teething and 2 hourly BF at night - help!

[fruitymum]

DS 17 weeks tomorrow - BF, not keen to take EBM from a bottle . For the past week he has been wakening every 2 hours during the night to feed - sometimes only for a short time( makes me think comfort rather than hunger)
then won't go back to sleep in his cot, so has been in with me. He is teething - using ashton and parson powders and teething gel. I am shattered now - DD is 3 1/2 and very active. Please reassure me this will pass - I really don't want to go onto formula or introduce baby rice - he is a big boy at 16lbs 8oz . Any help ???

Hi Fruitymum,

I'm in the exact same situation than you. My DD is 18 weeks today and for the last 2 weeks we have been having the same problems. She used to sleep from 7:45pm till 5am and now she keeps waking up at least 2 or three times at night.

At kellymom web site I have read an article that says babys at around 4 motnhs old go back to when they were newborn with sleeping patterns. Don't know if this explains the reason of why our children keep waking up at night but what I really miss is a good night sleep as we used to have.

My DD is also teething and a friend of mine advise me to give her a bit of paracetamol before to put her in bed. I have done it once and it didn't really worked. It may have stopped the pain for a few good hours but she keep waking up for feeding. I am BF her and I have realised that when I am eating she is all the time looking at me and following the spoon/fork from the plate to my mouth. I don't know if this means that she will be ready for solids soon or just that she likes looking at me while I eat.

Nevertheless I hope this stage will pass sometime soon. You have all my simpathy. Good luck

thanks Mareta - DS also keen on watching us eat , DD was the same but I waited 'til 22 weeks before giving her baby rice - will have a look at kellymom site. Will think about trying the paracetemol. Hope it improves for you too.

I only gave he once the paracetamol because I am not very keen on giving medicines to her and at the end I didn't think it really worked as she keept waking up. Another think I have read is that at this stage they are very ken on looking at everything during the day which means they do not feed as well as they used to and this could explain why they need to feed more often at night. It is a bit of catching up for the missing food they do not take during the day.

Still don't really know if all this explain the changes on sleeping patterns. Maybe someone with more experience will come soon and give us a bit more of advice on this subject.

bump

At that age also they are also going through a growth spurt. The only thing to do is feed, feed and feed. It is also a comfort for them if they are teething, I think read somewhere that there is something in the milk that helps with pain relief, I am sure Tiktok or someone will tell me if I am wrong. It will pass, you are doing a brilliant job.

Ds had a nightmare with his teething, started at 11 weeks and at 18mo he still has the odd bad night. The only thing that helped in the end was baby paracetamol and ibuprofen- he'd be out like a light once the pain relief kicked in and would be awake again once it had worn off.
I HATED giving him medicine, felt like I was giving him poison at first. He was so miserable without it however, I think it was the right thing to do.
Anyway, we had a lot of sleepless nights, especially around the 4-8 month stage. If it wasn't teething it was a cough or a cold or a growth spurt or learning a new motor skill....there are endless reasons why babies wake up at night. The best advice I received was to try to make life more bearable in the day by taking breaks/ having naps wherever possible.
Good luck and hope things settle down soon

thanks everyone -hopefully things are improving now . Its good to know I am not alone in burning the midnight oil . Sometimes he wakes and just wants the comfort on resting his little head on my boob to sleep aah.

No advice but tons of sympathy....it seems that lots of us on here are having similar problems at the mo.

Good luck, hope it gets better soon.