writhing and crying in night

My 7 MO is a delight all day long. She is a healthy, happy baby who
appears to love life. She even gets 1-3 naps that amount to about
2.5-3 hours total, and that almost always includes one nap that lasts
2 hours. Not bad, huh?

However, she spends a large portion of every night (beginning anywhere
between 4 and 6 hours after she goes down for the night) writhing
around and crying out. She goes down in her crib OK for me, and then
semi-wakes a couple of times just for her pacifier, but then, between
2:30 and 4:30 (usually), she wakes up and cannot be calmed down
easily. When I pick her up, she dozes right off in my arms but will
writhe around and cry out every minute or so even while I hold her.
Even if I take her into bed, which makes most babies sleep so well,
she still writhes/cries out a lot in the bed with us -- with eyes
closed. She is really still asleep through all this. I will often
stick a breast in her mouth, which invariably quiets her down and puts
her back to sleep, but then she wakes up a bit later, writhing and
crying again. Anyone experience this or have any clues as to what on
earth is going on with her?

I want to try "sleep-training her" and have both the Ferber and the No
Cry Sleep Solution books, in addition to my experiences with an older
child who was an awful sleeper but who I did train to sleep in her
crib all night by the time she was a year. The premise of both books
and of my approach with my older DD is the same, and is simply common
sense: The baby is waking up and crying out constantly in the night
because she is trained to go to sleep by using certain special helps,
whether they be rocking in mom's arms, nursing, pacifier, music, etc.
Train her to go to sleep without the props and she will be able to put
herself back to sleep in the night without yelling for you. Fine. We
use a bunch of those props (rocking, pacifer, nursing), but my problem
is that in the middle of the night, even *with* those props, she is
*still* disturbed. So, the props don't appear to be the problem in
this baby's case. I thus have no idea what approach to take to help
both of us sleep better. Can you offer clues or advice? Thanks!

On 3 Aug 2003 20:50:03 -0700, (Nevermind) said:

My 7 MO is a delight all day long. She is a healthy, happy baby who
appears to love life. She even gets 1-3 naps that amount to about
2.5-3 hours total, and that almost always includes one nap that lasts
2 hours. Not bad, huh?

However, she spends a large portion of every night (beginning anywhere
between 4 and 6 hours after she goes down for the night) writhing
around and crying out. She goes down in her crib OK for me, and then
semi-wakes a couple of times just for her pacifier, but then, between
2:30 and 4:30 (usually), she wakes up and cannot be calmed down
easily. When I pick her up, she dozes right off in my arms but will
writhe around and cry out every minute or so even while I hold her.
Even if I take her into bed, which makes most babies sleep so well,
she still writhes/cries out a lot in the bed with us -- with eyes
closed. She is really still asleep through all this. I will often
stick a breast in her mouth, which invariably quiets her down and puts
her back to sleep, but then she wakes up a bit later, writhing and
crying again. Anyone experience this or have any clues as to what on
earth is going on with her?
(snip)

Have you considered that she may be teething? This past week, my
DD7months went though a similar bout of writhing and crying, was extra
clingy, and just wouldn't sleep at all unless I was holding her
(usually her schedule is very similiar to your DD's). The bout lasted
a few days and now she's sporting her first two little bottom teeth.

Have you checked her gums?


jenn

Random Produxion wrote

Have you considered that she may be teething? This past week, my
DD7months went though a similar bout of writhing and crying, was extra
clingy, and just wouldn't sleep at all unless I was holding her
(usually her schedule is very similiar to your DD's). The bout lasted
a few days and now she's sporting her first two little bottom teeth.

Have you checked her gums?
jenn

But this has been going on for a couple of months! She has gotten her
two lower teeth during this phase, and of course she could be getting
more teeth, but if she was in pain, whether from ear infections or
teething, I would expect to see crankiness during the day. But she is
happy as a clam during the day, and even naps decently well. Oh, and I
also gave her tylenol in desperation one night, at the start of her
writhing period, and it made no difference. That's why I'm stumped.
Thanks!

Other than that, I would go to the doctor to rule out
an ear infection.
--

Another (icky... sorry...) possiblity might be pin worms.


