Crying for two hours in the middle of the night

[AppleDoor]

For the past two weeks my 10 month old DS has been waking at midnight/1am and then crying for at least two hours. I usually go into him after 5/10 minutes of crying and do pick up/put down (which we use successfully for naps during the day) but it doesn't work at all - he just screams harder and harder every time I put him down. I've tried introducing a comforter but he's not interested. He also screams if we try to co-sleep. Leaving him also doesn't seem to work - just more screams. Basically as soon as we put him down he screams - and even when we hold him he cries.

Eventually after two hours of us all becoming increasingly desperate (and trying everything, from rocking to singing to walking up and down) he'll fall asleep on us.

Does anyone have any advice? I just feel exhausted and so frustrated with it all, I feel like the world's worst mother at the moment.

Didn't want to read and run...hopefully someone can help soon.

You have probably already tried Calpol or nurofen in case of teething ? Definitely not too hot or cold?

Is he properly awake? If my DS is still half asleep there is no stopping him crying unless he's woken up. I used to take him downstairs, stick on teletubbies and give him a milk feed once he started to look sleepy once again. Tried everything else and it was no quicker getting him back to sleep, so an hour downstairs ended up being the less stressful option.

Is he definitely not hungry. They have a growth spurt around 9 or 10 months I think.
My DS went through a phase of being awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. He was a bit older, maybe 12 months. I never really got to the bottom of it but sort of thought it may have been a development spurt. He was learning so much and struggling to wind down. That's not very helpful! Except to say it didn't last very long.

My 1st dd did this from about 3 months to she was nearly 2. To be honest I was tired and fed up all the time and became frustrated with the whole situation. It only stopped when I decided enough was enough and couldn't take it anymore. Picking up and putting only made it worse, she'd fall asleep being cuddled then putting her down on cold mattress would wake her back up and the cycle would continue night after night. I asked health visitor for advice, decided to follow her advice and stuck to it. The way I solved the problem was when dd would start crying go into the room and sit close by her cot with my hand on her tummy so she could feel me. First time took 1/2 hour to settle but it worked. Then gradually over a week or so would move myself further away from the cot so dd could still see me, then it came to the point where dd didn't wake. First night of non waking I keep waking dh to ask if he thought dd was okay or should I go check! It was the best advice I ever received tbh and made my life so much better.

Thanks, everyone - and sorry for the delay in replying, we've been away for the weekend.

josephine I gave him nurofen in the end on Friday night (after we'd been up for four hours) but I'm just worried about doing that regularly in case he's not teething???

Petallic that's it, he's half awake but he doesn't just go off again, he just screams louder. Sometimes just turning the light on has helped him calm down so I can see that taking him downstairs for a while could work.

Pukous that's interesting what you say about a growth spurt and being unable to wind down - he's just recently started pulling up on furniture and doing lots of other new stuff and I did wonder if it was related to that.

Proud thanks for that tip, I can definitely see us using that quite soon (tonight???)

Thank you all though, I was feeling quite despairing when I posted, as if I was doing something horrendously wrong, so it's nice to hear others have been through it and to have some practical tips - they've made me feel much more confident for tonight!

I think that if you give him Calpol/nurofen and he then drops off within 20-30 minutes when would otherwise be awake and upset , you can strongly suspect teething or other disconfort. It won't send them to seep in itself, only if it relieves them of pain

Oh ok, that's good to hear! In that case it may be teething, because he did drop off about twenty minutes after having it....

Fingers crossed that's it, because it's easy to help them with a little medicine . Teething is really painful! Especially at nighr

We have had the same thing with DS3 a couple of times, he is 9 months. He goes happily to bed between 7 & 8, then wakes at around 1 for no apparent reason. We have tried everything - medicine, milk, rocking, singing, nappy change - but the only thing that works on these nights is to take him downstairs as he is wide awake. He'll then play for an hour or 2, until he starts to look drowsy, so I'll snuggle him to sleep & pop him back in his cot. It does feel a bit like giving in, tbh, but the alternative is him screaming no matter what we do & waking his big brothers, too.

He is going through a huge development spurt atm, has learnt to crawl, pull to stand, wave & clap, so I think it might well be linked to that.

Agree with confused - I think it's a developmental thing. We had the same with our DD about a month ago when she was about 9.5m.