HELP! My good sleeper is up 4 times a night!

I was blessed with twins that are pretty darn good sleepers! My DS has always been able to sleep through the night. He just had a fever recently and then a rash. The doctors believe it was Roseala (sp?) But, his fever and rash are now gone and he slept pretty good throughout this past sickness (5 days of it) only waking a bit during the night. Well..the past 4 nights have been HORRIBLE! It's like he is sleeping worse now that the Roseala is over. He is starting to wake up multiple times a night and he is hysterical. It almost sounds like he is laughing and crying at the same time. You know what..now that I think of it..he had a couple of nights of this about a month and half ago. Hmmm...anyway..that went away and now he is back doing it again but worse. He isn't drooling or putting his hands in his mouth so I don't feel that it is teething. I can't feel any teeth breaking through. They checked his ears when I brought him into the doctors on Tuesday morning (for the rash which went away on Wednesday..the fever was over on Monday) and no ear infection. What the heck is this???? It's horrible because we are all exhausted. His sister shares a room with him and she wakes up and says "NO, NO..babble, babble". I am assuming she is saying, "No, NO..stop your crying, kid..I am trying to sleep over here :laughing:
Could it be separation anxiety? He does seem to cry when I leave the room sometimes and he never did that before. And he is a bit more clingy then he used to be but not that bad. I am trying to have him CIO but it's hard as he keeps crying and crying. And sometimes when I go in the room to help him back to sleep, he is still hysterical even when I hold him. Then..all of sudden..he puts his thumb in his mouth and calms down. I put him back down in the crib and he goes to sleep only to have this happen all over again in 2 hours or so. This is how it was last night:
8:00 PM : Put both DD and DS to sleep. No problems. A bit of their nighttime chit-chat (so cute) and then off to sleep without any issues.
10:30 PM: Hysterical crying from my DS. Gave him 5 minutes, went into check on him. Leaned over the crib (I am not picking him up anymore as I feel that he might think this is his way to get out of his crib). I lean over in the crib and hug him and rub his back and say "shhhhh..shhhhh" to calm him. He kept crying for about 5 minutes and then settled down and back to sleep.
2:00 AM: Hysterical crying again. Waited 10 minutes, went in and did the same routine that I did at 10:30 pm. He kept crying for about 10-15 minutes as I tried to comfort him. Then, all of sudden, he stopped, sucked his thumb and laid him down in the crib. I left the room, he cried again for about 5 minutes and then to sleep. I didn't go back in the room.
4:00 AM: Hysterical crying again!! But..I gave him 10 minutes to CIO and he fell back to sleep on his own.
I never run into this during nap time. They both sleep like a dream. What is happening at night!??!?

 

Gosh, I know exactly where you are coming from. I'm dealing with this too with my DS. He's only 13 1/2 months though. HOWEVER, the pedi told us to check on him once at night, and reassure him that everything is ok, and then leave and if he cries to let him CIO. So we did this for the past two nights -- I hate CIO so much, so I slept downstairs in our gameroom on teh couch. Well last night he STTN again, no cries or wakings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure if this method actually worked - but it did last night. She told us that he would eventually get it that we are checking on him once, and not going to continue to go in and see him. The reason why you should always check on them once is to make sure they have a clean diaper, no fever, vomit, etc etc. If all is ok, then that's when you let them CIO. Good luck!

 

I'm so sorry... I know as I look back at the wakeful nights they do seem to coinside in our house with teething - ugh! Ours had a weird month this past month and a couple of weeks ago, it was better then got worse, I had to feel for teeth, and sure enough, they are getting an eye tooth.

anyway, we had some food issues and I eliminated many different foods, and when I did that I quick giving the extra banana at night... I gave an extra snack the last couple of nights, and my dd slept a little more than the previous nights. And last night I did an extra nursing/dreamfeed at 11pm before I went to bed. thankfully she did sleep until 5:45am... and then after a quick feeding she went back to sleep.

for us it seems this last series of wakings is food related... which means tonight will be horrible as b/c of a party etc, they've really missed out on a full meal and some naps... ugh!

I hope you find a resolution.

 

I haven't had that experience with my kids, but I've heard that this is the age where they can have night terrors? Don't have any advice, but that may be a cause!

 

u think u got it bad mime are up every 2 hours, its driving me made they are 1 next mth n havent slept a night all the way through yet. They go 2 bed lovely but it all starts about 10 n goes on all nite. Im a single parent so dont have the luxuary of saying your turn now. My health visitor says they are in a habbit of waking cos i cant think why else. They sometimes feed in the nite but mostly just wake for no reason. i dread night times n wondered if u had any tips.

 

After STTN from 4.5 months to 10 months, Jack started night waking, screaming and crying. He almost sounded like a wild animal. We couldn't figure out what was going on, and it lasted almost 3 months! :gah: Finally, I started giving him his nightly "pep talk"; I tell him it's night time, time for sleeping, Mama and Dada are right here, you're never alone, if you wake we're right here and you can go back to sleep, etc.

From that night on he went back to STTN and has only had a handful of night waking since then. :unknw: Maybe it was just coincidence, but he's been a pretty consistent sleeper since then. Occasionally he'll wake and give a few cries, but 99% of the time he'll go right back to sleep.

If your DS is having night terrors or separation anxiety, a pep talk can't hurt!

I hope you get this figured out soon! :hug:

 

how is the sleep going??

a friend with a singleton was complaining that her boy at 9 mo. old was waking almost every 1.5 hrs. he didn't drink but maybe 3 oz a night so she didn't think it was a food thing... he wasn't teething... she did what sounded like the Ferber method (I'm not educated on CIO methods)... of CIO... she let him cry 3 min. then went in and comforted then repeated. she said she did the 3 min. 5 times, then a 5 min. wait, then he cried for 2 minutes and put himself to sleep for 4 hrs - which he hadn't done in forever (it took a total of 22 minutes)! then at 5am when he woke she did 3 min. for 5 times and she started a 5 min. one, but he fell asleep at 2 min again... so 17 minutes. her sister did think that her boy had separation anxiety from his momma and it seems that this method worked for them. He sttn the past couple of nights and she is elated and sleeping!

good luck - I had to share what my friend experienced recently.

 

I have 22 month old twin boys and I know what your feeling too. Jake is the good sleeper and Peyton wakes up every night around the same time if he is in his own crib and screams until I go get him. During the day is no problem, they both go in their room and fall asleep on their own, but the night is the issue. I have tried to let him cry and that last over an hour, so I had to get him cause he was hyperventilating. THe Doctor told me to try it and Thats what I did. I have also heard to try putting them in the same bed, since twins like to be close. I tried that too, but they roll over and hit each other in their sleep and eventually wake up. Well good luck!!

 

my oldest was doing this right before he got super sick. I had to check all areas: diaper rash ointment on heavy, took all stuffed animals down as we thought they were scaring him, put vicks vapor rub on him, gave him tylenol, put batteries in his crib musical thingy, gave him the womb sounds teddy bear, and we are finally sleeping!!! they are never really good sleepers but are now sleeping through the night (one wakes up once) but I will take that! Austin was doing the screaming bloody murder for an hour at 4 am!!!! i am happy they are sleeping now, even if it only lasts a little bit! :clapping: