Advice needed on waking in the night

[standswithfist]

Hi all, i'm wondering if anyone has any advice on what could be wrong or how I could make it better for my daughter aged 18months. She has for the last week keeps waking during the night crying and sometimes screaming. It is really freaking me out not to mention making me so tired as I have to get up at 530am for work anyway. She had jabs last weds and a tooth cut on friday - not sure if these are related but also has been out of sorts during the evenings when I get back from work. My hubby says she is fine with him during the day.

Does it sound like she is playing up for attention as I'm not seeing her much due to work?

Do you think it could be teething? she now has 4 teeth at the top, 2 at the bottom and another one at the bottom just cut on Friday.

Would it be the effects of the jab?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am just feeling like an awful mother who should know what is wrong with her and I just want her to be herself again.

Thanks in advance.

[GinaG3]

Not to worry, my daughter is 17 months and has just starting with the crying and screaming night waking at around 4-6am (AGAIN!). Its probably a mixture of attention, teething & jabs to be honest. It was horrendous for me over the last 2 weeks, this was due to cutting teeth and I didn't even notice they had come (back teeth), but we are on 11 now hooray!

I know right now, my daughter is in a clingy phase, could this be a possibly with your little one, especially if not seeing you as much throughout the day? When you are home after work, are you having a nice relax time with her before she goes to bed, just the usual cuddles and a story or whatever she likes? I find if my daughter goes to bed after being all hyper having played with toys this distracts her nights sleep, so now she brings us stories and we read them for her (usually about 8 at a time) but she loves it and it gets her in the right mood for sleeping.

Hope it gets better for you, and believe me it will :)

[standswithfist]

Thanks Gina for your advice. I tried the reading books night before last and that seemed to help. Last night however as soon I we got through the door after I picked her up from nursery she threw herself on the floor and had a tantrum. for about 40 minutes. and she would stand up and then throw herself at me. Bit of a nightmare. so I just waited until she calmed down. then she was fine. it is tiring i'm so exhausted i was late for work this morning. Will power through though and see how the weekend goes.

many thanks again, M.

[nicolemodesti]

Hi we had the same problem with our boy and started a thread on it which may be of some help to you!!

Now all we have to do 2 months later is to get him to want to fall asleep in his own bed at bedtime instead of 'the mummy bed'!!!!

Also we did discover that he cut his 2 year old lower molars about 1 month after it started.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,450477,451146#msg-451146

[Belle]

just to say we're having the same thing this week with a 16.5mth old so I feel your pain! this morning he woke at 4.40 screaming and wouldn't go back to sleep - though was clearly knackered so needed a nap by 7. Am sure it's teeth in our case. Off to check out Nicole's thread for tips though!

[pommie]

our 21 month old daughter has been doing exactly the same. We put her in her bed and then she wakes up a few hours later screaming and crying and not wanting to go back to sleep unless she gets in bed with us.

[Fuschia]

Probably just a developmental stage:

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/04/qa_18month_slee.html

[SteveT]

Bonjela for the teething!

[standswithfist]

nicolemodesti - thankyou for that I had a read and it all sound sooo familiar. I had a better weekend with her as we didn't leave the house on saturday and i was her playmate for the whole day with lots of cuddles and attention. another tooth has cut so it all sounds about right.

Fushia - thanks for that link its very interesting and it helps to feel that i'm not on my own, i'm not such a bad mother and that some day (hopefully in the not too distant future) it will sort itself out and little M will go back to being happy, sleeping better, eating better and not having tantrums.

SteveT - i've restocked on Teethas as she will take it and it seems to work for her. thanks anyway!

thankyou all.

[nicolemodesti]

Pleasure standswithfist, although if you or anyone can now suggest how to get him in his bed for the beginning of bedtime I would appreciate it!! Even when we try to lift him to his he wakes up demanding to go to the mummy bed. I think with all the night waking, teething and recently a health scare we have allowed him access to our bed (last 2 months), which hasn't helped.

He has his own 'big boy bed' now which he loves to lie in and read books, jump on and play with his stuffed animals but will not go for bedtime there!!

As Fuschia's link highlighted (many thanks Fuschia) it could be developmental.

Guess I have to ride this out and once he is fully on the mend get a bit tougher. Plus look on the bright side that he was always a great sleeper and this may just be a blip!! Fingers crossed.