know from experience that babies are clever, She wants Mummy,she wants to be fussed over.
I would say leave her to cry-Providing she has a clean nappy, has been fed and is not ill no harm can come to her.
Keep the strict bedtime at 8.30 and try not to give her a bottle through through the night unless you really have to.
Make sure that as soon as she has had her last feed then she goes straight down.
How many naps does she have through the day, cos at this age she may only need one at around lunchtime.

From experience I would definatly say she just wants a cuddle.

Answer 8

My daughter woke regularly at that age age too.
I didn't see it is a problem, just enjoyed the extra time I got to have with her.

It will all work itself out soon, some babies don't get the hang of sleeping through for about two or three years, but mine started at sleeping through when she was 17-18 months.

Answer 9

stop fussing sounds harsh but my 8 month old sleePS from 6.30 till 7.30/7.50am never fussed when she woke at night they go through stages of light sleep and sometimes cry out try and use controlled crying go up after 5 Min's then 10 Min's and so on she will soon learn i go in put my babies dummy in and come strait away no talking fussing and it works well even when teething hope that helps xx ps don't dream feed you should have stopped that along time ago xx

Answer 10

My 15 month still wakes up once at night. I believe it's out of habit. But she also sleeps from 7 pm to 530 (or 6) am. That's a long time if you think about it. But 6 times? That's a lot!
I asked my dr about my daughter waking up and he said "Sometimes you have to let things be" (I remember b/c I thought WTF? LoL) as long as she's going back to sleep it isn't something I'd worry about. Now 6 times is a lot! what's the total hours she's down?
HTH
Lisha