wide awake….why??!!

Hi Lori,

I don’t have much advice- just wanted to say that I’ve been there (still there?) and it will get better. It may just be developmental as you mentioned the moving around more- lots of babies like to practice their new moves at night and she may not have much room in the Amby bed to do this. My son usually twists himself to the short way in the crib and then gets stuck- I have to move him back to the long way, I always do it before we go to bed and then sometimes during the night. We just started sleep training last night because he was waking at 8, 10 and midnight every night and then every hour after that and then I’d get him back to sleep in my arms/rocking and put in the crib to have him open his eyes and smile… not so cute after the 20th time and I was totally losing it!!!!

I told myself that once the meds kicked in really well for a few days we were going to do this- it helped get me through the nasty nights knowing that an end was in sight. Once he seemed pain free, even with teething going on, I made sure to stick to most of the routine and then woke him after the bottle as he used to use this to fall asleep (which had stopped working!) and so far so good (don’t want to jinx)- I did give him some Tylenol too as a preventive measure. I actually got SOME sleep last night.

I know that sleep training isn’t for everyone- but we both needed our sleep and a stressed out/tired mommy doesn’t help anyone. You know its bad when you want to yell at the Starbucks drive-thru guy!

Hope you get some sleep soon!

Oh lori…..

Have you tried any new foods that might be bothering her? Just curious, we have so many food issues over here..

Have her meds been adjusted lately to a new dose? Is the prevacid in a stable way….I can’t remember if you are using caracream or not. If you are then it’s not a worry, but if you aren’t….these ppi meds can be really crazy– is she doing other reflux things more, or just the sleeping and waking things more?

I hope it improves!

Another idea, is she teething, or has she acted like this with teething before? Lucas is a whole different animal when he’s teething. And I thought reflux was bad before he teethed….

Lucas cut his first tooth at 10 mos….my mother said I didn’t cut my first until 18 mos, that’s the LATEST I’ve ever heard of. One of Lucas’ friends didn’t cut a tooth until 12-13 mos.

In that case, this could be possibly teething. I don’t know, but with Lucas, the reflux is WAAAAAY worse with teething. And he’ll sometimes work on a tooth long before you SEE or FEEL a tooth. Can you see or feel anything (top or bottom in the middle)? Our ped and ped gi confirmed over and over again for me (dh wanted me to ask 5 million times!) if teething can really make things so much worse and they always said yes, for a refluxer the teething can make the reflux 10 times worse. If it seems all around worse, then maybe it’s teething? But if it’s just the restless sleeping, maybe a milestone thing….who knows? Lucas was such a poor sleeper he never slept well enough to tell when there was a milestone interrupting his sleep….it was always interrupted to begin with.LOL.

If you suspect teething, our ped has okayed me to use a combo of children’s motrin cold (with decongestant added), and children’s benadryl, and teething tablets (Hyland’s brand) and I also LOVE the Hyland’s brand teething gel. Depending on her weight, you could use the children’s at the lower dose, or if she’s really tiny, I think they have baby versions of all these meds. Lucas was close to 24 lbs when we started using this combination, so we give him the 2 yr old or 24 lbs dose, which is 1 tsp of each one (of children’s motrin cold and children’s benadryl). Lucas didn’t do well with the other baby orajels, we tried three other kinds, as well. We do all of this on top of his zegerid and sometimes use Mylanta in the night for emergencies. We jokingly call it his cocktail or the triple threat, or the trifecta (sp?). Gotta laugh somewhere in here, right? You might try mylanta tonight once to see if she responds in the night???

These are just thoughts….hope she’s back to sleeping (her best version of it) again soon!

Well, clearly someone needs sedation…Is your dh waking up all night with her? LOL. I’ve WISHED for true sedation at times for him (the baby) AND me!! We used Dimetapp FLU for a bit with teething when there seemed to be a little bit of fever and we didn’t have our triple threat going yet. The Dimetapp said “nighttime formula” which I took to mean, helps the little suckers sleep. It was trial and error to get that cocktail of meds created. But I secretly loved using something htat was also supposed to help him sleep. The Dimetapp didn’t really work, or I would have suggested it here.

