Won't nurse to back to sleep!

[inkandpaper]

My 7 month old dd has usually (I say usually because she's not the greatest sleeper ever - let's be honest) woken up 1-3 times in the night to eat.  We cosleep, so she'll latch on, nurse, and go back to sleep without ever waking up all the way.  I'm totally fine with that.  

The past couple of nights, she has been waking up soo many times... it feels like dozens, but I wasn't counting.  The weird thing, though, is that she wakes up crying and won't nurse!  I have to stand up, pick her up and rock her back to sleep.  She'll nurse once I pick her up, but she doesn't seem hungry, and she goes back to sleep fairly quickly (I guess I'll count my blessings there).  It seems like this happens between pretty much every sleep cycle for the past two nights in a row.  She's been fine during the day, naps well.

What's up with that?  Is this a common phase?

[EchoSoul]

Either teething, or needs to pee/wet diaper? My son is EC'd and will cry and cry and keep popping off if he needs to pee.

[susanmary]

Could it even be an ear or throat infection? It was the only time that my boy ever refused to nurse. It was a virus so no need for antibiotics. I would to advise to keep an eye on your LO's temperature and mood.
Edited by susanmary - 2/2/13 at 11:54am

[Asiago]

Could be an ear infection as PP poster stated, especially if she is more comfortable nursing upright, although if she naps well perhaps not.

[chel]

Common, yes. This is why I don't get too concerned with nursing to sleep. Use it will you got it, because it doesn't last.

Never really found the "cause", but like pp, my youngest started ec'ing around this time. She also really liked sleeping on my chest in a upright position. Luv my laz-boy recliner.
It got better, but I do laugh, that my dd slept well enough at night as an infant so my periods returned at 5m, and then slept awful from then on. So I had all the sleepless night, but not the benefits of no periods.

[Lazurii]

Another reason may possibly be reflux.  Laying down to nurse can cause the milk to back up into the throat, causing pain.  Baby associates pain with nursing and refuses to nurse.

Have you recently introduced a new food to her?  She might be sensitive to it.

[skycheattraffic]

The only times my DD refused to nurse at night was due to teething. She woke very frequently and would cry inconsolably. Nursing was hit and miss and walking/rocking only worked sometimes. On a few nights we had to give her infant Tylenol to take the edge off and she would settle enough to nurse and then drift off. I would also consider the other posters' suggestions (infection, reflux, etc) since there may be more going on. I had a reasonable sleeper (3-4 hour stretches) and teething has been my only experience with night waking and refusal to nurse.
One last thing though, a cold with lots of mucus also made her unhappy to lay down to nurse but if your LO had a cold, you'd know it.

[inkandpaper]

I'm wondering if it might be teething.  I never can tell what's teething and what's not - she's had teething symptoms for months but no teeth yet.  And her baseline is already fussy 

I've dealt with the "Won't lie down to sleep because of a cold" before, and that was different - she would wake up as soon as I put her back in bed with me.

We have been introducing lots of new foods, and I can't discount the possibility that she may be reacting to one of them.  But like I said, her  baseline is fussy, so I feel like I'd practically have to do a total elimination diet to figure anything out.  I haven't ruled out doing that, but it would be a ton of work.

I've wondered about needing to pee, but we do ec casually during the day and she is not dramatic at all about needing to pee.  Other than two glorious days when she alerted me every time, she doesn't seem to give me clear signals until she is already peeing (but that's a whole other topic).  So I don't think the waking and crying at night is a need to pee, but again, I can't rule it out.

She slept fairly well last night, which was nice.  I kept her amber teething necklace on (on her wrist - I usually just take it off at night), gave her teething tablets, and rubbed her jaw with clove oil in castor oil.  No clue if any of that really helped, but she slept pretty well so I'll take it.