Frequent Micro-Wakings After First Night Feed (8 Months)
Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on my 8-month-old’s sleep—we feel a bit stuck and aren’t sure what’s causing the frequent night wakings.
Our baby has learned to fall asleep independently at bedtime. We put him down awake, he rolls onto his side with a dummy, and falls asleep on his own.
Before sleep training, he would usually wake 1–3 hours after bedtime and need feeding to fall back asleep. After that, he often woke hourly—sometimes up to 10 times a night. Occasionally we could resettle him with just a dummy, but often he needed feeding.
About two weeks ago, we started sleep training using a sleep wave approach with 5-minute check-ins. We apply this after his first wake-up of the night.
Currently, he still wakes 2–3 hours after falling asleep. If he finds his dummy, he’ll fall back asleep—but then wakes again within 2–5 minutes, cries briefly (less than 5 minutes), and settles again. This cycle repeats for about an hour, crying briefly, then quiet/sleeping, then crying again).
We’ve spaced night feeds to roughly 5/3/3 hours. When he does feed, they seem like full feeds. We’re not trying to fully night wean yet—just reduce the frequent wake-ups in between.
We room-share. When he wakes after we’ve gone to bed, I briefly go to his crib, give him the dummy, and leave. He usually settles quickly once I leave. If I stay visible, he gets more upset.
His schedule is:
Wake: ~5;45-6:15 am
Wake windows: 3 / 3 / 4
Bedtime: 18:00–19:00 (depending on naps)
Daytime sleep: ~2 hours total
Last nap ends before 3pm
He’s a bigger baby (around 80th percentile), eats solids well, and breastfeeds well during the day.
Today was the first time he didn’t fall asleep easily at bedtime—he cried on and off for about 45 minutes (crying briefly, then quiet/sleeping, then crying again).
I’m trying to understand what’s driving these night wakings, especially the repeated micro-wakings after the first wake.
Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated!