So my options at the minute are sleep with my nipple in ds's mouth ALL NIGHT or have him scream ALL NIGHT. Can anyone help?

[Moulesfrites]

Ds is 8 mo. He used to wake for his night feeds, pull off when he was satisfied, and go back to sleep. The whole thing took about 15 mins, twice a night. Not anymore. He still goes down ok at bedtime but then when he wakes he just wants to suck and suck. This has resulted in us co-sleeping recently, but I don't feel comfortable with this as a long term solution. Also, last night when I unlatched him he would scream and arch his back. Dh took him and he did a couple of massive burps. This made me wonder if all his comfort sucking has meant he has been just taking in a load or air hence the wind pain.

He has just got his 4th tooth and on Friday had a temp. He is fine now but at night his temp has gone back up to high 38s during the night too.

Not sure what im looking for really, just some advice or reassurance that this won't go on forever!

[whoneedssleepanyway]

Probably not what you want to hear but my DD2, was like this at 8 months, had to be fed to sleep and was waking every hour in the night, I was basically her dummy. We had tried co sleeping and it worked to start with and then didn't. We eventually went down the hideous controlled crying route, it did make a big difference and she stopped needing to be fed to sleep. She is still however a clingy child and is still what I would class as a poor sleeper....have you tried him with a dummy instead of you?

[Moulesfrites]

No have not tried dummy. A few people have suggested it but I feel as if I have got this far without one and it would be daft to start now. I won't rule out cc if it is still like this when I am back to work in a few months time though!

[Moulesfrites]

Bumping for evening crowd!

[MacMomo]

We have sleep issues too. I was against dummies but relented when every paed book I read said they're fine. I don't allow it outside the bedroom though. I am sure I'd be a human dummy without it, shes a very sucky baby and finds real comfort in sucking. Doesn't sleep in the evenings, mind you!

[WeAreBorg]

Hi moules. My 7mo old is very similar. He has never been a good sleeper (massive understatement there!), but whenever he has even a sniffle he completely loses any slight ability he had to self settle and needs boob in mouth all night. It usually goes on for about a week, then we progress to waking every hour, then every 2 etc. I had a 11-4 stretch a few nights ago, but he has yet another cold so bracing myself for another bad run.
He has no teeth yet but I imagine he'll be the same with them, so I guess what I am trying to say is that hopefully when your DS has got through his bad patch he will gradually not need to suck for so long? My DS, who is crap to say the least, usually improves by himself after a bit.
Speak of the devil, better go, sorry no advice really just to say things are much the same here!

[JugsMcGee]

My 7mo DS has started doing this since his teeth started coming through. We use a dummy but it doesn't always work when he's having "one of those nights", he will still be wide awake for lengths of time. Might be worth a try? Less stressful than CC in any case.

[Moulesfrites]

Thanks for replies. Last night was even worse. I thought I would get an early night so went to bed at 9, he woke up after I had been asleep for 30 mins! He settled then, then woke again at 10 and at 11.45. This last waking he just screamed and screamed, settled when fed but screamed as soon as I unlatched him. We ended up cosleeping again, but I really don't feel happy about this.

His temp has gone down and his 4th tooth is through. I am seriously considering cc once I know that there is nothing else causing this.

[littlepinkfizz]

i can definitely feel for you. The only thing ever keeps me going is that it can't last forever.I did try CC and it worked after a few nights. I started it when he went down for a daytime nap as I thought I'd be better able to cope with the crying then.It turned him into a different baby from waking every 2 hours to just once during the night. Its a tough decision to make.But a happy rested mum makes a happy baby:)

[bigbadbarry]

Mine all did this when they were teething or sickening for a cold; it never lasted for more than a few weeks (although I know that feels like forever when you are going through it). If you want to do CC that's your call but you'll feel bad if you do it then realise he is poorly! Give it a few days :)

[JoinTheDots]

Mine does this on and off, when she is teething or feeling under the weather, or sometimes in the dreaded sleep regressions... there is one around nine months.

Co-sleeping does not have to be a long term thing, if it gets you through the bad patches and keeps you sane.

Dummy is always worth a try if it is driving you crazy, but probably will pass before you have got him to take to the dummy

[lickthemarmiteknife]

mine is 8 months old and has just gone through a bout of teething. normally he sleeps really well and has a dummy (ugh) to soothe him if he wakes in the night. While he was teething though, he would wake and be inconsolable unless he was feeding and sleeping in our bed. He was feeding on and off too, all through the night and wouldn't have his dummy. I worried that this wasn't 'progress' and seemed like a backwards step. I realise now that he was in discomfort and needed a bit of extra consolation, til he was well again. When his teeth were through and he seemed calmer, we reintroduced his own bed to him and he's back in there, sleeping through. I'm not an advocate of controlled crying at any point, there's a lot evidence to show its detrimental for baby when he/she is very much in need of extra comfort and consolation.

[naturalbaby]

i'm going through this too but no sign of teeth, and it's been going on for over a month now and getting worse. i did cc with a health visitor helping with dc1 and she said give them calpol if/when needed and carry on!

his day time routine is bit of a mess trying to fit in round older siblings routine and i know from my last 2 if i can sort the daytime out and get him to fall asleep on his own during the day then nightimes are much better, so that's my first step. as he's getting used to co-sleeping too i'm making sure he's really warm at night, as he's got used to a really warm bed between me and dh. that worked really well when he was a newborn but not so much now.

he's eating/drinking so much during the day but is so active now and still needing a decent feed till he's settled enough to go back to sleep overnight. he has a dummy but gets hysterical if i try and fob him off with it at 3am. i've got 2 older kids sleeping through the night as reassurance we'll get there in the end!

[SurprisEs]

DD is 2 and the co sleeping days are gone but at the time I chose to be human dummy instead of staying up all night and feeling ready to murder someone in the morning.

A lot of people recommend controlled crying, I couldn't do it, but apparently it works.