8.8 days is the time at which your blocks become eligible to stake.
If you were the only one on the network (and difficulty had had time to adjust to this), you'd stake at 8.8 days. As it is, your blocks compete with every other block that's eligible, with chances according to each block's weight, so...
Still, 30 days for 12k seems a bit high. Maybe you don't leave your wallet open all the time ?
Though the general idea is that we now have a LOT of stakers, and so, since the number of blocks per day is targetted to a fixed number, there is a huge roadblock there.
I understand the diff issue but this is what my wallet shows, 34 days per block. I do not leave it open all the time, why would I when it says 20+ more days till the next stake.