HORRIBLE NIGHTWAKINGS please help!

[Florencia]

Last week I posted about ds night wakings but got no answers.

He's been waking 2x at night for the last past 2 weeks. He has always been a beautiful night sleeper. He was sleeping 10.5 to 11 hours straight at night before this happened.

He screams his lungs out and is only settled by the sight of us into his room. If we try to hold him he freaks even more. No water or sucking is allowed also. He also settles if we pat his back and lay next to his crib for 40 mins. Then, when he's fully asleep we can creep out of the room.

The wakings are taking place at 1130 / 12 and 130/200 every time. He's not in pain, has no gas, reflux is under control. I thought about teething but I can't see or feel anything coming and Motrin, tylenol or any other pain killer won't make a difference.

He's napping Ok in daytime (1 nap from 2 to 3 hours). He goes to bed easily and drifts of to sleep with no problem.

I was thinking about sep. anxiety since his dad has been working late hours this month (leaving when he's asleep and coming home when he's asleep again) and I came back to work partially 6 weeks ago. BUt since he was OK for the first weeks, I'm not sure.

My biggest concern is that the wakings are now predictable and nothing seems to stop them. Last night there was no patting that helped for the second waking so we had to take him to our bed and then (4 hours later) replace him in his crib so he'd start the day from there. I don't want to do things wrong but for the lack of results I'm getting it seems that I'm missing something.

PLEASE PLEASE any comments are apreciated. Even if they're just reassuring!
TIA

[elfin]

Hello,

First off my apologies to your previous post not getting answered.

This is such a trying time for sleep, trust me.  My ds was also a great sleeper, but from around 14-16 months it just seemed like it was one thing after another.  So my thoughts based on my own personal experience of that time are that it is either, teeth (molars and eyeteeth were terrible!), some seperation anxiety, or is there the possibility of any illness?  Have you tried giving any pain meds before bed?  My other thought is that night terrors/nightmares also start to pop up here as well.

Has anything changed in his routine or at home recently?

I always found that no matter what was going on, the more consistent I stayed, the quicker he was back on track.

I hope this helps somewhat.  I feel like I just rambled on....!

[Khyan & Sahria's mum]

The waking you described (last night) reminds me of Khyan's teething with molars  :cry: He would just cry or whinge most of the night and no amount of patting, holding, pain meds would make a difference !  He won't sleep in our bed so I just resigned myself to hours beside his bed trying to make some sort of difference until he finally drifted off.

You said that he drifts off beautifully - is this with your help or does he go to sleep on his own?

It sounds to me as though it started as some sort of sep anxiety, pain (due to teething) or something similar and now has become a bit of a habit.

Have you tried going into his room alittle before he would normally wake and SLIGHTLY rousing him - wake to sleep style ? It might be worth a go !

I have to admit that between 12 - 15 months was a horrible time for us, mostly due to molars and the first 2 eyeteeth (we still have 2 to go - OH NO  :shock: )

I would try the wake to sleep method, give some pain meds and see if you can ride it out - I know so much easier said than done  :?


Let us know how you get on

[Duckie]

I will admit I don't know much about them, but have you thought about the possibility of night terrors?  I've heard (haven't experienced them firsthand) that they can be pretty frightening and often they are inconsolable and don't remember anything about it the next day.

[Stacie:Emma&Josh Mom]

Sorry this isn't going to be much help, but it does sound like typical toddler waking that you can't really help unless you find out it's an illness...  My dd does this from time to time and as was said before, I just have to remain consistent with what I do and she ends up back on track within a week or two.  We normally try not to go in if we don't have to because this just prolongs the process for our dd.  But she doesn't wake terrified, just crying a bit and usually stops within minutes and goes back to sleep on her own.  Once we go in, it's almost impossible to go back out.  Not that I'm recommending that to others as most toddlers need the comforting atleast before being put back into their bed.  Eye teeth however were definitely the exception.  She was up for 4 hours one night and NOTHING I did would help her sleep.  It's torture, but we're coming out on the other side now.  Good luck!

