8 Month Bedtime?

I think it's great you can get him to go down without crying! He might just be teething, and therefore not sleeping as well. If he goes to bed with no problems, I say don't mess with a good thing.

Hi L.,

My son started acting very similiar at about 7 1/2 mos maybe even closer to 7 ok regardless.....he goes to bed at seven and I thought the same thing "lets put him to bed later" that did not work because he was just so tired and he still woke up 2-3 times a night. I got some great advice from here and figured out that Austin was just going through a growth spurt a big one at that. Are you nursing? I am and I realized that he was training my breast to produce more milk to support his growing belly so he could get full. We are now finally starting to get back in the routine of sleeping through the night.
Another thought would be he might be theething, babies like comfort and tend to wake a lot when they are teeting. One more thing to consider is that he reaching the point where he is just having trouble falling back to sleep like everything else babies need to learn to fall asleep too. Good luck

I would keep my kids up to about 9:30 or 10 and they would sleep to about 6:00 by that age, but you usually read your own kids best, so if you think he is ready for bed by 8:00, then he probably is. Have you tried feeding him a snack of rice cereal or some other solid food prior to bed so he doesn’t get hungry so soon. My pediatrician advised that once they start sleeping though the night, or move from two night feedings down to one, not to go back. So if I were you I would try not to feed him at mid-night and get back to just one a night before it becomes a habit for him.

Hi L.,

Your current bedtime seems perfect to me. Once he starts to rub his eyes, that's your cue to put him to bed. Keeping him up any later will cause him to be overtired, which will cause him to sleep even LESS and wake up more. (My daughter, 1 year old, has been going to bed between 7 & 7:30 every night since she was about 6 weeks old and she sleeps wonderfully.)

This might be a suggestion you get from several people, but could he be teething? My daughter wakes up a couple times throughout the night when she's getting more teeth. If they are really bothering her, we give her some Ibuprofen (works much better than tylenol).

I'm not one for the cry-it-out method, but maybe try letting him go for 10-15 mins and see if he goes back to sleep. We do this ocassionally, too and it works!

Good luck!

I think if you are following his cues for tiredness, you're doing the right thing! I think if you try to make his bedtime later, it might overstimulate him and possibly that later bedtime would be less peaceful. If you're putting him to bed when he's showing you he's tired AND he's not crying, I'd say that is WONDERFUL! :)

Our son is now 14 months old and is in bed between 7:30-8:30pm most nights. But when he was a few months younger (around 8-12 months), we found that he sometimes be tired during dinner, around 6 or 6:30pm, and he just needed to go to bed a little bit earlier for a few weeks in a row. He eventually went back to the later bedtime (after 7p). Also, even now at 14 months he is still waking at least 1 time most nights to nurse (around 3 or 4 am). I am happy with that, and he is too, so we don't consider this a problem. I fully expect that when he hits his next big growth spurt or gets more teeth, I'll be alerted to this "new change" coming along by his waking up to nurse more than his current 1x a night.

I try to remind myself that they grow *SO MUCH* in this first year, and that it is really normal for them to go through phases of sleeping more or less, waking more or less at night, wanting to eat more in general, being hungry in the middle of the night, wanting to eat less (teething!), etc.

Another mom mentioned teething, too, and I have to say that with *both* of our babies, teething really REALLY screwed up nighttime sleep - for our kids, their poor mouths and gums and even ears and head just hurt and throb. That's hard to sleep through! So maybe the waking is due to beginnings of teething.

One other thing that really temporarily messed with nighttime sleep for our babies was becoming more mobile - when they learned to stand up and then cruise and then walk, whoa, they just wanted to practice ALL. THE. TIME. It was like their bodies just couldn't hold themselves back from trying this cool new thing, whether that was 2AM in the middle of the night or noon.

Congratulations on your little guy, and you're doing a wonderful job just following his cues. Trust yourself - you're the expert on your son. :)

Hello L.. I know ALOT of mom's do not agree with me, but I don't do night time feedings unless my baby (also 8 mo) is sick. She is just now getting over a cold and with the cold she only wanted to nurse all day and didn't get enough to eat and got up during the night to eat. Now, she nurses and takes a short nap around 7:30-8p and then goes to bed for the night around 10p. Which does seem late for a baby, but my hubby works till 8-9p at night and we like to sleep in. SO, if your baby is anything like mine, he is probably not getting enough to eat during the day and that is why he is getting up during the night to eat. I have started giving my little one table food, like yesterday I gave her potatoes before I mashed them up (they didn't have anything on them) and she ptu the cubes in her mouth and she always wants to feed herself everything. Best of luck!

