Best sleeper has become the worst...hmmm

[Heidi]

DCG is 8 months old on the 16th. She is usually the happiest baby around, but lately she's been weird.

She has been here since she was 6 weeks old, and has always been a great sleeper. She's slept through the night from 7 or 8 weeks, put her to bed, go to sleep. I've had to wake her at 3:30 at times because she LOVED sleeping so much.

She started trying to crawl about 6 weeks ago, and during this time, she'd frequently wake at nap and at home at night, sometimes several times at night, and we'd find her on her hands and knees rocking and crying.

She's now really crawling, but she still does this almost every day 30-45 minutes into nap, and randomly (not every night) at night. Sometimes, she is inconsolable. She uses a pacifier, but often will not take it during these times. Sometimes I'm not even sure she knows we're there. She just screams, snots, tears, writhes around.

I've tried getting her up (which I don't want to do, but was experimenting). When I have, she grouches and fusses for the rest of the afternoon, and I end up having to give her another nap before mom comes at 5:15. So, that is a pain for me (one baby awake in a sleeping house) and obviously doesn't help her.

I was thinking night terrors (the writhing, screaming, and lack of awareness fit), but then other times, she does seem aware.

She always goes back to sleep. Sometimes these episodes last 5 minutes, sometimes 30. I do go in a try to gently settle her, but it doesn't seem to matter.

Has anyone experienced this?

With my own, I would have said "ear infection" right away, but she shows no other symptoms, and she's never had one.

[melilley]

Could be a lots of things, it would be hard to pinpoint one thing. Could be night terrors, digestive problems, ear infection.....I once had a one year old who would fall asleep, wake up screaming and sometimes would or wouldn't go back to sleep. Sometimes you could console him, other times not. I think it was just a phase. He eventually stopped doing it.
As for the ear infection- my son had one at 10 or 11 months (he's 1 now) and hadn't ever had one before or since. He had no symptoms and we didn't know it until he had a 105 temp one day! He didn't cry or anything!

It's so hard when they can't talk! You feel bad, but there isn't much we can do when you don't know what's wrong.

[NeedaVaca]

I was thinking night terrors as I was reading the post and then saw you thought that as well...my DS has had them and they are so strange/scary to witness. His are the same time frame, usually 5-10 minutes but a couple have been much longer Sometimes he seems aware, other times not at all. They start 30 minutes after he falls asleep right before the REM sleep.

only other thought was teething?

[Willow]

My first thought was pain in some form. Ears (don't necessarily have other symptoms to be an infection), teeth (head level with the body increases blood flow and can definitely cause those buds to throb), GI tract (with all the new foods she may be being introduced to at this stage could she be bloated or gassy?), allergies (could be causing sinus or head pressure).

Could be her first run of the mill fear stage hitting too.

I'm assuming you'd know if anything has changed at home?

[Heidi]

My first thought was pain in some form. Ears (don't necessarily have other symptoms to be an infection), teeth (head level with the body increases blood flow and can definitely cause those buds to throb), GI tract (with all the new foods she may be being introduced to at this stage could she be bloated or gassy?), allergies (could be causing sinus or head pressure).

Could be her first run of the mill fear stage hitting too.

I'm assuming you'd know if anything has changed at home?

Oh yeah, parents are awesome communicators.

They look to me for a lot of answers since they're first-timers, but she's got me stumped. Also, since she's NOT spoiled and almost always reasonable, she gets lots of sympathy from me. If I know they rule the roost, they get .

[daycarediva]

My ds did this (still DOES, but he can handle it himself now) when he was going through a growth spurt, my pediatrician said for a lack of a better term "growing pains".

[Scout]

Night terrors is my first thought. My cousin's son has them and they are apparently horrible to witness. She says he may outgrow them, he may not. They have no idea what causes them for him either. I hope it's not that and is an easy fix for this little one.