8Mth Old Wakes up Every Few Hours at Night??

it sounds to me like its possible she is just waking up in the night and unable to get back to sleep.
think about it...you wak up slightly at night, roll over, get comfy again and you are asleep in a second. you may not even be aware that you have woken, you just move, and thats it.
if she has never had to get herself back to sleep...because you have always been there to comfort her, or she has your breast as a comfort, then its going to scare her and make her scream.
she needs to learn to soothe herself back to sleep....CIO is the fastest way to accomplish that...but if you don't like that option, talk to her dr and see what he reccomends.
also...if you don't think she is tired at 7:30..push bedtime back by a half hour. if you put her to bed when she is not tired...its possible that she is just taking herself a little nap, and waking up later because she really isn't ready for bed yet.

B. - I have an 8 month old and am having the same issue. The only difference is my daughterhas always slept in her crib and been a good sleeper. Once she started crawling she started waking up screaming & crying. She also has a bedtime of around 7:30 and is always tired and ready for bed at that time. She is no problem to put to bed in her crib as we have always done but she will not stay asleep and will wake up after an hour or 2 of sleep and I can not get her to go back to her crib. She cries so hard and I have tried to let her cry it out although I do go in and rube her belly & let her know I am there and she is loved then I leave the roonm but she does not let up. The question I have as far as letting them cry it out is just how long is too long? So, she ends up in bed with me because she has continued to cry for an hour to an hour 1/2 and gets all sweaty and hoarse sounding. So, you are not alone & I will be reading responses to your question as well. I posted this same question earlier this week and I am still dealing with this also. My daughter takes 2 naps, usually around 9:30 - 10:00 AM and then againg usually around 2:00 PM. She is teething also but even on days when I know she is hurting with teething & I give her infant Motrin, even that doesn;t help her sleep longer. I want my daughter to know she is safe & secure and loved and I have not been able to let her cry past an hour 1/2. So, if you find something that works, please let me know!!!

It sound to me like she is just used to relying on your breast as a comfort mechanism, and now it's gone. Although, that doesn't really explain why she cried in your bed too. My 6 month-old has recently started fighting sleep when it's her bedtime. So I have started bringing her into bed with me periodically to nurse her to sleep. If I am sleeping too, sometimes she'll stay attached for a couple hours before I wake up and put her back in her crib. I've just been doing this off-and-on for a couple weeks now, and I can already tell that she is much more reliant on my breast for her sleep-comfort. She used to wake up throughout the night and put herself back to sleep, but now she cries until I feed her. I don't think she's actually hungry b/c she was sleeping through the night at 2-months old.

So if your baby has ALWAYS had a breast ready-and-waiting to ease her back to sleep, then I'm sure it's very difficult to be without it. Everyone wakes up periodically throughout the night. For a baby, it can be from gas bubbles, aching gums, a dream, a noise, a wet diaper... anything. The only question is whether or not they can quickly put themselves back to sleep. I bet she wakes up and thinks, "Hey, my breast is gone! AHHHH!!!!"

Since I'm having a similar problem, I don't know that I'm the best person to give advice... but my pediatrician just told me to limit all breast feedings to 15 minutes. Ideally, this gives them all the nutrients they need, but it keeps them from using us as living pacifiers. Seems like a good theory.

How are her naps? What is her bedtime? It's sounds like she's overtired to me. She should be going down for bed anywhere between 7:00 and 9:00 pm and should get two naps during the day totalling about 3 hrs. Good luck!

i'd say knock out the 3rd nap if possible and no naps after 12. i had to do that.it may have become a habit but then again she could be having dreams. this is hard if the ped can find nothing wrong then im gonna side with him then again she may be sensitive to her wet diapers and thus when she goes she can't deal with being wet and that may be her cause. my parents told me i was like that i couldn't stand to be wet would wake up when i was and was the easiest of their children to potty train.

Here's something else to try.
I sware by music and night light.
I have not had this problem, except for teething. But my little boy at out 4 months old would have nightmares about his hospital stay when he was first born. He would wake up and cry, by leaving the music on all night it seem to reassure him by hearing something. If his night light goes out or is not plugged in he will wake up in the middle and cry until it back on.

Hi B.,

Maybe she's just saying "Hey, where's MOM!!!!?" That seems to be the most likely thing to me. My little one is now one year old, and would do the same thing as your 8mo until about 11 months or so. Then one day there was a noticeable change in her sleep pattern (while sleeping alone) - she'd wake up, stir and resettle about half the time. She made this change by herself.

Also - My daughter wakes up screaming from a dead sleep because she's teething, so I'm a begrudging human pacifier on those occasions!

It could also be night terrors but I'm not aware of what age that tends to happen.

Bedtime should be same time every night, even if she doesn't go rigth to sleep... it's the only way to train them. 2nd, put a size larger diaper on her at night so that it can hold more urine for the whole night, rather than leaking in the middle of the night... this worked like a charm with my little girl and still does (she's almost 20 months). Third... you are going to have to let her cry it out... the more you go in, the more you nurse her, the more you aren't consistent, the more it will happen. Your pediatrician is right... it only takes 3 nights of crying it out to make the connection for them to begin to learn to soothe themselves to sleep... and you've already been writing about this for more than 3 weeks, I think! :) Gotta start somewhere, but if you never teach them to put themselves back to sleep, they will always rely on you for that and none of you will never get a good night's sleep!
Good luck and get some rest... !
K.

My son is 10 months now and is just sleeping through the night, and he still wakes up every 4 hours now. Like one of the previous comments said my doctor said it's because the breast is like his security blanket. He has had me push nursing back to about 4 times a day, and not letting him fall asleep on it. It is starting to work because he use to be up every 1-2 hours. I do have to let him cry a little at night and now he normally falls back asleep on his own. I know how hard it is.