Still waking at night at 8.5 months of age

I was kind of hoping around 8 months- approaching 9 months- our little ones would only be waking up once a night. They still get up around 3 times a night each. When does it get better, at least waking up once a night rather than 2-4? Or do babies usually go from waking 3 times to sleeping all the way through? I don't know, this is our first time being parents. I really don't mind waking up once and even twice a night, I'm just looking for some more consistency in their sleep. Sometimes one will sleep from 7pm-1am one night and the next 7pm-10pm. There is little consistency in their sleep patterns. Thanks for any words of wisdom and support!

 

I also wanted to add that they nurse about 7 times between 7am-7pm and nurse around 3 times a night, totalling around 10 times in a 24 hour period.

 

Mine were still waking 3-4 times a night at 10.5 months. There were nights that dd would only wake once and twice that she STTN before then, but you never knew when. Ds always woke alot I did CIO at 10.5 months and it worked great, if you want more info let me know.
Have you tried sending dh to soothe them back to sleep?

 

There is a really great book that might help you. It called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth. It talks about different strategies to help babies sleep.

 

Thanks for your replies.

excitedk: I may need your advice in the near future. I guess I'm holding on to the hope that they will STTN sooner rather than later. My husband and I are waiting until they turn around 10-11 months before we decide to do any CIO or modified version of it. I don't know, we still don't like the idea of CIO or modified version of it, but we know that they will need to learn to fall back asleep on their own eventually.

 

QUOTE(Don2worrybhappy @ Jul 2 2007, 07:59 PM) [snapback]315002[/snapback]
There is a really great book that might help you. It called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth. It talks about different strategies to help babies sleep.

We do have this book and it helped me tremendously in the early months when looking for sleepy signs, etc... I should really crack it open and read his suggestions for this age. Thanks!

 

Do you always nurse them when they wake up? You might try something else, like rocking, or patting. In retrospect I wish at that age I had tried and stuck with CIO or some other method. My son started sleeping through at 14 months when I night weaned him (would go in and rock instead), but regressed at about 15 months at which point we did CIO. My daughter still doesn't sleep. She sleeps in my bed and wakes often to nurse. I still haven't figured out what to do.. she's such a marathon cryer at night.. I just can't take it.

 

We are FAR from sttn... they eat about three times as well. No matter how much I load them up before bedtime (breastmilk and food) they still get up! I can't do CIO either so we are just crossing our fingers that they will sleep sooon.

 

I always nursed mine back to sleep at night at that age. They started sleeping through at 11 months, though they still did wake here and there at which point I would nurse them back. They'd usually only wake up once. I stopped nursing them back to sleep at night if they woke up at about 15 months.

 

Mine are 9 months old, and still nurse on average 2x each per night, they were nursing almost constantly (sort of one after the other LOL) a month ago. (They were teething...and I was so tired I couldn't think straight.)

Since I'm personally not comfortable with CIO, we've been working on things like keeping their bedtime routine consistent and making sure they don't always nurse to sleep, and it's really helped cut down the night feedings over the last 2 weeks.

Also, I'm trying to tank them up during the day -- lots of yummy solids -- so I can avoid that worry of "what if they're really hungry", kwim?

Hope this helps!

 

I guess my situation was a little different because they had been down to one feeding and then went back to 2-3 around that time. In our case, they dropped the feedings completely at 11 months on their own.

 

Reading your comments/stories is really helpful. Thanks again for sharing and I can't complain too much because they are such good babies. They just wake to nurse at night and usually go back to sleep. I'm happy to report that our dd is consistently waking about twice a night and ds between 2-3 times. When they become a little predictable they throw a curve ball and stir the pot again My husband and I always say, they'll sleep when in college....they'll obviously sleep eventually.