5 months, crying in pain, several night wakings

[Amel]

hi there, i am really in need of your help!! my lo is 5 months old now and is almost 17 pounds in weight. from what i heard from thedro, is that she is above average. so, i decided to start solids early because of that (tracy also mentioned that in her book too).  i started giving her once aday (carrot puree) 2-5 tspoonful. this week i started to give her pear purea 2-5 tspoonful in her morning feed. i thought that all of this would help her night time sleep. it did to some extent (in terms of resettling her without breastfeeding her), but she still manages to wake from 2 to 5 times a night!!! she also wakes up before her dream feed!!! what does tht mean? why does she continue to wake up??

last night i noticed she was hitting her ears while she was crying. and her cries were not normal, i can hear that she was in pain!! it could be teething, but what can i do to stop the NW. she used to STTN and all of this happened just a month back.

i am desperate, my husband and i are not getting enough sleep, and we both have to go to wo

[Katet]

I'd stop the solids to see if sleep improves, I had big babies (both were over 20 lb at 5mo) & both were fine on just BF until 6mo...... also I found Orange foods gave my DS1 an upset tummy woke up upset, to this day (7.5yo) he really doesn't eat any veg that is orange, although does eat oranges.

It could be that she is teething that certainly didn't help sleep around here, but I could never pinpoint if it was the cause as he started daycare, then solids & was teething.

I'd try stopping the solids for a week, giving pain meds for teething & see what happens.

[Texomamama]

Good suggestions from Katet.  It does not hurt to stop solids for a while to observe. And, cut yourself some slack, 5 months is not really that "early" in terms of solids., Yes, WHO recommends 6 months, but in the US, the recommendation is 4-6 months, so you are right in the middle. 

Could be teeting, it is always so hard to tell at first because they have pain far in advance of the tooth actually erupting.  You can always put some Orajel or a topical ointment on there.  It can only help.  As far as grabbing at her ear, people will tell you that is a sign that her ear hurts, but at 5 months LO's are discovering and grabbing parts of their bodies, the ear and feet are tops of the list. 

I know NW are frustrating,  My DD2 will be 5 mo next week and she has them too.  DD1 was very consistent in her night routine from about 2 mo.  That is what I hate....the inconsistency.  Every night,  I have no idea what will happen. I feel like I am gearing up to go into battle.