Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

I am going out of my mind. I'm exhausted. My daughter started sleeping htrough the night at 6 weeks. She is going to be 6 months tomorrow and it is getting worse! She is so restless. The past month or two I have been going into her room about 4 times a night. Usually to just give her her pacifier or change her diaper. I rarely took her out of her crib. Now In addition to going in a few times to soothe her, she will wake wake. Where she's crying and I need to take her out and I can't get her back to sleep. She's visably exhausted. The only thing tht works is a little bottle. She can't be hungry, she eats a lot during the day and ate 8 ounces before bed last night. Have I done this to her?? Have I created bad habits by going in to soothe her? I just always thought that if I got to her while she was stirring I could avoid her waking completely up. I thought she must be teething but I read in a book yesterday that teething doesn't cause wakefulness. Any advice would be appreciated. I should mention that I also always put Grace in her crib when she is alseep already so she doesn't know how to self soothe. Thanks in advance.

Message edited 10/10/2005 8:20:50 AM.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Sorry, but I disagree that teething doesn't cause a baby to wake in the middle of the night. My daughter was an excellent sleeper but would wake when getting a tooth in. I would give her motrin when I knew she was suffering. Also, just watch because an ear infection can cause the same thing to happen.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

We are going through the exact same thing with my daughter now and she will be 6 months old next week. I wish I had the answer. We are getting her back on track but even last night she woke up at 2 am.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

I wish I had an answer for you. At about 3 months my son started sleeping thru the night fine. Around his 5th month, he started waking up anywhere from 3-10 times a night. We never/rarely pick him up. Sometimes I can soothe him by rubbing his belly, sometimes we resort to the pacifier (we originally tried to avoid this), sometimes we turn on soothing music and that helped. Sometimes it would be only a few minutes up, sometimes more. That went on for weeks and I blamed teeth but he still at 8 months has no teeth...so not sure if it was teeth. He calmed down for a week or two and now it totally varies. He does still wake up anywhere from 2-4 times a night. Mostly the pacifier does work. We did leave the light on dimly and for three days he slept thru the night but since that has stopped. Now he is starting to wake up-wide awake early than usual. He wakes up anywhere from 4:30 to 5:30!!!

I did read about sleep patterns and how they go into light and deeper sleeps and when they go into these light sleeps and realize they are alone they may start night wakenings. The book recommended never picking them up, soothing words and rubbing the belly, placing a soothing stuffed toy or blanket or a night light. We tried it all and haven't found a solution. Of course, it has DH and I wondering where we wnet wrong as well.

That book also mentioned CIO techniques. I am not very comfortable with them. We did try one night and it worked some of the wakenings but not all and I got less sleep because I felt awful about it. Everytime he does cry - we usually try to wait at least one or two minutes before we go in and sometimes he does fall back to sleep on his own.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

This just started happening to me too. Last night we were up from 2:00 - 3:00 AM . Jake is 11 months old and has no teeth yet. I think it is the teething that is waking him up. He has never gotton up like this before. I hope it ends soon and his teeth come in!

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Does she sleep a lot during the day? Perhaps a little bottle right before bed may help.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Thank you all for your responses. I have tried everything mentioned. I guess its just a phase we'll get through. I have a question about ear infections. Do they always come with a fever? About a month ago she was pulling on her ears so I took her to the Dr. and she didn't have an ear infection. She is still puling on her ears and I would hate to think its from teething when she does in fact have an ear infection. She did not have a fever last night. TIA.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Odd that the book you're reading says that teething doesn't cause wakefulness, because every website that I've read about teething symptoms on mentions waking up in the middle of the night. I would say she's teething, but I could be wrong.

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Posted by dee7772

This just started happening to me too. Last night we were up from 2:00 - 3:00 AM . Jake is 11 months old and has no teeth yet. I think it is the teething that is waking him up. He has never gotton up like this before. I hope it ends soon and his teeth come in!

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

IMO i feel that it is teething I went throught the same thing. . The alone thing did not start with Jillian untill she was 15 months old. Maybe give a little bit on tylonel before she goes to sleep. her teeth are most likly hurting her and she bottle might feel good on her gums. Also try some oragel.

Good luck

Re: Help! She no longer sleeps through the night!

Hi I always had that with my 2 and they are 3 and a half and 2 now. My 2 year old is going through this again because she is getting her 2 year old mollers. I found and swear by hylands teething tablets, they just disolve in their mouth, and give alittle tylenol with it. I bought them in stop and shop in the baby section. Everyone I have told in the past did it and it works. If you would like to forum mail me I dont mind. Good luck!