Oh No! Here we go again...(kinda long)

[jec2]

Night Wakings, help! I was up about 3-4 times last night (I lost count). I don't know what to do anymore. We were doing so well and I don't know why DS is waking and so upset. He is about to pop a top tooth, please tell me this is it. He is getting over a cold but don't think he got an ear infection this time as his mucus is almost dried up and it was never green.

We resorted to CIO in May when DS was up every hour and got him down to 0-2 wakings a night--mostly 2 (1 at Midnight and one at 3-5 am.). Weissbluth doesn't seem to provide any solutions for this aged baby except that a baby of 9-10+ months doesn't need to eat. Duh, I know that and am especially reminded by that when it most often only takes DS 5 minutes to drift back to sleep after "nursing." I usually "try" to give him 10 minutes to see if he;ll self-sooth but it is really escalating. DH is so on the verge as he cannot tolerate the screechy crying anymore. DH finally went in last night but DS freaked out and started SCREAMING! I had to go in and "nurse" him.

At our 9 month appt. I asked the dr. about these night wakings and whether I should let him CIO for those as well. he said that some baby's just need a little bit more soothing at night, especially if they are standing and rattling their crib. He suggested that DS just needs some lovin'. But now it just seems to be getting more frequent--every 2-3 hours starting at 11-12 o'clock.

Any suggestions?

[papal]

No suggestions Jec.. just wanted to send out a hug. We are in the same boat.. i know how hard this is. :(

[jk3]

It could be the teething. We go through this every now and again + it's usually right before a new tooth emerges. My DS just cut 3 molars so it has been particularly bad. We usually let him CIO but no more than 5-10 minutes because at this point, he usually falls back asleep after 2-3 minutes if that's going to happen + I don't want to torture him if it's teething. We do resort to Tylenol every now + again + many of my friends alternate between Tylenol + Motrin when the teething is bad. HTH!

Jenn
DS 6/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[Buffys Mommy]

No suggestions here either. Just wanted to share in your misery. At least 4 times each of the last 3 nights. And within 2 minutes on the boob - she's out for the count. DH now thinks I have her trained to sleep by boob and wants to break her of the habit (and so do I). But when you have to get up for work in the AM it's hard not to fall back on what you know works.

Good luck. I hope it's just a quick phase.

Tammie
Sarah Michelle 10/13/03

[sadie427]

We're right there with you, pretty much--never a great sleeper, finally did CIO with great results, was sleeping thru the night from around 8 mo until maybe 6 wks ago (so 10 1/2 mo or so). Initially I'm sure it was teething--always sucking on his hand, looked to be in pain. And the teeth haven't popped thru yet (he looks to be getting all his remaining teeth at once), so it could be that still, but I think there is a certain amount of habit/just wanting soothing as he only acts like he's in pain some of the time. But we aren't doing CIO now in case it is teething.

So we are waiting about 10 minutes, then either just picking him up and soothing him or giving him a few sips of cold water in a cup. Initially DH was giving a bottle of milk (unfortunately only made it to around 9 mo nursing), then water when it became clear that this was going on for a while since I know he does not need the milk, but since we're trying to wean to the cup we switched to that and surprisingly this works fine.

Also, I have wondered if bedtime is too early--I know Weissbluth would say it's actually too late at 7:30, but the few days we put him down later he slept better. We are sticking w/ the 7:30 for now though.

So maybe try sending DH in again, just soothing him, or maybe a bottle or cup of water? It's not the ideal solution, but he doesn't need the milk, and personally I don't know that I'd use CIO till I was pretty sure that it wasn't teething pain.

[pixelprincess]

Unless he is sick with a virus, cold or teething... (no expert here) frequent night wakings shouldn't occur. Since he is bf-ed, perhaps he is just seeking comfort? It is a bit different for us as DS is bottle fed.

Is he napping too much in the day? I find if DS sleeps too long through the day it messes with his sleep at night. Or if he takes 2 naps with one close to bed-time. We have had some recent night-wakings (one at varying times of night) to feed and then he plops right back.

Hope it gets resolved soon since sleep for the mommy is so precious.

[jec2]

I've thought about the cup of water. Maybe we'll try that. Also, what bedtime does Weissbluth recommend. I thought between 6 & 8 pm was good. We do 7:30 too and thought we were ok.

[sadie427]

I think he'd say 7:30 is the latest he'd recommend. In the book, it seems like in every vignette he suggests moving the bedtime earlier if the child is waking at night or waking up too early in the am. I have two friends who follow him strictly and their toddlers go to bed at 6:30. But I'm too skeptical about that working, and that's just too darn early for me, so we're sticking w/ 7:30 for now. We did 7 a few times when he was really overtired, and it didn't change the nightwaking.