Strong-willed, teething, and a night-owl...but gorgeous!

[scarlettO]

I have a 3.5 month old girl and she has had a rough start and there hasn't been an end in sight for awhile.  She was colicky for the first 5 weeks of life, then had 2 wonderful weeks of great eating and sleeping and happiness.  Since then she began teething (this lasted 7-10 days then passed).  Now the teething is back and she is getting up every 2 hours to feed throughout the night.  There have only been 2 weeks of true sleep in the last 3.5 months at our house.  The compounding problem is she refuses to sleep before 10 pm.  She has even (within the last week or so) begun screaming prior to each time she falls asleep at night.  It is obvious to us that she is overtired, but how can you make them sleep if they refuse (we try routines such as napping around 6pm, getting up and eating, having a bath, eating/activity, then trying to sleep again).  Advil and baby orajel is not stopping the screaming or helping lengthen her/our blocks of sleep.  Any ideas on how to make her life a bit happier other than waiting until the teething stops?  It's just hard to watch when we know what she's like underneath (we saw her true personality during that 2 weeks of goodness).  Tips, similar stories, anything helpful are appreciated.  Thanks.

[Katet]

Can you post your day routine & how she goes to sleep ie wind-down
I'm not sure it is teething, she is very young to be teething esp if Orajel etc don't work, babies start to dribble & chew at this age & that isn't a sign of teething, just that their mouths produce saliva.
I think she is being overstimulated & overtired & possibly that is due to too long awake in the day time, so it would be great to get an idea of your typical day

[scarlettO]

Typical day:

1 hour nap in a.m.
2-3 hour nap in afternoon
1 hour nap in evening

Wind down between 8-10pm (bath around 7pm)
Fusses for 10 minutes before going down for good (9-10pm)
Then she starts the waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the night whereas she used to sleep 6 hours or more straight (she wasn't teething then).
We're sure she is teething because we can see eye teeth (X2) stiucking out and she cries when pushing on her gums.  White pearls are seen below the gum line.  She chews on hands a lot, not feeding well, and wiggles lips in and out.

Her wind down consists of bath, cuddling till fall asleep.  We don't let her cry it out ever if she's fussy.  We haven't tried Tracy Hogg's 3-day magic yet as she is teething and we doubt it may be effective right now.

Don't know if there is any advice that can help, and we may just have to wait out the teething.  She's for sure not getting enough calories during the day which makes it worse.  Anyway, we will try supplementing with food tomorrow for the first time to up caloric intake and see if this helps.

Thanks

[Katet]

teething aside, I wouldn't supplement with solids, in young babies (under 6mo) that can actually increase waking as their digestive systems are still immature & they get an upset tummy & can lead to the increased risk of digestive problems in later life.
If it is teething, then there isn't much you can do, except comfort her & offer Bonjella/orajel or some form of pain relief & if they aren't working then I'm still doubtful it is teething...actually sounds like compounded overtiredness (BTW, I could seem my ds#1 teeth through the skin from the day he was born... he got the first 2 at almost 7months old)

...she should be awake about 1.5hours.. no more than 1.75 at her age & she may actually only be able to do 1hour... some babies (esp colicy ones seem to need more sleep) a bed time around 7pm is really best as that is when naturally babies seem to be ready for bed. I find with my ds#2 now 7mo, that he actually only lasted an hour from his last nap to bed time until he was about 5mo... even now he only lasts 2 hours between naps & the average for his age is to 2.5- 3hours.

[Lucysmom]

Hi - I just wanted to say that I also thought that my dd was teething as I saw and felt a white hard bump under her gum where her incisors would be.  I asked the pediatrician about this as babies usually do not get their incisors first, they usually get their bottom two front teeth first, then their top two front teeth. Anyway, she said that my dd was not teething at all and that what I was seeing and feeling under her gums was something called a bohny (sp?) deposit.  It is normal and not painful.  Everyone always asks if my dd is teething as she drools all of the time, sucks in her lips, and chews everything. But like Kate said babies's salivary glands kick in and so that starts the drool fest.  And babies explore their world orally so that explains the fact that my dd wants everything in her mouth (including her feet!). 

When my dd was 3-3.5 months old I had her on the following schedule:

7 Awake and feed
8:15 wind down before nap
8:30 to 10 nap
10 awake and feed
11:15 wind down before nap
11:30 to 1 nap
1 awake and feed
2:30 to 4 nap
4 awake and feed
Catnap (30-45 minutes), bath, feed, wind down, bed all by 7:30
Dreamfeed at 10:30/11

Of course not everyday was even close to being perfect and we did have trouble with 45 minute naps but overall this was what we were striving for.  Don't know if this is helpful but thought I would write it down just in case.  Sorry things are rough right now...

[onlybegotten]

Hi all,  I have a six month old baby girl who was sleeping thru the night but has recently refused to go to bed unless she is rocked.  She started sleeping thru the nite at about 2 months and by 3 months she would fall asleep in her crib (we would put her in when she was still awake).  She is teething (her bottom two have come in within the last 2 weeks).  We aren't sure where she got into the habit of wanting to be rocked when going to sleep, but now we are having a difficult time getting her out of it.  Any advice??