Author Topic: Help!!! 8 and 1/2 month old...night terrors...lots of wakings per night  (Read 1828 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline babymurr

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 20
  • Location: Waterloo, Ontario , Canada
Ok...I will answer the questions first and then give you my scenerio....

How old is your child?  8 and 1/2 ms

What’s his/her daily routine?
    6:30/7     up/change/little bit of play
    7:30        breakfast ~ cereal and fruit and 8 oz bottle/play
    9:30/10   nap...anywhere from 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours
   11:30/12  up/change/lunch (cereal and veggies and 8 oz bottle)/play
   2:30/3     nap...again anywhere form 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours
   4:30/5     up/change/dinner(cereal and veggies and 8 oz bottle)/play
   7            bedtime routine : bath/swaddle and cuddle/bottle/kisses and tucked into bed by7:30~7:45

What’s nap routine? 2 per day...goes down no problem...she is swaddled and goes to her crib awake adn puts herself to sleep. She has done this since aobut 3 months.  We have always ahd a fan running in her room for white noise since the day we brought her home.

How long are naps?  1 and 1/2 to 2 hours

What's bedtime routine? bath/swaddle and cuddle/bottle/kisses and tucked into bed by7:30~7:45 Time? we start at 7 pm

Do you bottle or breastfed?? BF until 5 months...now bottle fed

How much? or how long? 4 bottles/day...8 ozs each

How many wakes per night? up until about 2 weeks ago there have been none since she was about 6 and 1/2 months now she will wake anywhere from 2 to 3 times to 8 or 9 times

What’s your LO like when waking at night? She wakes crying and sometimes she is crying and doesn't even wake.  I have caught her dreaming and making"dreaming noises" and then waking upset.  She can be anywhere from mildy upset to full out screaming. How long is he/she up? once I touch her our hold her she is immediately calm
 
When you go to him/her is she fussing or crying? yes
Or is it a mantra cry?  sometimes it is this and I just ler her work through it.  I try not to rush in right away.

What have you tried to settle?? ssshh and pat works well with her.  When it doesn't it, I pick her up and then put her back down once she is calm.  usually only takes me a few minutes and she is back out, but won't stay out for very long...maybe an hour.

Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones?  She has just gone through crawling, pulling up, cruising in the last bit.  She also had a nasty fall where we ended up in emerg.

Do they have a prop? No...she will not take a soother...sucks the side of her hand through her blanket
Do they have a lovie? her blanket...she is swaddled in it




ok...while trying to write this post I had to run up to her as she woke...or so I thought and was crying.  She was not awake but definately dreaming and very upset.  Each time I would pat her a bit she would sort of settle but as soon as I moved away she would cry out again.  Then, the patting wasn't enough and she continued to be upset as I patted and she was moving around in her sleep....kicking her legs a bit, jerking her body a bit and making dreaming noises.  I ended up picking her up and sort of waking her a bit and shushing in her ear and patting her bum a bit and then laid her back down.  She fuss only for a moment...not even 5 secs and passed back out.   She will probably stay out for maybe and hour if I am lucky and then she will do it again.

After about 2 weeks of this I am absolutley exhausted.  I know that it could be separation anxiety as well as a developmental thing, but it has definately gotten worse.  Is this night terrors???  What can I do?  Should I be waking her?  I tried to find the search button to search the boards for others who have been through this but I can't seem to find a search field anywhere??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

:)
angie
:D
angie

Mommy to Branden  16/12/01
and Grace 04/07/05

Offline babymurr

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 20
  • Location: Waterloo, Ontario , Canada
Anyone???? I could really use some advice.  She didn't sleep through again last night and continued to wake off and on all night.
:D
angie

Mommy to Branden  16/12/01
and Grace 04/07/05

Offline teezee

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 157
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2610
  • Location: chatham, ontario
ok well...you are not feeding her when she wakes at night i am assuming from your post. so she isn't hungry? or is she?  if she is waking every hour it MAY be a hunger thing although it seems that she eats well - what if you were to change her eating time (bottle) right when she wakes then do diaper change etc, and then do solids and feed every 4 hrs from there so that the last bottle (bedtime bottle) maybe will have more time between that one and the last feed and she will take more??? also at nine months they do go through a growth spurt - it may be that also...

if you have a spirited one, i know it's hard as i have one too! but maybe it is time to unswaddle??  my lo started sleeping better after i unswaddled her - although it took a few tried on my part but one day it worked - is she in the aussie swaddle yet? if not, it is good to help wean out of one totally as it gives more movement but still security for her to get used to.

is she maybe overstimulated before bed?  watching tv, having too much excitement before bed can bother sleep.

the only other thought that i may have is maybe she is getting too much daytime sleep?  it doesn't seem to be too off but all lo's are different.  my lo at 8 months needed about 2 - 2 1/2 hrs naps a day and if i hit the three hr mark for the total day i had night wakings.  her shortest A time should be in the am and her shortest nap 'should' be in the am also.  the longer A time usually works better in the pm.  at 9 months my lo is up in the am for about 2.75 hrs before her first nap and 3 to 3 1/2 hrs in the afternoon before her second nap.

a few ideas that stand out for me anyway- let me know if any of them make a little bit of sense or if you have any other questions i might be able to help with. it is so hard at that age as it could be something so simple as developmental...god knows they are going through so much at that time...hope things get better - and keep me posted!
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005




Offline babymurr

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 20
  • Location: Waterloo, Ontario , Canada
thanks for the reply :)

Nope...not feeding her during the night and I haven't for about a month and 1/2 now.  I thought about growth spurt and have been offering as much food as I can during the day...lots of cereal and fruit/veggies as well as bottles.

