Get-to-Sleep / stay-asleep is getting worse and I'm at the end of my rope...

[cristeen]

He's 13 mos old and until recently was mostly pretty easy to deal with despite the frequent night wakings.  But lately it's getting bad - to where I'm at my wits end.

He will only fall asleep if I'm topless and he's twiddling my nipples (he goes down with a bottle).  If I have a shirt on, he won't go to sleep.  If I hide my nipples, he'll pinch and scratch until he finds them.  Daddy cannot put him down for this reason - he'll drain his bottle and then be awake.  Or he'll scream.  This one is really difficult for me to tolerate - I'm at the point of being touched out many days, and it can be painful. 

Right now is the first time in weeks daddy has been able to get him back down after a waking - lately if daddy tries, he'll just start screaming until I come in there, and it's instant quiet.

Middle of the night, he'll toss and turn as he's going back to sleep, sometimes spinning in place right up against me.  If I move to get comfortable, he wakes back up screaming.  (I am not a sleep snuggler, never have been - I need my space while sleeping, and until recently it hasn't been a problem.)

I'm no longer allowed to get up in the night (I have to pee at least 2x/night, and I have to refill his bottle at least once).  I get as far as the bedroom door, tiptoeing, and he notices I'm gone and he'll start screaming.  He will crawl out of bed and follow me through 3 rooms into the bathroom, screaming the entire way.  If I'm refilling a bottle, the light from the fridge wakes him completely, and then he's a bear to get back down. 

DH will occasionally on the weekend (try to) give me a night off so I can get 8 hours.  Last weekend I woke up at 3:30 and heard DS screaming (can barely hear him in the master bedroom).  I got up and went out to his room and asked DH how long he'd been screaming... 2 hours!  Nothing DH tried helped.  I picked him up, and he quieted right down, laid down on my chest and passed out. 

I am just having a really difficult time dealing with this level of clinginess - in part because it's so new... if it'd been like this all along, I think it would have been easier, but it's just been the last several weeks (maybe a month or so). 

[Carrie1105]

We're going through something similar.  Have been for about two+ months--about the time my daughter started to teeth her first year molars.  We don't have any yet, but one is starting to poke down, but not through.  She'll be 12 months on the 25th.  At first we didn't know what was going on with her.  I've tried meds (don't help).  Thought she had allergies because she has all of the symptoms (rubbing nose/eyes/ears plus she has circles under her eyes).  I've been to the doctors a few times because I thought it was ear infection.  She gave me the go ahead to try allergy meds and even gave me a prescription for sinulair.  I don't like my girl on meds, but I was desperate.  I know she's not feeling right, that something is wrong.  Nothing is working.  So I chalk it up to her teeth.  Plus, at various times, all four molars will swell up and then go down.  I even think she's refluxing again (she had reflux when she was tiny) and actually spit up on the carpet the other day.  I don't even remember the last time she spit up.  This could all be due to the acid from teething.

My girl used to STTN in her crib in our room.  We'd co-sleep when she had a cold or a tooth would bother her, when it was actually cutting through the gums.  A few nights in our bed, she'd be happy to go back to her crib.  That went out the door at the same time.  She starts out there, but within an hour to three hours later, she's in our bed.  Some nights she sleeps well.  Other nights, like last night, she tosses and turns (from 0145 to 0315) and then I had to pee so bad (oh, I'm 34 weeks pregnant, too), I had to get up.  I start to move without her and she screams bloody murder.  My husband cannot do anything to sooth her.  She's been asking for a bottle too some nights (last night), which she never did before.  I have to take her to pee with me just so she won't scream her little lungs out.

She's always been difficult to get to sleep, but once she was down, she was down.  Now, nothing I can do will get her to sleep.  I'm off to order hazelwood teething necklace because that's the only thing I haven't tried.  I wish I had something helpful for you, but I'm in the same boat.  She's always been very clingy to me when she doesn't feel 100%, so I suspect this is why she is the way she is at night (and now daytime naps, too).