Hourly wakings - is it teething? (5 months)

[BethGreenNewMum01]

My 5 month old is very happy in the day and was previously sleeping well, but at 4 months she suddenly started waking hourly throughout the night and this has now continued for a month and I'm struggling to cope!

I put her down awake, she goes to sleep just fine.

When she wakes in the night she seems in pain, she writhes, arches her back, turns her head right up and to the left. She cries out and moans but not tearful crying, it's kind of groaning.

Sometimes but now always she'll really bite down on my fingers.

She will sleep much better if I give her Calpol or Ibuprofen before bed and once during the night. She's allergic to the granules because they have lactose in them. The gel I don't seem to be able to get on her gums, it ends up one big lump in her mouth so that seems a bit useless!

I am pretty sure it's teething.

I am very worried about giving her medicine like this every single day. If I had done that so far, she would've been on medicine for 30 days so far. Surely it can't be good for anyone taking that much medicine.

Does the symptons sound like teething? What do people think about giving daily medicine? Is there an alternative?

In the day time she's totally fine btw, cheerful, not dribbling, no obvious signs of teething.

Ahhhhrrr, advice sleepingly but gratefully received.

Thank you

I wouldn't give medicine before bed unless it helped sleep through but would if ds woke in the night in pain. We put teething gel on dummy for ds to suck if that helps

Sounds exactly like mine when he is teething 11 months old and teething molars at the minute, not fun! Some babies just cope really badly with teething, which includes ours! I also worry about giving the pain medication but all fine so far. Try anbesol liquid, much easier to get on the gum as opposed to gel and does help to soothe although doesn't last long enough.

What icklekid said also. I don't give medicine at bedtime, just if he wakes for a few consecutive hours and is obviously in pain. I eventually gave him some last night at 1.30am after waking a few times before that. He then slept until 5.30am, so I know its teeth pain that is waking him.

There's also a sleep regression at 4 months which might contribute to the night wakings if it's not teeth.

Thanks! Yes sleep regression hit bang on 4 months. Prior to that she was sleeping through. Does anyone know why teething pain is worse at night?

Also - presuming she is in pain and waking up all night - that's still a lot of medicine to give isnt it? Doesn't teething last months & months?