Teething and trouble sleeping

So, my one of my boys (Sam) was the first one to start to get good at sleeping. But recently, he has started teething and he can't sleep. He wakes up crying... and we'll hold him, but he just stays awake. So we started laying down with him in our bed, and he just lays there for a long time, maybe an hour or so before he finally falls asleep. If we put him in his crib, he's up again in another hour or so. I'm thinking there is not much to do but ride it out. But, if anyone has any tips or thoughts... please let me know!!

 

This is a tough one. We have had a couple of teething spurts that have affected sleep. It usually lasted 3 or 4 nights to a week and then back to normal. We would use Hyland's teething tablets - tiny and just dissolve under the tongue - think they have mostly chamomile. Just enough to soothe them so they can fall asleep. The tough tough nights we used tylenol and motrin alternating. Hope this is short for you. I know I would give hugs, rock a bit, and put back down awake and they would work it out. I didn't make a lot of eye contact - just mainly let them know mommy was there and road it out...as you said.

 

Hopefully the wakefulness won't last too long - mine are teething and usually have a few bad nights in a row before things settled down. When they wake up crying I rock, pat, sing, etc. and if that doesn't work I, like you, take them into bed with me. They tend to settle down quite quickly once they're in my bed and I will usually transfer them back to their crib at some point during the night. You can also try giving him a cold washcloth to suck on or some frozen fruit in a mesh feeding bag (that always works for us). But rest assured it will pass and everyone will be sleeping better soon.

 

I truthfully never had kids wake due to teething issues on a regular basis. I would say maybe three times total. But if they did, I just gave motrin and held them/rocked them then put them back in their crib.

If I knew during the day that they were really fussy due to teething, I gave motrin right before bed and that always helped.

I hope the teeth make an appearance soon and you'll all be back to sleeping!

 

we used a 3 prong approach, all discussed with our pedi before trying:

1) dose with ibuprofen before bed. ibuprofen is better at reducing swelling than tylenol so it was our drug of choice.

2) rub a little baby orajel on their gums. try it on the tip of your tongue. it stings for an instant, then everything goes numb. so you might get a squeal as you're applying it but it passes quickly.

3) hyland's teething tablets. they're homeopathic but our pedi strongly recommended them. what i've been told is that they're actually stomach soothers, because babies' tummies tend to get roiling and upset during teething.

 

this is all great info! Thanks so much everyone!!

 

I just wanted to ditto on what Sara said, we are doing the same thing and its working great. Good Luck to you and hang in there.