Okay the aloe vera was first suggested by my chiropractor, who also suggested probiotics, have you read all about them on the forums, too? She really knows her stuff. She said it was important that the aloe vera be 100% organic AND that it needs refrigeration. I got the impression it was a quality issue, and freshness issue, maybe? She talked about how important it was to have good aloe vera, especially if you are giving it to babies, etc. etc. So we use Lily of the Desert –and I haven’t used it in a while and I need to start it up again!! (I have to add she is the ONLY medical practitioner who immediately suggested removing wheat….last summer….which I’ve only done in the last month and it’s really helped with the sleeping.)

Is hailey even close to walking? cruising walking the furniture, standing up a lot, etc.? It honestly helped tremendously when Lucas began walking, he didn’t walk on his own until 14 1/2 mos. I mean, he still wakes up and still woke up during the learning walking phase, but it lessened the night time wakings. Time has been one of our most serious factors over here. Walking is supposed to take away most little kiddos’ reflux….maybe there is relief around the corner for you?

Did you ever do the full MSPI thing, too? It’s a classic cause of night time wakings. I only tried the MSPI diet removal (taking dairy and soy out of my diet) when he was 8 mos and I was at my wits end and then taking out wheat and gluten this past month when I again thought…..I am going to go over the edge if something doesn’t change. It’s taken really dramatic things to bring me to so dramatically change my own and his diets (I’m still nursing….I swear it feels like he’ll be in college before he’s weaned!)….but each time I have WISHED WISHED WISHED I had tried these things sooner. If you aren’t nursing, even easier….just try removing dairy, soy and or wheat or go the whole hog and try gluten, just to see what happens. It seems like this is just a huge experiment sometimes to me anyway. Try one thing, if it doesn’t work, try something else. I think food intolerances and allergies play a larger role in Lucas’ reflux than we originally imagined. Once we found the hiatal hernia it was like, okay, that’s causing uncontrollable reflux….yet I change his diet and things improve? Woh. It’s really crazy how little seems to be understood in terms of treating the whole person and looking at the whole picture. Sorry to get off on this tangent, but I’m trying to think of things that helped the sleep issues over here for us.

In my Dr. Sears Baby Book it does list night wakings and hyperactivity as symptoms of food allergies. I never characterized Lucas as hyper, but after removing gluten, he started acting what I would call “tired” in ways he never had before. It was like what my friends said about their babies when they would get tired. Lucas had never seemed to get that way, unless it was extremely late. I mean he would get tired at 10 or 11 and finally collapse while nursing, but it wasn’t the same as a baby acting tired around the same time of day each day for a nap nad for bedtime. He would do hte same thing for naps, they were nonexistant until I switched to dairy and soy free, then after 8 or 9 months of age, he began taking them but often very late in the afternoon, like when he was beyond exhausted. (and I had read all about the sleepy signs, tried dealing with it earlier, forcing the issue of naps, etc. etc. …..nothing ever worked.) He’s my first baby, so I really had no clue. Anyways, it’s made me wonder about the food things more. We are finally on the list to see a local allergist but can’t get an appt until May. Okay, now we’re REALLY off on a tangent. If you are interested in any of this food removal and reactions talk, let me know!

Hang in there! I’m there with you too, this week he’s wakened every hour for five nights in a row, last night was better, but not by much. I’m interested to see if tonight we finally sleep a bit better. He’s cutting two teeth that I can see, and maybe more, this week.

I would probably say that teething is bothering her b/c of her age. I know that the peds say that it doesn’t hurt them until the tooth is breaking through the gums but that is silly b/c Isaac is grouchy from the very beginning of the tooth.

Also developmentally they just cannot seem to sleep once they become mobil! If that is the case it will be over in the next week or so (well at least that is how it is here).

It possibly could be reflux if there was a recent medicine change. We noticed a huge difference when changing from 1 ppi to another one. Our ped says that it won’t be like completely uncontrolled reflux but rather somewhat controlled reflux.

What ever the actually reason may be I really reccomend a sleep machine too! This is the one that we have and we really couldn’t do without it! http://www.thefirstyears.com/products/product.asp?pValue=411 2