Not really a Food question....

[Shirale]

Hi all,
did anyone have any experiance with their baby waking up screaming every couple of hours...I am really starting to get quite over tired, my 7 mo dd is not sleeping well, she slept through the night at one point but now wakes every 2-3 hours and is hysterical unless I nurse her but she eats during the day, and eats solid food so I am really not sure what to do. Lettinbg her scream isn't working b/c she jusyt gets hysterical and still won't sleep and I can't sleep if she is crying anyway...so- moms, can you give me any advice on what worked for you?? Thanks a million!

[suzska]

How long has it been going on? Could she be teething? I find that when Evan is teething he'll often wake up screaming in the middle of the night and won't settle down until we give him some Tylenol and/or bring him into our room. After about 3 or so nights of this I realize that some new teeth are about to come through. Of course Evan has been getting teeth since he was about 3 months old. He is now 16.5 months old and has 16 teeth. We're now working on the back molars.

[sophiesmom]

i think it's probably teeth too, it could also be separation anxiety. my dd did the same thing here and there, so we usually assumed it was her teeth, and they did usually pop out. you could try giving her some tylenol and orajel before bedtime and see if that helps. she probably wants to nurse because it is comforting and probably makes her feel better too (i once read that when babies nurse it can help relieve pain)... hang in there!

[megsmom]

Does your baby fall asleep on her own to go to bed at night? Sometimes if the little one always falls asleep in mom's arms rocking or nursing they can get used to that to lull them to sleep vs. being comfortable drifting back on their own. That's what some of the experts say anyway. When my DD was quite little I would get her very sleepy but try to put her down in her crib before she fell asleep, at least most of the time. She does wake up at night but a lot of times I don't have to go in there. I do go in if she is agitated or screaming, but I tend to try and let her work out little fusses to see if she'll go back to sleep on her own (doesn't always work, and it sounds like you might have a lot more noise going on that's pretty hard to ignore).

I have found that growth spurts, teething, separation anxiety, learning a new skill (crawling, rolling, standing) and illness have all played a roll in my dd's sleep getting interrupted. This is usually short lasting, though. We all never appreciated sleep until we were parents. Hang in there.

[Shirale]

Thanks so much Moms! She could be teething, although I don't feel anything, and she has yet to cut a tooth (she is 7 months...) last night she finally slept a good 7 hours straight, which was amazing, we'll see what happens tonight...it could be seperation anxiety, or growing, anything actually...she is just starting to get upset if she notices I am not around, or not holding her if someone other than her dad is...anyhow, hopefully it will not happen again...I may try the tylenol orajel thing...