8 month old was night weaned but has recently started waking

[@llli*2ndboy76]

My 8 month old had been sleeping through the night for the past 2 months without
nursing up until about a week ago. When I nurse him he goes right back to sleep
though he does not appear to be that hungry.
His pediatrician seems to think that if I feed him enough during the day he should not need to nurse at night. Is this realistic?
He has been eating solids for a few months now and also struggles with reflux. He is on Zantac.
The lack of sleep is starting to wear on my entire family. I also have an extremely
active 3 year old.

[@llli*mommal]

How often does your baby wake at night?

It's very, very, very normal for a baby who was sleeping through to suddenly start night-waking again. Teething and new developmental milestones often combine for disturbed sleep. If a mom is willing to nurse, that's often a good way to get through the night-waking phases, since it's not like night-weaning leads to uninterrupted sleep- it just removes one tool for dealing with a wake-up.

I have to at your pediatrician's advice. Yes, many 8 month-old babies no longer need to nurse at night, but many still do. Night-waking babies can be genuinely hungry, particularly during growth spurts. And again, if you take nursing out of your nighttime parenting equation, how do you solve the problem of getting baby back to sleep?

[@llli*auderey]

in my experience, it's not realistic to think an 8 month old will STTN - you just got 2 lucky months! my 13 month old wakes to nurse a lot.

can we help you brainstorm about a setup that will reduce the disruption at night so you can get more rest? if you tell us what your setup is someon migiht have some ideas.

[@llli*lllmeg]

STTN=a single 5 hour stretch of sleep. Not all babies meet this milestone before a year, some do, some don't, some go longer for a time, and then need to wake more again. And babies nurse for reasons other than needing milk-and this is healthy and expected and will help keep your milk supply in good shape for as long as you want to nurse.

This is normal behavior for your baby, as pp suggests moms can find creative ways to maximise their own sleep.

I wonder if your pediatrician ever wakes up at night, feeling hungry, or thirsty, or lonely, or worried about something? I wonder if he/she says to him/herself “Well I ate enough today, I should not be waking up like this?” Why do we expect an 8 month old to be able to do something –sleep a long time without waking-that many adults cannot normally do?

[@llli*2ndboy76]

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post. My older son slept through the night from 5 months of age on unless he was sick so I took for granted that this was the norm.
Now I realize how lucky I was!
The baby sleeps in his nursery in a crib.