Night Crying

[lupinjess]

Our DD is 8 months old and hasn't been fed during the night for two months.

For the last 3 weeks she has "woken" at 11pm and cried for a couple of minutes. Going in to her seems to make her worse(in fact she doesn't appeat to really be awake) so we tend to leave her and she is quiet again within a few minutes.

Health visitor puts it down to teething but it bothers me that it is always at exactly the same time every night.

Anyone else had this?

hi there - our son has done this on and off - sometimes when he has been teething and has not eaten enough during the day, and maybe a little bit hungry

as a rule, i want him to learn to be able to settle himself, so if he grizzles, i don't go in

but if the cry changes (and you know when it does ), i will go in and offer him some water in a bottle - at 8 months i would warm the water slightly so it was just above body temp - this would sooth him and he would usually take a few sips and go back to sleep

Thanks for that. I'll try water next time she doesn't settle quickly.

I've also noticed that she her day time naps are becoming more of a battle again. She had been very easy during the day - going off to sleep alone with no fuss. Now she often cries and won't settle unless I stay with her.

i definitely found that at 7/8 months things went a little bit off track - DS started waking up, wanting milk, wanting cuddles, not napping properly during the day etc etc

up until then, i had been doing BabyWhisper "pick up put down" method, which had worked briliantly

but we needed to try a different approach as his needs seemed to be changing

how is your DD routine during the day? are you happy with it?

in the end, i am in the "gently gently" approach -firm but loving, and taking each night as it comes - they change so quickly, so don't dispair if it doesn't change overnight

Thanks koalabear,

DD is generally great during the day. Just has to have her meals at fairly regular times. She will fit her naps around our activities (eg sleep in the car/buggy if we're out).

I think part of our recent problem stems from her bedtime. She has developed a habit of falling fast asleep on her bedtime bottle (so fast asleep that we can't wake her up).

We've tried giving her the milk earlier but she just won't take it until she is tired and ready for bed. I'm beginning to think we'll have to drop this bottle and fit the milk in somewhere else in the day.

I used controlled crying for her daytimes naps originally which worked really well - the longest she every cried for was 5 minutes and was fine after just 3 days. Never quite understood the pick-up method.

Hi luinjess. My DD is almost 11mths and has started to do exactly the same. She is a good napper during the day and has always been a good sleeper at night. As it's not every night I thought it must be teething but now it seems to be at 4am every morning. She seems almost asleep but can't quite get there so there is a lot of crying. I have read Baby Whisperer, Gina Ford, Dr Ferber and am now tying the controlled crying to see if it is just a habit for someone to come in and help her get back to sleep. As koalabear says they change all the time and it may just be another phase!