Teething, sleep regression or something else??

[redelephant]

Hi all

My DD is 22 weeks old (17 weeks adjusted age) and up until a few weeks ago she was down to one feed a night. Now on a good night we have 3 feeds, sometimes quite unsettled and hard to get back down again, sometimes just full of beans!

Last night she was asleep by 8pm, up at 10 and hard to settle so I bf her and she went off quickly. Then she was up again at 11 then 45 mins later. The up again at 3 (feed), then 4, 4.50.. is a blur after that so not quite sure exactly what happened. I don't think she was hungry as a lot of the times she was calm and almost back asleep as soon as I picked her up. But if not in a deep enough sleep when I tried to put her back down she would wake up (and cry). On one occassion after a few attempts at putting her down she just started screaming and got very upset. Very unlke her.

So although a bit inconsistent the nights on the whole have gone haywire. I know this is common for this age and hoping it will pass soon. What i was wondering was is last nights behaviour (only settling when I hold her and sudden screaming) classic teething? Should I be giving her some of those powders or similar?

Also I had her weighed a few days ago. She has dropped ever so slightly on her chart although has still gained weight. She is now on 25th centile but has always hovvered between 50th and 25th anyway. I am not worried about this but when i mentioned her wakefulness at nights to the hv she told me to start weaning her. My inital thought is to ignore this as she is not a very hungry baby (generally) and to my mind isnt always hungry when she wakes at night. And surely if she needs more calories (to put on more weight) then I should be giving her more milk at this stage as this has the most calories going. I was planning to start weaning her (blw) in a few weeks.

Has anyone had similar night experience and any thoughts on weaning? She is a very happy, bright and alert baby during the day.

Thanks in advance x

(sorry if this post seems a bit disjointed - I spent ages writing it out only to find that I had been automatically logged out when I trued to post it..so I lost the lot!)

[whomovedmychocolate]

Stick to your plan. It sounds like she's teething. I know it's hard but this one is a very big growth spurt.

Don't worry you are doing fine and so is she. Just try and get as much rest as you can so you are in a better frame of mind to cope with the next week or so :)

[redelephant]

Thanks. I think it helps knowing what it is and that it will pass. :-)

[whomovedmychocolate]

Trust your instincts here. You know your baby very well. If she's happy, healthy and alert and this is the only problem you have, chances are it will pass. Most things do in life and parenting if you wait a little while. :)

Get some sleep when you can.

[redelephant]

Thanks will do. Always nice to get some words of encouragement :)

She rolled over today :o So if it was a developmental thing maybe the nights will calm down a bit for the moment.. ever the optimist haa.. :)

[whomovedmychocolate]

Oh gosh, if she's on the move that will help her sleeping. Encourage her as much as possible and stop letting her lie on beds. She will fall off. But it is a right of passage and mostly they get no more than a boink!