unsettled 16wk old at night

[carmenelectra]

Hello there,

DS is 16wks on Sun and is normally a settled, well contented baby. He was mixed fed until about a month ago but is now completely ff.

He goes to bed about 7-7.30 and wakes just once in the night, feed and then goes back off. This was until Friday when it has all gone wrong! hE IS now waking every couple of hrs and is extremely unsettled. I am trying everything to get to what the problem is but am still not sure.

He is still absolutely fine in the day and is really jolly and happy. Settles after feeds no problem.

I have a few ideas what it may be but cant pin point it. Think may be teething as his cheeks bright red, dribbling and gnawing at his fist, muslin cloth, anything. However, although he does this all day he isnt miserable with it.

I think he is getting more attched to his dummy. Was never bothered but im worried that he is waking cos he has dropped dummy? Not sure on this though because when i do give it him in the night he doesnt grasp it fully but just nibbles on the end and drops it again. He normally just sucks dummy till asleep and the drops it and hardly ever cries for it in the night. I really dont want to down that road either as its a nightmare when they keep dropping dummy all night!

he is very big and im sure he is having a growth spurt, so does he actually need to wake more in the night and feed? I feel im going backwards not forwards. Considered hungry baby formula but not even sure whether they is even a point in this and whether this even works and i was convinced regular formula fine until now!

fINALLY, im wondering about wind/colic. He has ben having Colief for ages and i put his settled behaviour down to this However, as he is getting older ive been reducing the amount he has, trying to get him off it. Now im worried its colic so since Mon im back to giving him the full quota in his feed. His cry at night is more of a 'painful' cry i think rather than hungry?

Anyway, the last few nights have been a nightmare,. Last night i gave him calpol and a bit of teething gel before bed and he went off fine. Then woke half twelve ish but just rocked crib and he went back off. Then woke about 130 could not settle him, tried water, but spat it out in disgust, eventually i fed him, but he only had half his usual feed(making me think cant be that hungry). Like this on and off all night, with me keep leaning over, rocking crib and giving dummy. At 5am tried feed again drank 3oz and still no joy . Eventaully put him in bed with me at about half 5 and he slept till 7am. Woke up in great mood and has been fine all day1

Please help before i go to bed tonight!!Any advice? Sorry if boring!

Read this. It was spot on for my DS and I had 3 weeks of hell leading upto 19 weeks. Halfway through week 19 he went back from 6 - 9 wakings (typically only two for food) at night back to the more manageable 1-3 for feeds only.

However, there sounds to be a few other things going on which may be more likely and others with more expertise will be able to advise on.

Thanks Iwan, i will have alook now. I feel like im dreading going to bed tonigh, i really do!

Oh well, im none the wiser!

Carmen - do you swaddle him? Could he be too hot/cold?

He has one of those Dreampod sleeping bags. Dont think too hot? And room temp fine. Hes gone off fine again, just waiting till i get into bed...

Don't know what a Dreampod sleeping bag is! but I use a grobag and still tuck dd (10 months) in under the arms. The moro reflex is still quite strong at this age so maybe he is waking himself up?

Dreampod is just the Mamas and Papas sleeping bags!

I dont tuck him in, he likes to stretch his arms out and hold onto his crib bars!

My dd does this also but I have to put several layers of mits on her as she has bad excema and scratches herself therefore she cannot grab onto anything!!

I tuck my dd in with a blanket, ontop of the grobag but under her arms to make her feel nice and secure. They can kick their arms and legs about quite violently which sometimes can wake them up....

I sometimes put mitts on cos his little hands are ;like ice cubes!I dont like doing this tho cos he also like to suck his hand!!Ends up with wet glove.

were just out of a similar phase - went from sleeping through to waking up to 10 times a night and not sleeping for more than 45 mins a time and feeding 3-5 times. we're now down to feeding once and maybe waking once.
ds is 17 weeks and I think it is just one of those things they do. he has also been teething but v happy during the day.
so not much help I can offer, just lots of sympathy, I understand dreading the nights, but it will ease again.

Thanks soph, yes i was beginning to think its just one of those things myself

My DS is 16 weeks and has also become more unsettled at night. I do think she is teething but i also think she has found a way of moving in the cot instead of just lying there and this is waking her up! She hit her head off the bars of the cot last night and woke up in a state! I remember my DS did the same at this age and it just sorted itself out eventually but I know its exhausting!

Last night wasnt so bad actually! He went to bed at 7pm. Woke at 2am for feed(drank it all more or less), which was abit earlier than normal(before he started playing up!).Then settled till 5 ish and was unsettled again. I had gone to bed armed with teething gel, gripe water and a syringe of calpol! I gave him gripe, picked him up and rocked him and he slept then till half 6.
Thinking may be the wind/colic theory and maybe Colief kicking in now?

He is getting active in his crib, thrashing a bit. Still think enough room, even tho i had him weighed yesterday and he is 17lb 14!! He is as big as a 6 mth baby.

Sorry for not getting back yesterday but DS decided he wasn't going to sleep until 9.30pm . Just to explain, essentially the link is about babies going through certain development spurts at certain weeks which in some babies disturbs their typical sleep patterns in the lead up to it (or during it?). One of these happens around week 19.

With DS his sleep wents pants from around week 16 until week 19, with him waking many more times then usual. Always when he wakes from hunger in the night he wakes up and then calls out. Typically when he woke for reasons other than hunger he woke up crying so I knew there was a difference. Generally I could resettle him with a quick cuddle for all these wakings though did have to bring him into bed a couple of times.

However, like I said earlier, sounds as though it could be something else going on. Pleased last night was better and hope it continues.

Thanks iwan,

I read the link and was interesting and certainly makes sense. As it said on that page though, i do tend to think we parents seem to think when a baby starts sleeping better, we just expect them to go for longer and longer periods until they sleep through. Obviously, not necessarily the case when they are learning new things.

I think the 'something else' going on is def colic. He definitely wasnt hungry when he woke at 5am cos even when he got up at 630 he didnt feed straightaway so im glad i gave the gripe!

Colic is the pits. I hope the Colief and gripe water get on top of it. Here's to a peaceful night.

cheers!