Is there a 12 month old sleep regression? Is Monkey just teething? What the &*#* is going on?!

That doctor was trying to help you, because he's seen this before.

Anyway, give him some tylenol and do the sleep training. This will happen until he gets all of his teeth. At which point he'll probably start dreaming up monsters, and you'll be woken up for that.

Hi there,

I know I am writing late in the game...how is Monkey? I had to laugh out loud reading your blog as my monkey is exeperiencing the same thing and he just turned one two weeks ago. It started two days after his first birthday. Champion sleeper...just simply put him in his crib awake and he fell asleep by himself and slept until 7 a.m. the next day. THat has all changed...he now goes to sleep but wakes up screaming and I mean screaming at midnight and nothing calms him down except bringing him into our bed. I don't know what to do. If he is in pain I don't want to make him suffer more but I don't want to create a bad habit. He was such an amazing little sleeper.

;-)

Gosh! I feel so relieved reading this post. My 8 month old son is going through the same thing and he is doing some heavy duty teething (6 teeth so far and he may now have some coming through in the back). It's the same, with the ear pulling and waking up screaming. Like your monkey he has been a good sleeper in general so it's really hard to deal with when his patterns get disrupted. It happened a couple of months ago when he was going through both teething and a development spurt and I was at my wits end. I have a couple of friends who did controlled crying very successfully but I wasn't sure I could do it, and interestingly the paediatric nurse I spoke to told me boys don't handle it as well as girls, especially when they are younger (he was just over 6 months at the time). We decided to do Pick Up Put Down which I felt was gentler, and it worked pretty well until this bout of teething. It took 3 nights, with steady progress each night, and the key was consistency.

Good luck with getting Monkey back to his old sleepful self!

Hey Jane!

You should know that you're doing an awesome job. My twins are only 4 months, so I'm dreading this teething thing, but kudos to you for hanging in there and giving people like me the heads up! i was under the impression that now that they sleep through the night, that was the end of it...boy I was wrong I guess..lol

Typical signs of teething. His toofy pegs will pierce through soon.

Oops, just saw your update. Ha!! Glad you solved it!

First of all - 5ml is too much Benadryl unless Monkey is like 30lbs + or something.
(I only know this because we are in the middle of the head cold from hell over here...story to follow.)

If you can imagine, we have been teething (2 incisors), then sick (roseola), then teething (2 molars starting in), then MORE sick (helluva head cold which has morphed into a cough)...which all adds up to zero sleep. The strangest thing about it is that of all the above, the head cold got the worst reaction (waking every 45 minutes to an hour screaming and unable to be calmed down for an hour - even with my super incredible breast milk and motherly bond and all that happy crap.) Husband out of town for a week...baby wouldn't nap either...Mommy pretty much lost her mind.

It's been about 6 weeks since I've gotten anything resembling sleep. The kicker is that just a few weeks prior to that he had just started sleeping 6-7 hour stretches (unheard of for my kid). It's been a roller coaster for sure, and it's frustrating when you can't pinpoint the cause.

Check and see if Monkey's got any molars coming in. They take forever. Julian has been working on his for almost 3 weeks now and they haven't even cut through the gums. It's insanity. If that's not the cause, hopefully it's just a bug that'll run it's course or something temporary of that nature. While I'm sure a sleep regression is possible, this sounds more like he's uncomfortable or hurting somehow.

Oh, and I read your comments and I didnt think that you were rude at all about the ferber method.

My daughter is almost 8 months old, and we just decided to sleep train two weeks ago. She was sleeping fairly well up until a month ago, and then she was not sleeping AT ALL! We suddenly were revisited by her newborn self, and were not expecting it. I was desperate to get sleep, so we decided to sleep train. We were hesitant to do this, but she was crying even when we would rock or feed her (which food has been the golden ticket thus far). So, we decided that we had definitely established the bond with her, she was old enough to sleep train, and she knows that we are going to feed her when she needs to be fed. The first night she cried/whined 40 mins. with us patting her in her crib every 5 mins. until she went to sleep. The second night it was 30 mins. with us going in every 7 mins. The third night was 5 mins., and every night since it has been NO CRYING/WHINING AT ALL!! We give her a bottle, read, do the same routine, then lie her down drowsy, and she does the rest! It is WONDERFUL!!! She is so much happier, as are we! She sleeps 12 hours straight too! Oh, and during the night at the start of sleep training, if she woke up we would pat her every 5 mins, and we would wait 3 mins before going in her room. Good Luck!

