8th month regression
Baby is 8.5 months, and we’re hitting the sleep regression hard. He’s having so much more trouble falling asleep even when we’ve hit the sweet spot, but then he passes it and becomes over exhausted.
He’s just been outright resisting some naps/bedtimes. I’ve tried everything. Believe me he is tired! He’s asleep on me now after trying to put him down for an hour with a WW of 3.5 hours which is really long for him, I started to put him down around 2.5 because he was tired and aimed for him to be asleep by 2.75. What finally worked was boob/carrier/bouncing all at the same time.
I’ve done rocking/patting to sleep, nursing to sleep, nursing and rocking to sleep, singing/humming Rock a by baby which is our go to while doing all of the other things. I’m consistently using white noise. He is not bothered by light and has always been able to fall asleep regardless of lighting. We’ve done naps on the go and as long as he can nurse he typically will sleep in the carrier while nursing. He is not a car napper. Typically we carrier/bounce to sleep, or nurse to sleep, and recently started rocking to sleep when he will allow it, but we needed something else when the other two weren’t working.
He just popped two teeth and we are transitioning back and forth between three and two naps a day depending.
He is on the higher end of sleep needs getting about 13.5-14 hours total a day. Usually 11 at night and 2.5-3 during the day. First nap is usually 30 minutes - 1 hour (we’ll wake him if it hits an hour so it doesn’t steal sleep pressure from later naps and end up a cranky mess by end of day) and second is 1-2 hrs, if it’s three naps we’ll sometimes do the last nap as a 15 min bridge nap or 30 minutes tops if he needs it. But last night he skipped his last nap and we had to do an early rescue bedtime hence the waking up earlier than normal.
He has such an easy temperament and has typically gone to sleep easily so this has been really tough for all of us. He’s such a happy baby, he will sometimes get cranky or fussy when he’s tired but usually he just gets wired when he’s overtired. I’ve done face/body massage and gentle pressure to help him all settle when he gets that way.
We cosleep, and he has been waking a lot a night, sometimes falling asleep then waking shortly after to comfort nurse/pacify multiple times having trouble settling back down. I chocked up all the extra wakings to the teething and schedule changes. We used to get a 3-5 hour stretch some nights but honestly not sure because most nights I don’t look at the clock but my watch wakings are many and I haven’t had a four hour stretch since April 8th. Halp 🫠