Night Waking and Teething

Hi S., I think this is a hard one, because all babies are a little different. My baby, who will be 5 mos. next week and has had only breast milk, has been sleeping through the night for about the last two weeks. She had been waking up once at about 3 or 4 AM, but I stopped feeding her, and started just walking her around and singing until she feel asleep. Sometimes it might take 45 minutes but pretty soon she feel asleep in 5 minutes, then sometmes the second I picked her up. It took about 2 weeks, then she stopped waking up. I think what helped was she can flip over better now and doesn't wake herself up moving around. Anyway, maybe he isn't hungry? Maybe he just needs to be soothed a little?

To a couple of the moms on here--she quite clearly said she was not going to start cereal so why try to push your opinion on that issue or of your disagreement with atachment parenting--she did not ask about that!? S.--congratulations on doing the best mothering you can with your babies! I raised 3 girls with attachment parenting and had a wonderful group of women friends who all did also--I have never heard of one parent who regretted it. My girls are all VERY independent and yet very loving and attached also. In fact the Moms I know who practiced attachment parenting with sons seem to have a closer relationship with them as adults than other moms who I hear complain that they never hear from them. so it may be even more important for boys--and I asked my fiance's mom once about how she did parenting (since she raised such a great guy!) she breastfed and cuddled him whenever he needed it--though he slept in a crib in parents room for first few months and then moved to next room. Anyway back to your question--I am not a big one for using meds but I did resort to ibuprofen(motrin) for my second daughter. The first 2 kids seemed to be so sensitive to teething pain, it was major trauma when they came in--and then my 3rd hardly noticed when she got teeth! (they did not have motrin when I had my oldest or I would have used it!) motrin works way better for pain than tylenol. It always got worse too right before the teeth poked through. Have you tried just rubbing his gums with your finger or a cold washcloth? My middle daughter, btw, is still much more sensitive to pain and my 3rd is oblivious unless she has major trauma--she got her finger caught in a car door once and cried only a little while you would think her sister was dying when she stubs a toe! So that seems to an individual thing that you cannot do much about except soothe them as much as you can. And I would try to nurse more during the day to help him sleep more at night-every 2-3 hours is a lot at 5 months though I think it is totally unrealistic to expect a baby to sleep all night until at least a year. Oh and btw--my girls all slept with me until they were about 5-6 months old and then I moved them to a bed at the side of my bed and then at 3 years moved them to their own room--they had to go to sleep in their own bed but they were always allowed to come into my room at night if they were scared or lonely--but they had to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor and could not wake me up! By the age of 5 none of them ever came into my room anymore unless very sick. They are all adults now and I can assure the anti natural parenting moms that they do not EVER come into our room at night, LOL!!!

I'm not sure how long you wait to go to his side when he starts to cry at night. He may be waking up and realizing he's bored and just needs a little "alone time" to get back to sleep. Or a little massage or cuddling for comfort since it looks like you co-sleep.

He may also just be on a different schedule than your other son was at 5 months.

I'm no help with the meds. We haven't needed anything for our DDs teething.

Hope you find something that works for him and you.

My twins did the same thing - drove me nuts! LOL I'm exclusively nursing (they're 9 months now and are just now taking regular solids) and for about a month it seemed like all I did was lie on my back with my shirt open. On the bright side, I got alot of books read. And they also loved the medicine dropper. Truth be told, only one of them wanted to nurse all the time because of the pain and he's the one that never has suffered in silence; the other one just muscles through it with minimal whining.

I've seen you post about him before (the amber necklace made me remember) and I'm wondering if maybe he's got a different problem? This is a kind of random suggestion and it's only because my sister just went through this with her kid, and because I tend to be the kind of person to stick her nose in, but do you think he might be having some digestion issues? Reflux can be kind of sneaky (my sis's kid made chewing motions after he fed and burped and, combined with his fussiness, that's what finally tipped them off. Or maybe just belly problems in general? My fussy twin tends to be an irregular pooper and I make a tea that helps with that, plus calms him down (it's 2 cups chamomile, 1 tbsp fennel, 1 tsp fresh ginger, steep for a couple of hours, add 1/2 tsp baking soda - I give him 1 tsp at a time, usually no more than 3 in a day).

Anyway, good luck! My first kid fussed all day, every day for his first two years, so just hang in there!

Hi S.. I've had similar issues with my sons. My younger son just turned a year on July 22nd and he still nurses 1-2 times per night. I get looks even from his doctor, but I figure when he's ready he'll stop. I also consider myself an attachment style parent. I think that the teething is just a phase that they have to work through and there's not much more you can do but comfort them as best you can. The baby orajel and tylenol together help my son to sleep longer periods of time at night. I just give him tylenol and put a little oragel on his gums and then comfort him back to sleep. It worked with my older son as well. Hope this helps!

Hi S.,

My son did the same thing when teething. I doubt very much that he's hungrier at night. I would bet he's just wanting the comfort of "mom" through the pain of teething. You might try using motrin instead of tylenol. Motrin helps with the inflammation from teething - tylenol doesn't. My pediatrician recommended giving the medication and then putting orajel on. The orajel doesn't last much longer than 20 minutes - just long enough for the pain medication to kick in! Hang in there - it will get better!

It sounds like he almost has his days and nights mixed up. I would think that if you could get him to nurse more during the day, then he wouldn't need to nurse as often at night. Also, I agree with waiting to start solids until six months and we had to fight our families on that one because they wanted us to start our babies on food much earlier.

It sounds like he's hungry. Since you don't want to begin solids yet, I would up the amount of feedings during the day and see if you can switch the timings (4-5 hrs at night and 2-3 during the day). Some babies just need more food than others. Good luck to you. :)

He's 5 months old, time to give him some Cereal. Does he take any kind of bottle? Feed it to him from a bowl, cereal mixed with your milk. If his teeth are hurting him, give him a nice cold wash cloth, the little nubbies on the wash cloth will feel wonderful on his teeth that are trying to break through :)
Good Luck

My son is the same way and I'm somwhere between 90 and 100% sure(since i'm not a doctor and can't really tell you) its because of teething and there's not much you can do..my son has been a sound sleeper,through the night kind of thing since he was 3 weeks old and low and behold as soon as he started teething he would wake up every 3 hours or so he is almost 7 months old now and almost back to normal on his sleeping pretty much back to 9-10 hours at night. i have noticed this happens between teeth...when he's going to get another one within 5 days he wakes up again...i would just say ride it out he will get back to his norm. soon enough

The nursing soothes his sore gums and makes the teething pain ease up. It sounds like he had found what works....MOM! Hopefully, for the sake of sleep for you, this will cease once the teeth break through. I also agree with the Motrin idea. Tylenol is good for fevers, motrin is good for pain. Good luck!