Crying at the same time every night?

MrsLnt

For the last month or so, DS has awakened at the same time every night, give or take 90 minutes, fussing and crying. After trying things like patting his back/bottom, replacing the paci, sometimes the only thing that settles him is to take him out and rock. We don't rock to sleep so he can get himself to sleep on his own. Solids are at 6 (jar of stage 2 food mixed with brown rice cereal) and last bottle is at 7, right before bed. The wakeup-freaking out starts between 9:45-11:30. We dropped the 11pm dream feed a few weeks ago but this was happening before we dropped that feed. We suspect teething is playing a role because they are almost 8 months old and still toothless. But, we load him up with Motrin right before bed in hopes of alleviating that pain. Any other ideas? We are exhausted. Not opposed to CIO but I don't want to do it if there is more going on than being a poor self-soothed.

kafunder

DS would do this. You could set a clock to it. 2:27 every night he'd wake up. He did this until 8 months old. I don't know which of these things solved it, but here are things that all came together leading up to that time:

--We did Ferber to teach him how to soothe himself back to sleep. This would work great for a few nights and then he'd be back to waking up again. But, he did learn how to self soothe.

--We put him in nighttime Huggies. This seemed to help a lot b/c before the overnight diapers, he was waking up even more frequently b/c he was uncomfortable in his wet diapers.

--Solid meals three times a day. This made a HUGE difference.

--Some people asked if maybe there was air conditioning or a heater that was coming on at the same time every night and wakign him. I couldn't find anything like that, but maybe it's waking your LO.

--Maturity. I think by 8 months, he was finally ready to STTN. 

OrangeSmoke

Us too- Harry more than Alex, but around 10/11, sometimes we get a "night cap".  I find that they'll do a few nights in a row, and then be fine.

For me, it's just much easier to pick him up, shove 2-4oz down his throat, and give him 5 rocks than to pat his bottom and shhhing him.  But that's just me, I get the whole thing about not wanting to rock.

For us, at least, it's never been teeth or illness related.

 

MrsLnt

Thanks for the help!  Sorry for the lack of paragraphs - was posting from the iPad in the nursery, just waiting for the freakout to happen.

kafunder, we are doing 3 meals, and nighttime diapers.  And 4 8oz bottles.  I think it may be some tummy ache because when I was rocking him last night, he barfed chicken on me.  I just thought it was drool until this morning when I saw yellow stains all over my shirt.  Gross.  I'm hoping he grows out of this soon, though, because I'd like to go to bed before midnight.  It sucks to be almost asleep and pulled from the edge of slumber bu an "eh ehhhhhhh" that you just know is going to turn into full on freakout if not attended. 

Since we lowered the cribs we're finding it's easier to pick up and rock for a few minutes.  Bending over that far for long periods of time is a special kind of torture.  I find myself wishing I'd been a worse parent and bought a drop side crib when I had the chance.