Teething, solids, invisible insomnia gnomes... What on earth is waking up my baby?

[PterodactylTeaParty]

DD is 6mo, breastfed, started solids about two weeks ago. Until recently her night-time sleep was pretty good - she wasn't sleeping through but she'd wake maybe once or twice for a feed and that was it. (She sleeps in a bedside cot next to me so feeding her at night a couple of times is not much trouble - roll over, latch baby, back to sleep.)

But, for the past ten days or so, her sleep has been horrendous and something really seems to be bothering her. For the first part of the night she wakes up crying - not wakes up then cries, but wakes herself up with a really sudden, loud cry - once every 30-60 minutes. I can usually settle her back down within a few minutes, but she'll go on waking like this until about 2-3am and aaaargh. She's not hungry, she doesn't have a temperature, and it's definitely an upset/pain cry rather than grumpy or bored.

Health visitor thinks teething, but said that should only last a couple of days - I tried Bonjela anyway but it didn't help. I was guessing it's something to do with starting solids as this started around that time, but HV thinks not. (Then again HV also thinks I shouldn't be bfing her in the night at all at her age, and that she'll 'quite likely give up being interested in milk anyway' by 10 months, so I am a bit about her advice.)

Any ideas or reassurances welcome - especially if you tell me it's not a repeat of the hellish 4-month sleep regression!

Your HV sounds a bit bonkers! . Are you offering solids just once a day? What sort of things does she eat?

Can you feel any teeth? Does she sleep better if you give her a dose of ibruprofen?

Quite normal and expected for babies to wake up for milk at 6m IME.

Maybe she's having bad dreams? (I don't know when they start dreaming!) Or could it be constipation? How's she pooing? I don't think teething lasts a couple of days, teeth take ages to break through.

Oh another thought, is she perhaps cold? It's taken a bit of a sudden dip down especially at night. Try adding an extra blanket and see if that helps.

How did it go last night? :) Did you try the extra blanket?

Better last night! Thicker sleeping bag too, so maybe that was it? She only woke 4 times which is a big improvement, although I'm looking forward to getting back to 1/2 wake ups. Still no sign of teeth.

Yes, the HV's advice is a bit odd. It's a HV I hadn't met before (mine is on leave and I've never seen her!) so I'm just going to shrug and ignore it, I think. Waking once or twice for feeds is fine for me.

I found DS would wake constantly if I followed the guidelines on that gro egg thing. He likes to be warm at night - like me!

Have you tried calpol? Might be teething and that's always worse at night... Poor baby!

My previously wonderful sleeper did this from 6-9 months. Occasionally caused by teething, but mainly she just seemed on edge and easy to wake, and she woke screaming every 45 minutes until we began cosleeping. Sorry. That's probably not what you want to hear.

Firstly, I think bonjela is useless. Get some anbesol - you have to ask at the pharmacy counter.

Secondly, can you cosleep? It's perfectly safe when planned and duvets/pillows removed and baby dressed appropriately. It saved our sanity.

Thirdly, I hope DP is helping. If it's not milk she wants and you're dead on your feet, then share more. DH often did the evenings after first out down until 2am so I got a break.

The good news is that from 9 months it began to improve (teething issues notwithstanding), and now at 11 months she sleeps 11 hours straight and is starting to self settle at bedtime.

Oh, and ignore your HV re: bf. You know when she's hungry. I'm sure you're not feeding her at 3am for the fun of it