Teething baby waking at 4am!!

[GipsyDanger]

Hello please help! First baby boy is just over 8 months old. He's got his first tooth coming in. Over the last week he has been waking at 4am and not settling for about an hour/2hours. He usually sleeps through from 7.30pm bedtime to 6/7am. Is there anything I can do to help him. He cries at the slightest thing, is really clingy and will sleep on me but I don't want to get into that habit with him. Currently he sleeps his cot in his room. When he wakes at 4am either me or dh will sleep beside him on a mattress on the floor of his room until he settles. I think he's sick to as he's been having 4+ dirty nappies a day (just started nursery) on top of the teething so I've not got a very happy little man. Any advice welcome!

[FATEdestiny]

Quite normal to need to throw the rule book out the window when child is poorly, hurt (or when older, scared).

There'll be these times for many, many years to come. My 12 year old dd visited our bed not long ago when she was nervous about going to secondary school. Our 7 year old pops in if he's poorly. My 2 year old had a bout of norovirus last week and needed extra mummy and daddy cuddles.

So frankly, ignore this idea:

I don't want to get into that habit with him.

I assume this is the first time his sleep has been disturbed enough to need you? It'll happen for years to come. Of course he'll have times when he's poorly or in pain. He just needs extra care and compassion while he's not well, that's all. You can go back to normal once he's better and the tooth has cut through.

If you're happy and getting enough sleep on the mattress in his room, great do that and don't stress it. If you might get more sleep with him in your bed, do that.

Hands-off parenting and independant sleeping just doesn't work for those times baby just needs extra cuddles.

The good news is, cutting a tooth takes about 3 days or so. So soon he'll be back to himself and so will his sleep.

[rebeccaroskellthomas]

Lots and lots of cuddles. Our LG has been ill and teething recently and we ended up sleeping with her for some of the night. We did a bit of sleep training with her afterwards (she was an awful sleeper anyway) and now she's doing really well.

[OohNoDooEy]

Ibuprofen as soon as they wake up

[LuckySantangelo1]

Anbesol and ibruprufen. Don't bother with calpol, you want the anti inflammatory properties of ibuprofen. My little boy is 18 months now & is on his last teeth; it's tough but you'll get through it.

[KateyinBaku]

The nappies could be from the teething too. All the extra drool. Ibuprofen works better than paracetamol in my experience. My DD has just had a phase of this but it's thankfully back to a 6.30 wake up again (she's 5 mos and waking 3 or 4 times so a 4 am start was KILLING me). I think it lasted about a fortnight. It'll pass. Just give what comfort you can until it does, IMO. My son had phases like this too. It passes.

[GipsyDanger]

That's great I'll pick up baby ibrubrofen. Turns out he's got another tooth coming in as well.

[OohNoDooEy]

I found that if they woke up teething then ibuprofen straight away and they could usually be settled to sleep after 20 minutes once it had kicked in

[LalaLeona]

3 days to cut a tooth? I wish!! I get wakeful nights and see my son in pain for 3 weeks for each tooth that comes

[FATEdestiny]

LalaLeona

I think you confuse "teething" with "cutting a tooth"

A tooth "cutting" is when it breaks through the gum, the spike of the tooth on the outside and the main tooth still under the gumline. Cutting a tooth is the process of it physically breaking through the gum. This takes 2 or 3 days.

"Teething" is that "not certain but I think the reason baby is unsettled is because a tooth is on the way" time. This is a few weeks and then suddenly you see the white spike of a tooth cutting and think to yourself ah, I was right.

and then lots of times you think the unsettled time must be teething and you wait and wait and no tooth comes and you realise it wasn't teething after all

[LalaLeona]

Oh yes of course sorry, yes it just goes on and on. I can literally see the tooth under his gum but it never seems to come through it's like his whole personality and sleep has completely changed. As you say, I presume it's teething.I pray it is as i would like to have an explanation! This baby really suffers with his teeth..