Yay! I'm really happy that the mystery has been solved. :-)

At night, I do give him motrin at bedtime, which lasts for about 6 hours. After that, I give him tylenol during the day but only if it is clear to me that he is in pain or that it is keeping him from feeling well. The teething tablets, in my experience, are for those early, wussy teeth and not for honkin' molars. In my experience, the worse part of any teething is just the part before it sprouts and again when the tooth is about half-way out. So hopefully things will be good for you for awhile.

[I am not an anti-pharmacuetical extremist. However, I'm not going to let my child sit in pain if I can help it. I am very in tune to him and fully trust my ability to judge the difference.]

Other things I do, I do the obvious comforting at night, as you have been doing. Even the ferber method agrees not to initiate sleep training during times like these.

I give him lots of food to chew on to help the molars break through sooner and it provides comfort via counter-pressure.
I make sure he gets as much sleep as he wants during the day because he needs the rest.
I do triple paste all the time to treat/prevent teething diaper rash.
I give him extra milk because the nerve that is irritated during molar teething is soothed by warmth and sucking motions....I can't think of anything else at the moment. Oh and LOTS of coffee and/or wine- for you I mean. :-)

Just read my post. Damn I hate autospell on my iPhone. Ibwas definitely not referring to snakes.

Hi Jane! Sorry to hear Monkey hasn't been sleeping well for you. I love your blog, btw.

Have you heard of 'the wonder weeks'? It's a great book about developmental leaps that babies take during their first year. They also have an iPhone app.! Anyway, there is a leap right around a year that snakes will go through and can mess up their sleeping, both at night and during the day. I also agree with you that learning a skill such as walking can disrupt sleep. My DD is 8.5 months, and starting to crawl, pull up and walk all at the same te. She wakes up several times a night just screaming, and on all fours with her eyes shut. If I weren't so tired it would be adorable.

Also, I really enjoy reading 'ask moxie'. It's a great supportive group and she has a lot of topics on sleeping, teething, and developmental issues. I found her blog during DD 4 month sleep regression.

Good luck to you, hope u get sleep soon. Also I apologize for typos, I'm using my phone.

JENN - THANK YOU!! I felt back into Monkey's mouth & sure enough, there's a molar popping through. Then I googled & found out that the molars are quite the pain in the ass. Woo! It's such a great feeling to be able to diagnose why my little guy. I've been reading books & looking online so much to try to figure it out. There was something in me saying to delay the Ferber method... Honestly, I thought we'd do it each night & it never happened. Of course since he's in pain, I would never put him in more by not answering to his cries or when he is needing some extra loving.

I read online that alternating Motrin & Tylenol seems to work best for some kids. What do/did you do, if anything? We also have the Hyland Teething Tablets too.

Thank you so much for your comment. It opened my eyes & I'm so glad that I found the problem :)

To everyone else - Thank you for your opinions too! I felt so lost & was looking at anything & everything that could be hurting him.

Aubrey - I never meant to be rude in my post. I was writing as fast as I could while Monkey was playing & I didn't have time to re-read what I wrote. I never mean to offend anyone & believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Again, I'm sorry if I seemed a bit too judgey.

Welcome to the world of 1-year molars! At least that is what my pediatrician told us after I brought my 9-month old in for the same exact issues you are describing. (He's an early teether- 6 teeth by 6 months, 8 by 8 months, and now he's getting 2 molars).

The whole lack-of-nap/crying connection is probably because when you are tired, the pain is worse. Molars make ears hurt/itchy too.

My suggestion (and this is just what works for us) is to be there for him- delay the ferber method.

The reason is because to him, he is hurting and this strange new pain probably scares him. We can all remember as kids whenever we were hurting that we longed for our comforter person (mom, dad, other) to be there for us. Being there for him through this painful/scary/TEMPORARY time will reassure him and also help foster his trust in you as his mom.

Again, it is just a suggestion. You are a GREAT mom and you know monkey and will do a great job no matter what you decide to do. Hang in there :-)

My 13 month old is going through the same thing. I used to be able to just put him down at 8 after his bath and he would fall asleep on his own within 10 minutes with no crying or fussing. All of a sudden, bedtime is a nightmare. He kicks, screams, yells, and cries.
I feel really bad letting him cry it out but that's what I do. It now takes him about 45 minutes of crying to fall asleep, trust me, I feel like a mean, mean mom. I go in once or twice to lay him back down and try to hand him his bottle. I'll rub his back for a little or hum until he calms down and then turn around and leave again, which usually brings tears again.
But with my 4 year old, I did the co-sleeping and I STILL can't get him to sleep in his bed. He will fall asleep there and then be back in my bed my 1 or 2am. I do not want to go through that again.
I honestly think that is just because now that they are getting older and can move around more, they want to keep playing and following us. And they know that they are going to be left alone and play time is ending. After awhile, everyone tells me, they will get used to the fact the day has come to an end and it's time to go to sleep.
Good luck with him.