My little ones bedtime is between 8 and 9 (they wake between 8-9 also)... depends on what is going on. I work full time so I don't get home till 5 or a little after, dinner prep/cooking, dinner time, bathtime and shopping/play time sometimes take a little more the 3 hours. So, sometimes they don't get down at 8 on the nose, but we do try to make sure they are in bed by 9. They are now 3 yr and 21 mo, but they have both been on this schedule for a while. Every once in a while one of them will wake up during the night... depending on what we ate for dinner or how much they ate gives us a good clue as to what to do. Sometimes they just need a little tummy med - dinner was to spicy, if they had a bad dream - a little comferting and they are fine, or if they didn't eat well - a small snack and they are back to sleep.

But I do agree with most of the moms... don't change his schedule just cause someone tells you too. A bed time snack is never a bad thing... I have them sometimes too. You do know you little one best - fallow your heart and you'll be ok.

It may sound counterproductive, but try putting him down even earlier. The book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" helped me a lot. I've been putting our 5 month old down at 6:30, and he sleeps better on those nights than when he goes down at 7:30 or 8. I don't know why, but my grandmother always said that an overtired baby doesn't sleep well. Those old wives tales seem to be true more often than not.

Do not put him down to sleep any later than that...your schedule seems great, you may want to let him cry for 10 minutes and see if he goes back to sleep on his own.

Hi,

No, don't keep him up later, that will only make the problem worse. If a baby stays up later, they will usually be overtired causing distruptive sleep. At his age, he should be able to sleep through the night (at least until 6am if he is going down at 8pm). Is he getting enough to eat during the day? If he is on solids, try giving him cereal with his formula at night. Also, he could be teething. If this isn't something new, and it sounds like it isn't since you mentioned he's never been a great sleeper, give him a pacifier. If he does take a paci, the other option is to not rush in to get him when she starts to stir. Also, what is his nap schedule like? If he doesn't nap good, then he may be overtired by the time bedtime rolls around, further making it difficult for him to stay alssp.If anything, he is getting up out of habit, unless he isn't get enough to eat during the day.

Maybe he's just having a growth spurt and needs the extra feeding. Check also with your pediatrician for recommendations.

Does he use a pacifier? I have a daughter who will be one in May, and she also used to wake up frequently during the night. I finally figured out that popping her pacifier back in her mouth usually calmed her down. I now keep two pacifiers in her crib all the time (so that hopefully she can always find one by herself), and it has made a huge difference in how often she cries out. It's probably been about 3-4 months since I added the second binky to her crib.

Good luck!

Make sure he's getting at least 2 naps a day. Naps really help with nighttime sleep. My daughter is almost 8 montha old and sleep really well. She takes 3 naps (one short one about half hour early morning, an hour or more long nap early afternoon, and one more hour or more nap in the late evening). I give her the last feeding of formula (6-8oz)(just recently weaned from nursing) right before bed. Her bedtime is around 10:00pm. She doesn't wake up until about 8:00am.
You could also try leaving him alone when he wakes up during the night. I know that may sound cruel, but it's not. Once in awhile, if my daughter gets up way too early than she normally does, I'll go in her room, give her back her binky, don't pick her up or say anything, and she'll fall back asleep. Sometimes a dream can wake a baby up, not neccessarily hunger. But if you pick him up and offer a feeding, ya, he'll eat.
I hope sharing my experience helps you, even if just a little. Good luck to you!

Hi L.
I have a three year old who still goes to bed at 7:30 he still get up in the middle of the night ,Our doctor said to just let him whine for a while and if he continues to cry just go in and reasure him that he is fine by patting him and just talking quietly to him and he will go back to sleep . it took a little while he still wakes up he will play in his room for a little while and then fall back to sleep. hope this helps . he has been this way since he was 10 months .
Judy

letting him cry it out at night could be the ticket, he could jsut be waking up and using the bottle to soothe himself back to sleep and letting him cry a little bit and not jumping right up could keep him from getting up, but it could also be a growth spurt and he's jsut hungrier tahn normal and needs to wake up to eat, sleeping through the night is completely a developmental thing jsut like walking and talking and there are guidlines but no set time when a child should start. my kids are much older but anytime they started to wake up at night excessivley i would wake them before i went to bed and give them their bottle so that i wasn't having to wake up a few hours after i laid down. good luck

I have noticed with my son who is 8.5 months also, that is has not made a difference wether he goes to sleep at 7 or 9, so when he starts to get sleepy is when I put him down. I think waking at times during the night is a phase they go through for a period, because he did that for a about 6 weeks, then starting sleeping through the night again. So I think what you are doing is a good thing. HAve you tried giving him a bath about a half an hour before bed? That is what seems to work well with my little one. Its like after he plays and splashes in the tub he is relaxed and seems to sleep longer. Good luck with all!