She is a very happy baby...an angel baby I would say.  My DS was a Spirited one and I like to think that I got an angel one because of good karma :)  She wakes up in the morning happy and is always happy during the day, even while we are going through all of this.  From her demeanour during the day you would never know that she is having rough nights.   She hits every milestone either early or on time.  She is a piece of cake to put down for naps or at night...never any problems...just follow the routine and she coos herself to sleep.  She loves to be swaddled and actually if she wakes at all because she has come unswaddled, taking a moment to reswaddle her in the middle of the night will put her right back out.  This of course all worked before this last 2 week episode that seems to be continuing....I am using the aussie swaddle

no tv before bed....actually hardly any tv at all.  She isn't that interested in it and we try to not have it on too much after supper because of my spirited DS.

I am going to try to switch her A time around and give her a shorter one in the morning.  We have it the other way around right now with the morning A being the longest.  Maybe that will do the trick?


What should I do as far as the little nightmares she seems to be having?  Should I wake her or not?  I have heard both yes and no to this and am not sure what to do.  I am also afraid that if I do wake her then it is going to take even longer to get her back to sleep.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: March 22, 2006, 01:55:00 am by babymurr »
:D
angie

Mommy to Branden  16/12/01
and Grace 04/07/05

Offline teezee

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 157
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2610
  • Location: chatham, ontario
don't really know about the bad dreams situation - tough call...depending on how bad she was cryiing/screaming it could go either way for me.  i think it is probably best to try and leave her to get through it as it may not disrupt her sleep to the point of waking her...unless she starts going all exorcist or something... ;) anyway, i haven't seen it or had to deal with it at all up until this point so i can only give a shaky opinion on that subject...sorry

about the A time and the naps - i would try switching them and see how it goes after a week or so - b/c lo is used to staying up longer in the am and shorter in the pm you may have to do a slow transition 15 min or so at a time as u do not want her to get overtired and cranky over it...and maybe try opening lo's door and making a lil xtra noise at 1 1/2 hrs for the morning nap and see if that helps - i think it may have to do with a little too much day sleep...
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005




Offline Haydensmom

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 8
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 132
  • Location: Sacramento, CA
Ok this might seem like a weird question, but how are her bowel movements?  How many and at about what time does she do them?

My little brother had night terrors.  He was 4, so I don't know if my experience with him can help you at all.  I remember his night terrors vividly.  They were like waking dreams- he would see my mom, only she wouldn't be mom, she would be a horrible monster or something.  The less interaction my mom had with him the better.  She would hug and cuddle him, but he would continue to scream, sometimes louder even.  What would make him stop, as odd as this sounds, is going to the bathroom.  She would put him on the toilet and he would go, then back to bed where he would finally calm down.

So thats my experience with night terrors.  I don't know if that helps at all especially since there is a huge age difference in the kids.  You said there was an accident that sent your daughter to the ER. May I ask what that was?  Could this accident have any affect on her sleep?  If this problem continues you might want to contact your pediatrician, especially since this behavior is so extremely out of character for your daughter.
Kaily
Mom to Hayden Thomas born Oct 24, 2005
<img border="0" src="http://tac.families.com/ezb/1084168.png">

Offline babymurr

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 20
  • Location: Waterloo, Ontario , Canada
Well...don't know what it was but last night was actually the first night in a while that there was some sleep in this house.  I put her down at 7:30 as per usual and she woke, crying at 10:30.  So I went in and she wasn't really awake but I put my hand on her and sshh~ed a bit...maybe a minute and she went back out...until 5:30 this morning! ;D 

As for her bowel movements...she is like clockwork.  We have only had problems when she eats pears and I have made sure that we have eliminated any fruits/veggies combos that do or could have them in it.  Her fall...she landed on her head pretty hard.  I hate this stage when they become so mobile and crash into and onto everything in sight.  She has been checked out and checked out...paranoid mommy...and other than the sleep thing she is as she always has been.

I am hoping that maybe after last night we are seeing the end??

Thanks for your help so far!
:D
angie

Mommy to Branden  16/12/01
and Grace 04/07/05

Offline teezee

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 157
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2610
  • Location: chatham, ontario
congrats on the sleep...to everyone in your home!!  just be aware that sometimes you take one step forward two steps back and continue being consistant with everything you are doing and try not to get too discouraged!  keep up the good work! :D
Tawnya
Mommy to Alecksandria
June 11, 2005




Offline Pezali

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 4
  • Location:
My LO is 8 months old...  I was afraid she was having night terrors after a night in the hospital and all.. but then I read up and she's just going through the intense phase of separation anxiety a bit early!  It sucks to wake up 3 times a night but helps to know it's a normal, and important phase of development.  Could this have been part of your issue? I'm told it's over in a few weeks....  That made me feel tired, but better :O)