I don't know that it is fair to say that anyone that doesn't agree with the Ferber method are talking about a subject that they "know nothing about". Just because it makes sense to you doesn't mean everybody will agree, and it certainly doesn't mean that everyone is just going off of the "bad rap" that he has obtained. I have read the Ferber book,once after my 11 year old was born, and again for my child psychology class, and it makes no sense to me and I don't agree with his methods. This is for my children and my family. I think that whatever works for you works for you, but shame on you to talk like that. If you feel guilty and feel the need to justify what you feel is right can't you find a way that is a bit less rude to do it? No one is judging you for trying this method, don't judge those that don't like the method.

Bad habit schmad schabit.
Personally I love nighttime snuggles with my 15mth old in bed. She starts out in crib next to our bed and comes in with us usually around 11pm. I don't see it as a bad habit, but a chance to have precious snuggles while I still can.
Hubby and I just have to get creative with our *ahem*.
But I guess thats not helpful to you if you've decided its best for Monkey to be alone at night.
I would say one thing - you may think the progressive interval crying is a great idea, and for many people it works great, but I've had a few friends for whom it just go their baby more and more confused and wound up. As in "why is mom here some of the time, then not at others". So yeah, it might work for you, but you might need a plan B.
I personally wouldn't be trying any kind of crying method if I suspected he was in pain. Imagine yourself crying alone in pain for even 2 minutes, wondering why tarzan won't come and see whats wrong.

I hope it sorts itself out for you. Our daughter has had seasons of "good" and "bad" sleep, and we just accept them as they come.

Try Motrin (lasts longer) or Tylenol before bed. It may help calm him enough to sleep. Worth a shot, anyway.

sounds like our son. He's 11 months on Thursday. He's been going through something similar for about 2 months now. We thought it was an ear infection too, because he kept pulling on his ear. But he had no fever and was not acting sick. We took him in to the doctor. She said he is either having some kind of nightmare (their brains are now more aware and are processing things more quickly) and/or his molars are growing in. I suppose it is all growing pains. She advised Tylenol for 2 nights in a row and then see how things go. That seemed to work for us, might be worth a try. I sympathize with you guys. It is rough. But i always try to remember that this too shall pass...

http://www.drgreene.com/qa/what-are-night-terrors?...

Night Terrors is my guess, and that site has good info on them. We talked to our dr about them last week (my "monkey" is a month younger than yours), and she said sleep schedule disruption can set them off, which had happened to us, too. Getting more, longer, naps has helped our baby sleep better.

FWIW, we tried letting him scream for 10 min to see if not touching him would settle him (both of us hovered over the crib, though) and it didn't. Him getting two, 3 hour naps, did.

I know what this feels like. My son is 14 months old. He started being like this a month ago. It's worse when his routine is disrupted. The shrieking is awful and i find it impossible not to freak out.
Is monkey walking yet? Apparently learning to
walk can disrupt sleep due to the frustration of learning this major new thing. I think that with my son it's a mix of that and teething.
Thankfully it's happening less now.
When it does I go in and cuddle him to calm him, give him
teething powder (if needed) then put him back to bed and leave. If he cries I leave him for 10 mins before repeating. I don't talk to him, just cuddles and soothing noises. Normally after half hour or so he'll be asleep and usually goes to the morning.
I think it's a phase that all new toddlers go through.
I'm just hoping he grows out of it.
Good luck x x

I'm guessing it's teething or growing pain. My little one, who is the same age as your little one, went through the same thing about two months ago. She's doing so much better now, but it was a seriously trying time. We both work outside of the home and it was getting frustrating to get up and sit through meetings with little to no sleep and not knowing what to do about it. I had her ears checked three times one week. The doctor said it was just teething. I did the Benadryl thing for a few days and then the phase seemed to pass and we moved on .

Side note: Ear infections can come up quickly. I had my daughter into a the doctor for on a Thursday afternoon. There was no sign of trouble. Friday morning she was crying at day care so I picked her up, took her in and she had an infection.