Sudden night wakings... just too disrupted recently or sleeping bag issues?

[BlueBumedFly]

My DD has always been a wonderful 7/7 sleeper but recently has started to wake a cry in the night, almost in her sleep. I don't often have to go in as she stops almost immediately. If she does continue to cry I go in and she does settle quickly. The problem is this is almost on the hour, every hour at the moment. I work full time and have two other older DDs to care for.... the tiredness is beginning to get to me.

We have recently been away for a week when she slept in a (terrible) travel cot and she had an ear & throat infection so lots of disturbed nights. Now we are back she has been to the hospital for wheat allergy testing where they took blood and has now gone back to Nursery but into a new bigger class. She had what I think was a night-terror on Monday night too.

So, is this just all the recent changes do you think and she will settle back to normal in a few weeks? She is 16 months old and I have not had to get up to her in the night for about a year.

Also she sleeps in a gro-bag and roams all over her cot bed. It seems to get twisted and she gets caught up. What do other people use? I tried sheets etc but she just kicks them off then gets cold. Does anyone use a warm sleep suit?

Many thanks in advance.

bump

Bit grim I know, but I've recently worked out what my 14 month old's sleep problems were down to.....threadworm. If she is wriggling around a lot at night and crying out (but not necessarily waking), those were the symptoms we had (and also some nights, settling quite well then just as she is falling asleep, waking up crying)

Could be worth investigating anyway...go through the contents of nappies with a fine toothcomb (yeuch!) and check with your older DC if they have been "itching"

Hope it's not the case, but thought I'd mention it anyway

We gave up on gro-bags with DD when she was about the same age. Swore by them up until then but we had the same problem with DD getting tangled up in it and getting stuck at one end of her cot. We bought her a cot duvet from Boots (I think they're OK after 1yr) and it was great. Kept her nice and warm and she surprised me at how early on she was able to pull it back over herself if she occasionally kicked it off at night. I also put her in fleecy sleepsuits in the winter to keep her cosy.

How old is she? We ditched DDs sleeping bags two months ago at 20 months because she was having nightmares and we were told that if the feet are uncovered it helps (and I have to say in our case it seems to be working).

We still use a sleeping bag for 2.7 yr old dd. We tried without for a while but it meant a month of not sleeping through until we changed back!

At 16 months it really could be anything. Teeth? Not quite over infection. Lots going on. Just one of those things. Overtired when she goes to bed. Full moon......

Thank you everyone!

nudyjudy - threadworm, a horrible possibility, she is at Nursery and her next sister up is currently having hygiene-issues which no amount of incentive or punishment seems to change will get the toothcomb out.....

LolaLadybird - am now off to the Boots website!

whomovedmychocolate - she is 16 months. Interesting about the feet thing, I wonder if feet in a fleecy suit is ok as she can move them independently?

CantSleepWontSleep - I agree with you, could be lots of things at once and also lots of change.

I put her down in a fleecy suit last night and she cried at 11 and at 3, both times she did not wake just screamed so stroked her head and she settled back down. The benefit was no twisted bag and she then slept right through till 7.15am. Could just do without the night wakings/crying. She suddenly screams really loud, enough to bring on a cardiac at 3am!

My 2.5 year old DD occasionally does the scream thing. Particularly when it is quite a sticky night. If she is quite warm put in a fan, we did that and the humming noise seemed to soothe her quite a bit. And they get used to it pretty quickly. Sometimes singing and rocking does the trick (I'm a stay-at-home dad and the low voice seems to help in that sense! ;) ). Feel for you though, been there a good few times! You just have to go with your instinct!