why does my 7 month keep waking up?

[masonsmom07]

my son will actually be 8 months on april 2nd, but has been doing this for quite some time. i'm assuming it's b/c he's teething, but looking for other possibilities or solutions. he'll usually goes down around 8 pm and gets up "for good" around 8 am. this is great except the time in between. he will wake up upset 3-4 during the night. i usually just keep an eye on the time when he does this and it typically lasts no longer than 20 min. i won't actually get up to feed him unless it's been at least 5 hours since the last time he ate. my question is...what is waking him up so often and should i be getting up with him every time?

[ra11en]

My daughter is 17 months old and she always wakes up a few times every single night. Sometimes its only briefly, but sometimes she really wails it out. We usually only let her cry for 7 or 8 minutes before one of us heads in to help her in case she had a nightmare or be getting sick which always seems to happen in the middle of the night. My little one is 7p-7a and we never want to mess that schedule up but sometimes we have to go in there. She needs to know there is always someone there if she needs us. But, I stopped giving her any food (including milk/formula) when I did have to go in her room around the age of 9-10 months.

It could be nightmares or teething or just normal waking and he's learning how to self soothe. It took my daughter a long time to learn how to self soothe when she awoke at night, but her bouts of waking became shorter and shorter and much more manageable over time as long as I didn't waver and kept the routine. You know what's best for your baby, trust yourself. At 8 months you shouldn't need to be helping him to fall asleep every time he wakes, so just listen to his cries and listen to your gut. Nothing wrong with going in there with him, nothing wrong with waiting it out. Depends on what works for you. Good luck!