[jessica and emilys mummy]

Go to 'help with usually good 12 month old'Try that for a few weeks to see if it works.When Emily first started to wake it took 3-4 hours everynight to get back to sleep.Now,rarely,take about 5-10 mins.

[Florencia]

First of all, thanks for your reassurance. You're the best! It helps a lot to see that my baby is not an alien  :lol:

I've tried a lot of pain meds (motrin, tylenol, nimesulid). They don't seem to make any difference. Also Xylocaine or Oraljel at the gums. I can't feel bumps and he won't let me look at his gums, so he might be teething but I don't have much evidence of that. I assume he's going to be a little late with molars since he was a late teether (he got the first 4 teeth at once when he was 11 months) :roll:

As for the wakings, he used to have some (as any other baby) and 90% of the time he would put himself back to sleep after crying out for a few mins. Now it's different, he's screaming and yelling standing in his crib terrified (or looking like that)

And now he's waking 12 and 2 AM (30 mins of difference but majority those hours). I trie the wake to sleep method last night at 11 and I did wake him, and fell back asleep again but at 1140 he was yelling again as every other day. I stayed in a blow up matress next to his crib and he fell back to sleep but at 1230 he woke and was TERRIFIED to see me there and went hysterical for 40 mins till I gave in and had to give him a doze of benedryl and 10 mins later he did go to sleep.

I know I shouldn't drug him but nothing seemed to stop that. HE's having a lot of uncontrolable tantrums during the day. But I'd bet that he's not in pain (because the meds don't seem to make a difference)

I'm planning to keep the wake to sleep method for another 2 nights but Im running out of solutions. The first week it seemed to be getting better by just going into his room, pat him, and stay there for 30 mins and then leave. Now it's getting worse (what I was doing is not helpful anymore) and I'm running out of tricks.

Anyway, I'll give another couple of nights of try for wake to sleep and see how it goes. I'll let you know. First night was a total failure but we'll see... :wink:

Thanks again

[elfin]

If you know for certain that he is not ill or having teething pain then I would be inclined to suggest PU/PD.  Are you familiar with this at all?  Alot of the mommies on this site with lo's the same age as yours have had great success with it.

Just a thought.  Keep us posted on how things are going!

[Florencia]

I've been doing sort of PUPD it's more like PD since Pu would freak him (If I take him out of the crib even if it's for holding him or rock him he freaks and cries out so loud that I have to give him the benedryl- has happened twice).

I just go into his room, no talk, I just say sh sh sh and lay him down every time he crawls or moves from a laying position. That was doing the trick the first week and the wakings decreased to 1 per night.

During second week things got crazy and took us forever to calm him. Now it's 30 mins for the first waking and 5-10 fpr the second one.

He fusses around his bed (as if he couldn't find a comfortable position) and whines (the reason that gets me into his room is that he cries his lungs out for me, but when I get into the room he calms and just whines and cries less loud). Then he finally settles and off to sleep.

My concerns are:
1.How to know if it's teething since he's fine and happy during the day and this only happens at night.
2. I can't leave him to work it out because the crying escalates and it becomes imposible to calm him without th benedryl. That's why I can't use controlled crying or going into the room and then leave and count to 10.
3. How predictable the wakings are: 12 and 2. Second night of wake to sleep was also a failure. He wakes at 11 fusses, back to sleep and then crying out at 12 as usual.

Any thoughts on this will be really apreciated since Im on my 3rd week of no sleep and it's getting on my nerves! I can calm him but I can't seem to make the habit go away.

TIA and thanks for your concern and suggestions!

