Teething or OT?

[jenniferr]

Hi Everyone.
We finally had sleep under control with 16 mo old DD. We transitioned to 1 nap and have been sleeping from 6/6:30 PM to 7 AM, sometimes waking for a bottle around 5:30, then back to sleep. Our schedule is like this:

6:30/7 AM Wake
11:30/12 - Nap (1.5-2 hours)
6/6:30 PM Bed

The past few nights we've been experiencing some NWs. The first night, there was only one around 10:30 and it just took a resettle then back to bed. The second night, there was the same waking at 10:30 but re-settling would not work. At 12AM she was asking for her "bottle". Hunger? Growth spurt? Comfort? I gave her 6 oz of milk and she went right back to sleep. Last night was not good. She repeated the same pattern from 10:30 to 12 AM. When I say she won't resettle she cries out then tries to sleep. Cries out then tries to sleep. It's like she wants to sleep but can't. She asked for her bottle again (really don't want to make this a habit) which I gave to her and she went back to sleep. This time she woke again at 4:30 and by 5:45 was really crying asking for a bottle. Not sure what's going on here. She's waiting on her eye teeth to come in and has all the others. She had a really hard time with her first molars so I kind of suspect teething. She's not eating the best either right now that's why I've been letting her have the bottle at night. My goal was to have the bottles out of the picture by Christmas so I feel like we're regressing a bit here. I'm almost 3 mo pregnant and really tired! Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks.
Jenn

[becky1969]

Aw, poor baby! Definitely sounds like teething to me.  Anytime we see a waking around 10-11 pm (so soon after going to sleep, in other words) it typically means discomfort/pain.

Try medicating before bed and see if that helps.  The BW method is to give as much comfort as necssary when sick or teething.  We have to be careful abou giving bottles, but I suspect she's sucking to soothe the pain.  What I'd probably try instead is giving her some meds, tell her you're going to go make a bottle and then wait to see if you hear from her again.    This strategy worked with my DS when he was getting in those eye teeth.  Usually the meds started to kick in and he went back to sleep while waiting for me to come back.  If she's insistent, I'd go ahead and let her have it, but make sure to cut that out as soon as teething symptoms abate. 

Eye teeth are the worst! Almost every child I'v dealt with, mine included, had a lot more trouble with the eye teeth than even the molars.  In our case my son has takena whole year to get in the 2 yr molars, and even still the eye teeth were much worse and disruptive!