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Regressions don't last that long - sounds like bad habits that have just continued. I've been there - when my son hit the 18-month regression, we started laying down with him at bedtime, which spiraled into longer and longer times to fall asleep, which spiraled into night waking and needing us in there to fall back asleep. We let these habits linger for 3 months before doing anything about it 3-4 days of CIO sleep training and talking to him on the monitor, then it was over.

At 8 months, it's pretty normal to be on a 2 nap schedule. In terms of awake time, a 2-3-4 schedule seems popular. This means wake up, awake for 2 hours, nap #1, awake for 3 hours, nap #2, awake for 4 hours, bedtime. If I were you, I'd try sticking to that schedule strictly for a week at least, with a clear naptime/bedtime routine. Hopefully you can tap into your child's natural biological rhythms that way.

Yep, it sounds like bad habits to me. There are regressions, but for my kids (who were both sleep-trained) they never lasted more than a few weeks and then they went back to how they were sleeping before.

At 8 months, both my kids were taking 2 naps a day, 2 hours long each usually, but at least 90 minutes a piece. 2-3-4 never worked for my kids. It was more like 2.5 hours of waketime before naps. So they were up at 730am and were down for naps at 10-12pm and then 2:30-4:30pm, with bedtime around 7-730pm depending on how tired they were.

I did 2/3/4, but at 8 months my son was down to 2 naps - he’d get up around 6, nap at 9 and 1, and go to bed at 7. The thing is that you may have to prioritize naps and a consistent schedule for a while - you mentioned that she should have napped at the gym, so I’m assuming you’re a SAHM right now - until she gets out of the bad habits.

"we went to the gym today, and she should have slept while there, but didn't."
Just curious, how would she sleep at the gym? Do they have pack-n-plays in the childcare there? Is it semi-dark and semi-quiet for babies to sleep? I can't imagine that any baby would fall asleep in a gym-style childcare unless that was their routine every day or most days. I wouldn't be going to the gym during what "should" be naptime. And a part of you might think "well I never know when it's going to be naptime!" but the thing is, if you stick to a routine, her naptimes will start to get so much more predictable and that makes life SO nice

and that's great that she took an hour long nap! Hopefully more of those will be in your future as her sleep rhythms get sorted out! With her previous 15 minute naps, was it that she was awake for long periods of time and would only nap a couple times a day, or that she would be awake for short periods and then asleep for short periods?

As for the night wake-ups, if your goal is for her to sleep through the night, I think trying the crib consistently at night is your best bet, which you are already doing. I know it's hard - my son only STTN like every other month, 6-12 months. We'd get a good month, and something would disrupt it, and we'd "coddle" him more in terms of sleep, would would just lead to him being more needy at night for awhile.

For us, what always worked best was talking to him and singing to him over the monitor. He'd wake, we'd let him cry for 5-8 minutes, and then we'd talk to him: "(Name), we love you, lay back down, it's night night time, go back to sleep, we love you" and sing our lullabies (we have 3-4 that we use exclusively.) I think this helped him feel like he was safe and not alone, but, it kept him in the crib, in the dark, in his own room. He quickly learned that this is a place where he could safely sleep.

I know three hours of intermittent crying is hard to deal with. You do have draw the line somewhere. But, the more you "rescue" her, the more persistent she will be in crying for you, because she thinks she can get back in bed with you that way. With modified CIO, I'd go in there and calm her down, but really try not to take her out of the crib. You decide how long you're willing to stay - most modified CIO - people will say to make it short, like 1-3 minutes. I will admit, we stayed longer, rubbing his back through the bars of the crib. It probably took longer to "train" him that way, but its what we were comfy with. We did start to limit our back rubbing time more and more.

@PixieStix: I hear you, we're just all trying to figure it out together!! Like I said, DH & I tried lots of things and we weren't always consistent. However there were some things that worked, and life is so nice when they sleep through the night and have predictable naps! I think it sounds like you're on the right track, hopefully your daughter will figure it out soon! FWIW, despite our inconsistency, LO1 started STTN at 12mo and kept at it 100% for over 6 months. I think *part* of it was developmental.