Frantic crying throughout the night

[Adaline'sMama]

DD is 9 months old and has always been a great sleeper. She has slept with us since she was born, but she goes to bed about 3 hours before us. Until now, she has never had a problem sleeping for 2-4 hours stretches. She will usually wake every 3 hours to nurse, falling back to sleep pretty much within 5 minutes.

For the past 4 nights she has slept for the first 3 hour stretch, nursed , and fallen back to sleep. When she wakes for the second time (around 3 am), she wakes up screaming and only wanting to nurse for 20-30 seconds before she is crying again. We've gotten up and tried rocking, swaddling, eating solid food, playing with toys, hylands teeting gel, diaper changes, clothing changes, ssshing, and even at one point bourbon on the gums. NOTHING stops the screaming. I dont know if this is even a teething problem. I know I can feel 2 teeth that are about to come in, but she doesnt respond to the gel or to the bourbon or to chewing on something. Im starting to fear that something is wrong with her and I just dont know what it could be. Her crying is different that it ever has been. She sounds so panicked and like she is having a total breakdown.

She has gotten her first two teeth in the past month and and this nightime nursing on and off all night and her ripping her mouth off my boob in a fit of frantic crying has left my nipples bruised and so so sore. I usually say "ouch"and take the boob away when she does this, but I feel like I cant deprive her while she is that upset. Every night after the first time she wakes up screaming she only sleeps in 20-40 minute increments. Its usually sleep for 30 minutes, up for 30 minutes screaming. During the day, she acts completely normal.

I just dont know what to do. She has a well visit on Tuesday, so Ill talk to the ped about it then, but does anyone else have any idea what could be wrong?

[jcent]

My DD has never been a good sleeper, and we started having sleep disturbances around 6 months.  I would sometimes be up with her 6 times in  the night.  She would just wake up screaming.  I am sure it wasn't "night terrors" as she was actually awake, but it was still super concerning.  Each time, I would just sit up and rock her in bed, and if that didn't work, I would get up and walk her and sooth her.  Once she was calmed again, she would nurse and go back to sleep.  It generally would go on for 5 nights, give or take, and then stop.  In the last 6 months it has probably happened once a month.  I just chalk it up to teething or being on the verge of  a milestone.

[elisheva]

I would guess teething. Are you opposed to giving Infant Advil or another pain reliever? Seems like shes in a lot of pain. Might even be worth to try it once and see if it helps - then you can at least rule out teething. The bourbon may not numb her gums for long enough and, while I'm a fan of homeopathy, teething tablets (hyland or otherwise) ahve never touched my ds2's teething pain.

Also, for my kids teething is TOTALLY worse at night. I only rarely had to give meds during the day (when ds2 started biting everyone in site while cutting his molars, I knew it was time to break out the advil).