[harismam]

hi there,

i was having similar problem not so long ago and i could bet he is teething my son who is 15 months old on 28th has just gotten two molars and another two on the way, swollen gums. prior to this he was up several times a night and at exactly the same times, most of the time, i feel it is a guessing game. for about 6 weeks he was getting up at night like this. we thought it was because i stayed in room with him whilst he went to sleep, we thought he might be cold, we thought he might be too warm, we thought he might have wind!!!!! there is no end......... and then the next thing we discover he had cut his two back molars, so hang in there and it will pass......these phases always do, just be consistent, stick with what you have always done and he will settle soon. good luck
suzanne.

[elfin]

I agree with Suzanne, that it is probably his teeth.  Like she said, stick to what you have always done and he will get back on track.

[Florencia]

I hope I won't jinx it but I think we have it figured out.

The ped sent us a different pain medicine (aparently Motrin was not working for him anymore and Tylenol never did). He's taking Nimesulide.

The first night I got it wrong and gave him 2ble the dose :oops: so he was completely drugged and couldn't get up :cry: so it was a fake victory. But the following nights I've been giving him the right dose and he's sleeping through again. He started lenghtening the waking hours and being easier to put down.

I think that it also helped the fact that we went away for 1 night to a holiday house we own. He couldn't sleep at all but that disrupted the pattern. We noticed that so we went and stay another two nights at my mom's. That way, he'd be on a familiar environment (he spends the mornings at my mom's) but not in the same environment he's usually at every night. I think that helped a lot because we broke the vicious cycle. We slept yesterday at OUR home with NO night wakings!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
of course, he's been hapier during the day, taking better naps, eating better so things are looking up!

Thanks girls for your advice and your wise words. You really pushed me to go for the teething option and aparently, according to the ped, it was. He was in pain so he woke. Then it was a mixture of pain and habit, so by solving the pain and breaking the habit, we could get some success.

Thought I'd share because it seems like lots of mommies are in the same place and they might want to try this approach :wink:

Thanks again!

[claytonsmum]

You said he has reflux and it's under control.  How is it under control - what meds and how often?  When was the last time meds were adjusted?  We've been fine on 12 mg of Prevacid compounded in Caracream 3 times a day for 6 months and now - whammo - we realized the last 3 weeks of horrible sleep was reflux related.  Make sure that's not it.  Pain meds DON'T control the pain of reflux.

[Lilah'sMommy]

I'm so glad to hear I'm not alone!  Last night was awful!  Lilah is cutting her molars but I was convinced it wasn't teething that was keeping her up because the pain meds didn't help.  They've always helped with the other teeth.  But now you've convinced me that it is the teeth.  I was up with her for 2.5 hours last night.  She would almost settle, then start up again.  I've had great success with PU/PD (well, it's more like PD), but it did not help last night or two nights ago when this first happened.  I'm so glad, in a way, that it's the teeth-- that means it will be over some time.  Maybe I'll try Motrin instead of Tylenol?  Does it do the job better?

[Florencia]

Yeap Sabrina, now I'm positive about the teething (it looked a lot like night terrors and other things). THe thing that kept me confused was that he seemed to be happy during the day, napped ok and then the nights were hell... now with the new meds he's back to *normal* nights (he still wakes a couple of times but he settles himself back or I just have to go in his room for 10 mins)...

Then again, as it never ends, the days are FILLED with crankiness, but I see all the gums (upper and lower) WHITE (poor little thing, must be teething all he has at once :cry: ). Besides he's happy when he's biting a toothbrush, so I'm certain it's teething.

The ped explained me that molars pain is MUCH WORSE than simle teeth. That's why he sent me this stronger med. Motrin is a stronger pain killer than Tyleno so it might be worth to check if that does the trick for you.

Claytons Mom thanks for the insight about reflux, he's controlled under zantac only right now. He's almost being cleared off that since ped thinks that he only gets this heartburn at nights, so he's on Zantac 1x a day and he seems ok with that. I was almost sure that reflux was not causing the bad nights, since he take his Zantac at bedtime. BUt thanks again...

HTH!