so little sleep - please help

[Murl]

hi. my 5 month old used to be a fairly good sleeper at night - has never slept through but did get to the stage when she was only waking once in the night for food, and would settle herself after staight back to sleep.

However, over the last month things have got progressively worse. it has now got to the point that she wakes MANY times in the night and will not settle herself. I am feeding her twice in the night but she does not drink very much.

When I put her to bed she usualy settles easily staight to sleep.

Could this be teething causing this? Last night she was waking and crying for an hour and a half (after feeding her so not hunger). I have been using teething gel but with little effect.

I am dead on my feet and can't see how I can keep this up. The other mums I know with babies this age have theirs sleeping through the night or getting up once or twice at the most. makes me feel rubbish and think I am doing everything wrong.

is this teething? anyone else experience this? will it get better? is there anything I can do?

any advice appreciated.

hi
my very good night sleeper did do this for a couple of weeks ( woke couple of times in night crying and had to be soothed back to sleep with whatever means worked!! - when she had never woken before, since 3 months).

it was teeth!! as two appeared then.luckily it only lasted a couple of weeks and she then went back to normal.so just to give you some hope!!

i found calpol 30 mins before bed, seemed to help,drug her to sleep better and in the night if required.just cuddled her back to sleep plus the calpol seemed to calm her.

hope your teeth come soon

my 'strike outs' of words never work!!!

tinks27 - you have to do it to each word is why

Murl - could well be teeth. T'was with my DS around this age. 6 came through at once and dear god, that was 3-4wks of hell!! He'd never been a good sleeper, but it was literally every 50 mins the majority of nights
Poor thing tho, must've hurt/been weird all of a sudden getting these hard things in what had once been a soft fleshy gummy mouth...

Anyway - put a clean little finger in her mouth and have a little feel of her gums, see if you can feel any slight swellings. If you can, that'll be eruptions sacs and tooth poppage will be pretty soon and the end should be nigh! If not it could still be stuff happening deeper in the gums.

Baby ibruprofen (e.g. calprofen) is apparently better for teething trouble. We certainly found this to be true. Stick to the guides on box obv. Also anbesol is better than teething gels as it doesn't slip off the gums.

It seems that good sleepers often go back to being good sleepers again after hiccups like this ( at tinks27!) so do whatever you can to get through this blip (nap with her, try to get someone to look after her for an hr or 2 in the day to catch some zzz's etc) and soon sanity will be restored !

Murl, I got some good responses and helpful links on my four month sleep regression thread. If she's just recently 5 months, it could be related. Take a look.

I feel your pain. I had a baby who went from waking once or twice to many times a night.

AHA! thanks snugglejunkie

good luck tonight murl

Thank you thank you for your messages. Followed your advice and gave calpol before bed and had such a good night! did not wake up until 12.30 for food and then only once more at 2.30pm - just cuddled back to sleep and some teething gel.

I am sure it is teeth - I can see something going on under her gums! Feel so much better knowing what it is - and a little more sleep last night has done the world of good. Sleep deprivation really is a nightmare isn't it?

snugglejunkie and tinks27 - I don't want to give calpol longer than necessary - but how many nights in a row can you give it? it says on the box to seek Dr advice if more than three days in a row?

I think that advice is more for if you are giving max dose 3 days on the trot. And if there is some other symptoms that aren't neing managed by it (e.g. temp)

Obviously you shouldn't just medicate every eve 'just in case', but if she's been grumbly in the day and it's day 4 of nightime calpol I don't think social services are going to descend if you give her some iyswim!

Basically what I did was just lay off it after a few days to see if it had died down enough for him to sleep through. If he was still all teethy then I just gave him some for another few days.

I'd try to avoid using it in the day if poss as it's easier to use other remedies eg cold wet flannel, anbesol, teething toy & of course, cuddles & distraction!

HTH

BTW: yay for decent nights sleep!!