8 month old waking many times per night

[shazam791]

Hi, My DS is 8 months, and for the past several months he will wake up and wail at night. Sometimes he'll fall asleep again on his own, but often I'll have to go and calm him back to sleep or do PU/PD. He has no teeth and does not appear to be teething yet. He has no props and falls asleep on his own for all naps and bedtime with no problem at all. BUT HE KEEPS WAKING UP AT NIGHT!

6:30 awake 6-8 oz bottle
8:00 solids (breakfast)
9:30-11 nap
11:30 solids + 5 oz bottle (lunch)
2:00-3:30 nap
3:30 8 oz bottle (snack)
5:30 solids (supper)
6:30 bath and 8 oz bottle
6:45 stories/wind-down
7:00 asleep

Any thoughts? I am going nuts. He has slept 10-12 hours on his own many times, but the past couple months have been terrible!!

[Bex09]

Hmmm... your routine looks good hun and he sounds like a good independent sleeper, which are the usual culprits.

Is there any developmental changes ATM, like learning to crawl, pull-up, stand, etc? Or is he experiencing any SA during the day if you go out of the room or leave his side?

How does he react when you go to him in the night? Does he calm quickly or continue to cry? How have you been resettling him, with PU/PD? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to get to the bottom of this for you.

[shazam791]

He has been army crawling for a couple weeks, and working on pulling up. He has a bit of SA during the day I guess, but it's not a big problem.

During the night he calms quickly when I walk in, but will continue to cry or fuss when I try to keep him in the crib instead of PU/PD. If he gets really upset, I will do PU/PD, but only pick him up for 15-30 seconds before putting him down. He's quiet the minute I pick him up.

If DH goes in there, he is usually more successful at getting him back to sleep faster. Can't figure out why, since he does the EXACT same thing I do.

In conjunction with the NW, he is also EW. Last night between 7pm-10pm he woke up and cried 3x and we had to go settle him each time. Then he woke up at 5am and didn't fall back asleep until 6am. Then he slept for 30 minutes and was awake again and that is when we started the day.

[*jazzberry*]

Could something be disturbing him? Discomfort from something he's eating? Noise? Is the room warm enough? Probably silly questions but just thought I'd throw them in there

[shazam791]

Could something be disturbing him? Discomfort from something he's eating? Noise? Is the room warm enough? Probably silly questions but just thought I'd throw them in there

Thanks for the ideas, but I don't think so. I check to see if he's warm when I go in there and he feels like a comfortable temperature. I use a wind machine in the nursery for white noise and when he goes to sleep, DH and I go to the basement for tv/computer.

The only thing I was thinking tonight is maybe eating solids at 5:15 and a full bottle at 7 is too much food and it hurts his belly. He is awake when eating his last bottle, and he almost always finishes the 8 oz, so I would assume he'd stop drinking if he was full, but maybe not...?

[Erin M]

Hmmm...that's a good thought -- did his NWs start with the introduction of new foods or when you started giving him solids?  Maybe something is bothering his tummy.

[*jazzberry*]

How much soliids is he having? What sort of stuff? I must say it does sound like it could be some sort of discomfort.

[skatty]

I really think it may be teething. Some kids teeth without any symptoms and just have teeth pop through. Maybe he is distracted in the day and only feeling it at night. Do the NWs come and go, is there any respite or is it every night without fail? I think the only way you can rule teething out os to emdicate and see if there is any difference. The only other thing I can think of is fluid in the ear, not necessarily an infection but the ears can fill with fluid and have difficulty draining after colds/teething, the longer you lie down the more pressure builds up and that is why naps are usually ok.

I hope you can get to the bottoms of it. My dd's sleep was terrible at the 8/9 month mark and it was the beginning of the 2-1!!

[Bex09]

I was thinking some sort of discomfort too. That is a good point about solids, some times certain foods can cause tummy issues until LO gets more used to them. Did the NW start with the introduction of solids?

[shazam791]

Hmmm...that's a good thought -- did his NWs start with the introduction of new foods or when you started giving him solids?  Maybe something is bothering his tummy.

I honestly can't remember, I think it probably was around the same time as solids that the NWs seemed to be getting worse and more frequent. I always attributed it to things giving him gas (tofu, green beans, etc) so now I just give him squash or sweet potatoes for supper since those don't seem to bother him.

I have medicated him (both mylicon and advil) wondering if he was in pain, and that does 'seem' to help, but I never do it until he's woken up 4x or so, and I'm exhausted and have given up. So maybe by that time he's tired too and is finally ready to sleep.

There is some respite, sometimes he will sleep through the night. Last night I put him to bed 15 minutes early (6:45 pm) and he slept until 6:30 a.m. I did hear him wake up a couple times over the monitor, but he fell back asleep on his own each time. So maybe he was OT and that is why he kept waking up!? I'll try the earlier bedtime again tonight and see if it works again. You wouldn't think 15 minutes would make a difference in waking zero times versus waking 4x!!

[Bex09]

Glad you had such a good night last night, worth giving the EBT a try again. Maybe you were just missing his sleep window slightly at BT. If he is teething this can make LOs more tired than normal and need shorter A times than they can usually handle.

If the pain meds work then it does sound like teeth to me. I find that even before they pop through and just as they are moving up seems to cause my DD terrible pain too. We also find that they cause problems for about 4 or 5 nights then we get a couple of nights break, then it starts again. Why not try medicating 20 or so mins before BT and see if that helps with the NW? HTHs.

[shazam791]

Well, the EBT has helped DS sleep through the night (10ish hours). EXCEPT now he's waking up super early! Before he'd wake up around 6:15am. With EBT, it was 5:45am for a couple days, and today it was 5:00am! I try to get him back to sleep, but he is ready to wake up and maybe is hungry...? Today I tried for an hour to get him back to sleep, and at 6:00am, I fed him in the darkened nursery and tried to put him back to sleep after eating...which also did not work.

If it's not one thing (many night wakings) it's another (EWs!)

[Bex09]

That is really good progress hun, although the EW isn't great! Teething can cause EW too, especially if the meds have worn off. So what is your day looking like now that you are getting EW?

[shazam791]

He slept through the night for a full week! 10-11 hours each night. On the days he did an EW, I just left him to chatter to himself until 5:45-6:00am and then I got him and fed him. He went down for a nap at 9 instead of 9:30 on EW days.

AND NOW.....he's got his first tooth coming in. So maybe that was the problem originally. He's woke up crying once already and he's only been down for the night for 1 hour. I gave him Hyland's teething tablets before bed tonight.

[Erin M]

Excellent on the STTN!
LOL, my ds got his first,msecond, third, fourth, and fifth teeth the week before last.  We had lots of EWs!