14 month old waking and crying and unable to sleep for 2 hours every sodding night

[ohbugrit]

Starting between 10 and 11pm without fail. Variety of dinners, not much eaten usually, BF before bed, wants to suck all the time when she wakes despite settling herself to sleep. Farty, sometimes maybe true hunger, but not settled by a feed

Any ideas at all? A month of this has finished me off.

Teething? My youngest (18 months) won't settle for hours when she has teeth coming in. Not always easy to tell when they're coming but might be worth a shot of neurofen and see if that helps - she may be sucking because her gums hurt then it hurts to feed. Bummer.

My 14mo DS is also a rubbish sleeper so you have my sympathy!

We still dream feed him- could you try doing that at 9.30ish for a while to break the cycle of waking up hungry?

I would also give a 'test' shot of neurofen at the first upset waking to rule out any pain (you could then work out and try to sort the cause of the pain if it did turn out to be that).

We have also recently discovered that excercise helps. DS is only just up to tottering a few steps independently but can (and likes to) walk quite a long way with a hand to hold. We're now going out for an afternoon walk before it gets dark and have found (be accident) that it's led to much sounder sleeping.

Thank you.

This started when she started full time walking, so exercise isn't a problem! She went to the park yesterday morning, and the ducks yesterday afternoon!

Nurofen doesn't seem to help.

DH was up for almost 3 hours with her last night. Maddening. Dream feed is something I hadn't thought of, I'll try that.

If my DS had too much sleep during the day, and not enough exercise, he would also go to sleep ok but then be awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. We've restricted the length of his naps since and make sure he's walked twice a day :)

Ah, i have read that sometimes sleep can be disrupted by a major developmental change, baby wants to practice their new found skill so wakes to have another go.

What's your usual bedtime routine? Do you do the same thing every night so that she knows when it's night-time sleep and not nap time?

One thing i've just thought of is that in the middle of our DD3's worst teething spell (last month) i gave up trying to settle her if she wouldn't go off easily, would switch on a dim light and read a story or two. instead of both of us getting wound up by her being awake it actually made quite a pleasant interlude in the middle of the night, she would get sleepy while reading and go off again more quickly.

You really do have my sympathy, it took DD3 15 months or so to learn to go through the night then teething trashed her night routine, we're still working on getting back to a proper night's sleep, she's still waking regularly but thankfully not for too long. Good luck x

Definitely developmental IME. It happened to me and several friends at that age. Wide awake for no apparent reason, giggling, wanting to play... just what you want in the small hours

It didn't last longer than a few weeks so don't worry!

I share your pain with DD2. I'm chalking it up to developmental. the worryinfg thing is that she is only just crawling (at 12 mos) - we're going to have this until she's past walking

Also we have white noise and nightlights in DSs room. These give him half a chance of resettling himself when he wakes in the middle of the night.

We've experimented with not having them- when he wakes he cries much more and wakes himself fully so they definitely make a difference.

(Waves to OP!)

www.askbaby.com/baby-sleep-training.htm

Thanks Slop but I'm not a controlled crying person. I never did it to DS and i am so glad because he had a health problem causing his problems with sleep and eventually needed surgery to resolve it.

Bit shocked at the advice on that link regarding babies under six weeks, but that's a whole other thread ..

My son did wake every single hour... He had constipation as well. When doctor described him Movolac he started to sleep from 7:00 to 6:00 waking up only once or twice.