Help! what would you do?

Have you tried the patting technique?? Sit beside her cot and pat her tl she settles, stop patting when she stops crying, start patting when she starts crying, and so on? It worked when my oldest was around that age.
Theres a book I was gonn ask if you'd read and I can't remember the name of it but someone mght post it!

Good luck hun it sucks ae?!!!

How long has this been going on? Could it be a phase, teething, sick?

Sorry i have no advice to offer but i do remember going through a similar thing with dd at that age. It got to the point where i just wanted to scream. It can be really hard.

One day i just decided to stop making a fuss, if she wouldnt sleep that was fine, id let her play until she nearly fell asleep on the floor. It was annoying that i never had time to myself at night but that was better than screaming & me getting stressed out. After about 2 weeks of this she started going down again with no problems. It was around the time she got her 4 top teeth also

Yes, just wondering if she's teething? Also recommend the sleep sense programme to you - but you first need to rule out if she is in any pain, ie. get her checked out at the Dr and signs of teething. Try pamol in case it helps her settle. My baby is 8mths and is behaving strangely re: sleep at the moment and teething is all I can put it down to. He's quite clingy.

Edited by newlywed

One thing we tried when we'd been stuck in horrible sleep habits for months was to stay in the room next to the cot, and do everything we could to calm DD down (so patting, rubbing back, stroking forehead, talking calmly etc), but we didn't pick her up. We'd give her cuddles in the cot, but just refused to pick her up (and told her that too). Very hard to start with, and don't know how that will work if you have your toddler to deal with as well but might be something to think about?

For us, the first night was the hardest and there was alot of screaming at multiple intervals but I felt that at least I was there with her. The second night was a bit better and so on, until by the end of the week she had got the message that we would help her go to sleep, but there wasn't much point in carrying on as she wasn't going to be picked up. We also made sure she had lots and lots of cuddles just before bedtime.

We did this at just over a year, so don't know if it would be totally appropriate at 8 months, but might be something to consider. I know how horrible it is when they only want to sleep on you (and we didn't have a toddler at the time! )

I agree with making sure there's nothing medical happening either - ears might be something worth checking.

ETA: since we did this (with the exception of some illnesses along the way), she's pretty much slept right through for almost a year now. Hard going for that first week, but worth it for us! Also wanted to add that DD was not feeding during the night at that stage, but that might be something else you have to take into consideration.

Edited by blondy

are you putting her down soon enough? she may be over tired which would make her very hard to settle. also do you swaddle still? i would recommend the shush method over CIO at 8 mths old.

I remember there were a few times where jimi would all of a sudden change his sleeping/eating/playing routine and one of those changes was around 8 months.

I can be so hard to find out what it is they really want...

Just wanted to send you some strength as the lack of sleep is one of the hardest things I think

Is she possibly playing on you coming in and out etc? DD would scream and scream and scream and then as soon as we walked in stop because thats all she wanted just us and to be picked up and cuddled. We did the sleep sense programme... I should say I did because DP wasn't home and isn't tough enough for it and she started sleeping through that night, our problem wasn't really waking at night it was not going to sleep unless she had her dummy.

Just recently she started acting up again and we got into a habit of helping her sleep again I decided to be tough and let her cry, took about an hour and she went to sleep. It helps that we live with my parents so mum would go in pop her back down tell her it was sleep time and leave.

Is she likely to settle if you leave her alone completely? I only ask as some kids including my nephew find it hard to settle if they are constantly picked up and put down, patted, touched, stroked etc if you just leave them to it yes they cry but they settle quicker then with constant interferrence

Thats awesome news .. I mean at least you are getting some sleep!

Isabelle ended up sleeping in our room around about that age (after being fine in her own) .. but it only lasted a little while and she was back to "normal" again.