14 month teething bout - when will it end? Please say something helpful

[DougalTheCheshireCat]

So we'd been making great progress with DD on stopping feeding in the night and better night time sleeping all round including some nights truly sleeping through for 9, 10 or 11 hour stretches. Fabulous. I am tired and really ready for regular sleeping through and i think she is ready too.

BUT then two weeks ago we / she were hit by an almighty teething bout. She's cutting back teeth both sides and top and bottom at once, possibly some others too. The only positive is that, hopefully they'll come through and then teething is very nearly complete for the time being. But meantime, more waking in the night, back to feeding in the night sometimes (twice the last couple of nights), this can really help, as does co-sleeping, to support her.

But then we've had a few nights like this one, I've been up with her since 4am. She finally, finally went back to sleep after some more paracetamol at 6.30am.

i was starting to think the teething was better and we needed to get back on the programme of gradual retreat / sleeping in her own bed - she was awake and although pulling one of her ears quite a bit, not really upset, for ages. Just that, whenever she looking like dropping off (either in bed with me, bounced or rocked by me, or in her own bed alone) she'd bounce up out of it, awake again. Then she worked herself up into a screaming frenzy, full hand in mouth, and enough time had passed she could have some more paracetamol (she'd had some a midnight) and after that and 10 minutes of being downstairs with her toys she finally dropped off very quickly.

Sorry this is so long. I am tired and frustrated . I am really ready for her sleep to improve. I need it to, I need to sleep in longer stretches. I've not slept for longer than 4 or 5 hours in one go since the third trimester of my pregnancy. 18 months later, i need things to improve.

But then I feel guilty, too, that she probably was in pain and i've not picked up on that. Please tell me how you got through the big teething bouts? Any ideas on when this might end? And how did you know when teething was over for the time being, and time to work on sleep patterns again?

Calpol. I either alternate the paracetamol and ibuprofen or give both at the same time if he's really bad. Anbesol liquid is also a lifesaver if she'll let you put it on her gums. Once he stops showing signs of teething (fingers in mouth, dribbling etc) I get stricter with bedtime again.

Poor you! My DD1 really suffered with her teeth. She first slept through at about 15 months but has had bad bouts of teething for the last year+. I'm afraid to say that they seem to last about 6 weeks each time and like you, meant multiple night wakings, lots of distress and calpol.

I agree to alternative calpol and ibuprofen if its really bad. I also found teething granules would help calm her down (not sure if it was just a placebo effect but she really likes them!) for a while. For the first couple of bouts, I more or less moved into her bedroom, slept on the floor and held her hand when needed. We got into an unfortunate habit of her actually sleeping on my hand which I do not recommend! I then used gradual retreat to get back out of her bedroom. It was pretty easy to tell when it was over, as she just started sleeping much better.

Now at nearly 29 months, she has almost all her teeth and currently sleeps through the vast majority of the time - the last bout was in March/April and we had a bit of terrible time again but this was coupled with a chest infection and then chicken pox. This time I was a bit firmer and refused to stay with her, just administered medicine, reassured and left again. Repeated as often as necessary. If its a truly awful night, she comes into our bed from about 4/5 am but I try not to as DD2 is in there with us and the usual result is everyone awake and grumpy!

My DD was the same - an absolutely terrible teether - Calpol and ibuprofen weren't enough. Teething granules chocolateismysleep worked better, but what really worked was taking her to see a homeopath. I know it sounds extreme - but the teething was so bad she'd bite and scratch me and other children in frustration and wanted to nurse up to 8 x a night for the few weeks a tooth was coming through. We were scared to socialise and had absolutely no sleep for months. Anyway, if you want to read how it worked for us here's my blog post on it - mydaughterwontsleep.com/2014/02/21/teething-when-pain-relief-just-doesnt-cut-it/

Good luck!!

You lot are lovely, thank you! I really was at the end of my tether yesterday morning. I'll try ibuprofen and the a besom stuff. We do have a great homeopath which was helping but she is away, I will find put when she's back.

We had a better night last night though two wakings but back to sleep with DH's support at the first one so I got a longer stretch. Though DH has now started a campaign for me to stop breast feeding .... Sigh. I love that he helps, I wish sometime he was more on board with helping us to get through it rather than to find a 'solution'.