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

As I said in another post to another mom, it could be night terrors.
Although I don't know if they happen that young. My daughter was three when
she went through hers. Other than that, I would go to the doctor to rule out
an ear infection.
--
Sue
mom to three girls

Nevermind wrote in message
om...
My 7 MO is a delight all day long. She is a healthy, happy baby who
appears to love life. She even gets 1-3 naps that amount to about
2.5-3 hours total, and that almost always includes one nap that lasts
2 hours. Not bad, huh?

However, she spends a large portion of every night (beginning anywhere
between 4 and 6 hours after she goes down for the night) writhing
around and crying out. She goes down in her crib OK for me, and then
semi-wakes a couple of times just for her pacifier, but then, between
2:30 and 4:30 (usually), she wakes up and cannot be calmed down
easily. When I pick her up, she dozes right off in my arms but will
writhe around and cry out every minute or so even while I hold her.
Even if I take her into bed, which makes most babies sleep so well,
she still writhes/cries out a lot in the bed with us -- with eyes
closed. She is really still asleep through all this. I will often
stick a breast in her mouth, which invariably quiets her down and puts
her back to sleep, but then she wakes up a bit later, writhing and
crying again. Anyone experience this or have any clues as to what on
earth is going on with her?

I want to try "sleep-training her" and have both the Ferber and the No
Cry Sleep Solution books, in addition to my experiences with an older
child who was an awful sleeper but who I did train to sleep in her
crib all night by the time she was a year. The premise of both books
and of my approach with my older DD is the same, and is simply common
sense: The baby is waking up and crying out constantly in the night
because she is trained to go to sleep by using certain special helps,
whether they be rocking in mom's arms, nursing, pacifier, music, etc.
Train her to go to sleep without the props and she will be able to put
herself back to sleep in the night without yelling for you. Fine. We
use a bunch of those props (rocking, pacifer, nursing), but my problem
is that in the middle of the night, even *with* those props, she is
*still* disturbed. So, the props don't appear to be the problem in
this baby's case. I thus have no idea what approach to take to help
both of us sleep better. Can you offer clues or advice? Thanks!

toto wrote in
:

Since you say she is not fully waking and isn't comforted, perhaps
she had *night terrors*

Confusional arousals (popularly called night terrors) are an entirely
different phenomenon, which I have described elsewhere. These
happen when children get stuck between two stages of non-REM
sleep. They might talk, scream, or open their eyes, but they aren't
awake and they aren't dreaming.

Don't know uf they get them so young though

they can. Boo started them around 6 months. it does sound like it could
be night terrors (in which case, the baby may outgrow them, but they may
get much worse before they get better). Boo hasn't had an episode lately,
but i'm not going to say he's outgrown them yet.


lee
--
It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate
between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital
connection between them. -Leo Buscaglia, author (1924-1998)

"Nevermind" wrote in message
om...
Random Produxion wrote

Have you considered that she may be teething? This past week, my
DD7months went though a similar bout of writhing and crying, was extra
clingy, and just wouldn't sleep at all unless I was holding her
(usually her schedule is very similiar to your DD's). The bout lasted
a few days and now she's sporting her first two little bottom teeth.

Have you checked her gums?
jenn

But this has been going on for a couple of months! She has gotten her
two lower teeth during this phase, and of course she could be getting
more teeth, but if she was in pain, whether from ear infections or
teething, I would expect to see crankiness during the day. But she is
happy as a clam during the day, and even naps decently well. Oh, and I
also gave her tylenol in desperation one night, at the start of her
writhing period, and it made no difference. That's why I'm stumped.
Thanks!

DS was always happy as a clam during the day with most all his ear
infections. Nighttime is when he would cry and that would be his only
symptom. Couldn't hurt to have it checked. He had chronic and recurrent
infections, so the crying could last for months. In the beginning, I would
chalk it up to just inability to fall asleep, when I couldn't take my lack
of sleep any longer, I took him to the ped, who diagnosed it as an ear
infection. You can imagine how I felt letting him cry for so long. That
happened a couple of times before I caught on. Anyway, DS's second cousin
also cried alot at night. No one thought to see if it was chronic ear
infections until they found out she was nearly deaf. All that time it was
ear infections.