9.5 month old waking, lots of AP and now dont know what to do

[annabee80]

Hi there

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice. My little one started crawling and pulling herself up in the last few weeks, I am pretty sure she is cutting her second tooth and has been waking once in the night having slept through previously (albeit good for a feww weeks, bad for a bit, good for a few nights, bad for a couple and then repeat the pattern - luckily I could usually shh her back with her bunny and then back to sleep)

The last few nights she has woken and is on all fours or sitting, always at different times and crying her heart out. I try and lay her back and she looks like she is going abck to sleep then starts crying again and I keep on doing this until she just suddenly after 10 minutes or more will get absolutely hysterical. Nothing helps, shhhing, patting, picking her up, laying her down, swinging, rocking, turning the lights on, turning them off, walking around with her and then trying agin, literally nothing, believe me I've tried. Except feeding her to sleep. In our bed. For the rest of the night she sleeps soundly in our bed, dosent stir, whereas she stirs every 45 minutes from 7pm onwards and puts herself back to sleep, until she wakes up crying.

This is far from what I want and I do think she is now hungry as she gulps it down till I am empty and then drifts off on the boob or off it but close to me.

She goes down fine at night, naps well, eats and drinks well in the night. She just wakes every night and I cant get her to sleep till she feeds. Is she hungry, having slept through before ( I breastfeed her frst thing (or in the night) and mid afternoon, she has a bottle mid morning and last thing) Or is it teething and developmental milestone - as she is pulling her self up to sitting or crawling, which she never did when I coud get her off by a hand on her chest and shhing.

If it is hunger/ teething/development - WHAT DO I DO? PU/PD or rather PD seems to make her worse and she goes to sleep fine in the cot by herself at night and for naps, literally wind down, pop her in say night night and leave the room.

Any help would be MASSIVELY appreciated

Anna x

[becj86]

stirs every 45 minutes from 7pm onwards

This sounds like a little OT creeping in. With the developmental milestones, she just may need a little more sleep than usual. What are her days like?
It could also be discomfort - are you medicating for her teething pain?

Could she be having a little separation anxiety do you think? We've had bouts of SA where DS has just been a boob-monster day and night, just wanting to be near me...

Where are you? Could it be that she's cold? She sleeps fine with your body heat but not in her cot?

[annabee80]

I think there could definitely be some separation anxiety as i don't work and in the afternoons particularly she just doesn't want to be put down.

Amazingly last night she slept till 6am which we haven't had for ages, the tooth area looks very swollen so might be about to pop through. We gave her baby nurofen and calpol last night too. So maybe that helped?

Interesting thought about the cold...we are in England and having a crap summer. Her room is about 16 degrees and perhaps she needs the heating on in her room on low. We used to do that all the time in winter and she slept much better when it was 18 or 19.

Her days are quite boring, I think as we mostly just play at home or go and see a friend with a baby. She is awake for about 3 hours to 3 and a quarter hours in the day but sometimes wakes from her afternoon nap quite early and we put her to bed a bit early. But maybe victims still too late. Yesterday I woke her at 4.15pm cos she had been asleep for 2 hours and I still hadn't given her her afternoon milk. She then had evening milk at just past 7 and took a while to drop off so prob asleep at 7.40pm. But some days she wakes at 2.30 and I put her to bed about 6.30 is that too late...should I try and force a cat nap at 5.30 on those days and have a late night as a result?

Thank you for your reply, really appreciate you taking the time to help me

Xx

[becj86]

She may need longer A times than that. http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=84884.0

I would stick with the early bedtime - CN will probably make things worse at this stage.

Its quite possible that the meds helped - teething is painful despite what some people will tell you (usually the ones without kids or that had kids who they didn't even notice teething). I know meds help DS when he's teething as he wakes on the dot of when the meds wear off.

18-20 degrees is the ideal room temperature for baby to sleep in, so maybe she is cold - you could turn on the heating or dress her up warmer... That may help.