PLEASE HELP ME!!

[Brit- Y]

I have an eight month old daughter. She started sleeping through the night at about 4 months old and was doing so good until recently. Now its so hard getting her to sleep at night and then during the night time she'll wake up numerous times crying. I have no clue to why she's doing this. I need some kind of explanations.. Please someone help!!

Thanks,
Brit

[lil_Jean]

Is she teething? My daughter slept through the night at day one. We started having problems around the same time. The doctor said that we were feeding her throughout the night and that now she was trained to do this. We had to stop feeding her at night. When she would wake up, we would not talk, pat her back for a couple minutes, and leave. If she continued to cry, we would let her cry for 5 minutes before repeating the procedure. Within a couple days to a week, she was sleeping through the night and now at over a year, she continues to sleep from 8:00 pm to 8:30 am. Does any of this sounds like what is happening with you?

[lil_Jean]

Oops! Sorry. We had problems at 4 months. I misread your question, however, 8 months does sound like teething time! Even though your daughter may not have teeth popping through, they can still be coming in and causing her pain. We go through that every couple months. It can last anywhere from a day or two to an entire month. Try Tylonel if you think it maybe teething.

[KClark1755]

When my son was about that old we started having gas problems which would wake him up constantly. Someone recommended Mylicon - http://www.mylicon.com/
That solved most of our problems and had him sleeping through the night again. And if he would wake up I'd give him that and he'd be back to sleep in no time.

[Brit- Y]

Okay, so what were the symptons of that gas problem??

[Brit- Y]

yeah she has every sympton of teething but nothing yet. and thanks for the suggestion. and yes everytime she waked up i do feed her because thats what i thought she wanted. so how long did it last that he was waking up and what not? did he eventually stop after awhile? its just so hard when we both have to get up early in the morning and neither of us get proper sleep. thanks sooo much!!

so how old is your son now?

[Brit- Y]

sorry im meant daughter!!!!

[waitingwithhope]

Could be a growth spurt, could be that your baby is teething, could be that your baby is having dreams (they can at this age) and it could also be that your baby is just plain thirsty in the middle of the night.
I could try just comforting her, patting her on her back gently, leave the light off and leave her in her crib to see if she will settle back to sleep. I would repeat this pattern for a while to see what happens.
If that does not work after you have tried it a lot, I would consider giving her a bottle of water. If my kids were thirsty they gulped it back...if it was just because they wanted the attention, they'd push away the water. Anyhow, they learned that nighttime was not the time to wake up to party :)
If it is a growth spurt or a phase, your baby will settle down again in a few weeks or even a month or so. No need to worry...just don't make it an event when she wakes up or she will develop a new pattern based on your response :) Easier said then done, though--I've been there and I wanted to give in and turn on the light, hold them and wait until they fell asleep but I knew that could make it worse so I tried to follow a familiar pattern and they did end up figuring out that nighttime was for sleeping :)

[KClark1755]

Brit, he had the same symptoms of teething. He was just flat out cranky and would just cry and I couldn't figure out what he wanted. Sometimes he would arch his back a lot. But other than that, all I could tell you is that he didn't want to be fed, he didn't want to be held, he didn't want anything. But I'd give him just a few drops of that stuff and within a few mins he was happy again and off to sleep.

[lil_Jean]

I thought my daughter was having night terrors. I freaked me out! It turned out that she was just trained to eat throughout the night. Which is what it sounds like the problem is for you. At 8 months, your child should be able to make it through the night without waking up to eat. You can try a number of things. Give her water. Some people say this works. We never tried it as it didn't make sense to me to put stuff into her stomach when we were trying to get away from that. Therefore I don't know if that will work. We did the let her cry 5 minutes, comfort her, cry 10 minutes, comfort her, repeat, etc.... This lasted less than a week. Things got better every day. My daughter is now 13 months. She goes to bed at 8:00 pm and I have to wake her up at 6:30 am for daycare. I believe she was anywhere from 5 - 7 months when we did this. I would suggest trying to break the bedtime bottle asap! The longer you wait, the harder it will be! If you feel more comfortable, contact a pediatrician. Let them know your child is still taking a bottle during the night and you think she may be doing this out of habit. See what they say. My ped was the one that suggested taking the bottle away all together and doing the 5 minute crying, 5 minute comfort thing.