10 month old not sleeping through the night _{Page 11 of 22}

He had a bad night last night. He woke up often, and also had a spell around 12:30am where he was just crying and crying and I couldn't settle him down. The only thing that worked was walking with him. Every time I'd sit down or try to lay down with him, he'd start crying again. It was like he wanted to fall asleep, but then he'd twitch like something was poking him, and then cry again. I couldn't find anything wrong with him. Finally we just got up and I sat with him and watched a movie which helped distract him. After that he played for a bit and then we went back to bed. He fell asleep pretty easily. He woke several more times after that, slept an extra hour in the morning, and was more restless toward morning like usual.

OK. I don't mind doing it over again, and I understand how that can help you.
I feel a little bad taking up so much of your time when I am not a paying customer. However we do have Skype and I wouldn't mind setting up a meeting if that would help find the right remedy.
I'll get going on the questionnaire tonight after the kids are in bed, and post it for you by tomorrow. Thanks so much for your time and patience with me and Kody. I appreciate all the help.

Also, for this questionnaire, what period of time should I have in mind when answering? The last few days, or when he started cutting molars up until now, etc? Just today?

OK, good to know. Thank you! :)

As for my older son, I am still waiting to get his remedy. My husband started a new job and finances have been a little on the skimpy side.
By the way, the Helios Homeopathy has a minimum of 10 pounds for the order, and the Carcinosinum I can get for about 4 pounds and change, so I could get a couple of remedies at the same time, if you wanted to have one up our sleeve for later.
[message edited by alaskamom on Wed, 02 Jul 2014 16:56:17 BST]

MENTAL STATE OF THE CHILD (IMPORTANT)

1. When the physical complaint is active, what is his/her emotional state like? What does he/she do? What does she/he want you to do?
Since the complaint is mainly about his sleep, I'll describe what I see him do at night.
He will go through the sleep cycle, and during the deep, non-REM sleep, he sleeps deeply. But during the light/REM sleeping phase, he often will start to stir, make some noise, get quiet again (repeat a few times) and then start to cry for me. He cries louder if I don't go in to him. If I go in and try to shush him but not nurse him, he will start to complain and cry louder, but settles in quietly to nurse when I feed him. It seems like he cries because he wants to sleep but just can't seem to get back to sleep on his own. So he cries because he's upset that he's not sleeping. When he cries, about half the time it's just laying down with his eyes closed and crying. Other times he will be sitting up in bed and crying with his eyes open as if he was looking for me. When he sees me come in, he rubs his eyes and starts to lay back down as if to say, 'I'm tired and want to go back to sleep, but can't.' Either way, he generally settles back to sleep easily after maybe 3-5 minutes of nursing.
There are times when he gets very restless in the night and will moan and cry with his eyes closed, and will nurse but then waken just a few minutes later to cry again. I'll nurse him again, and this may repeat for a half an hour or so. He seems like he will settle down but then twitch as if something poked him and then cry again to be comforted.
The last couple of nights, he has wakened (last night was 12:30pm, tonight 11pm), restless, unable to go back to sleep, crying and crying with his eyes closed, throwing himself backward and pushing away from me when I try to hold him close or comfort him. Not wanting to nurse. No position is right. Better a bit when I walk with him, but will not go back to sleep. Eventually wakes up all the way and after a bit, is ready to play and cries if I try to put him back to bed. Both episodes had in common that they both happened right about 3.5 hours after he went to bed for the night (with normal wakeups in between).

Putting him to sleep, whether at naptime (he takes one nap a day, usually late morning) or bedtime, is often a chore. He would much rather play than go to sleep, even if he is showing obvious signs of tiredness (rubbing eyes, yawning, cranky, laying head down on floor). I will nurse him, and it seems like at first, he will start to close his eyes and look like he might fall asleep. While he is nursing he always wants to pull on or play with my hair. If I keep it away from him he will get mad and stop nursing and do the sign for 'all done'. He is very active even while getting sleepy, and kicks his feet, pushes against me, plays with my hair, or sometimes his own hair. At times his motions seem like he is frustrated or agitated, yanking hard on my hair or running his hand roughly through his own hair over and over again, almost like he's smacking his hand against his head. This is on the side of his head behind his ear.
Generally he will start to fall asleep, then get those frustrated motions and will get more and more agitated until he stops nursing, opens his eyes and signs 'all done.' I sometimes just go with that, and let him get up and play again and try again in an hour. Or I will really try hard to get him to sleep if I feel he really just ought to be sleeping right now (it's late, or he is too cranky while up to want to let him get up again). I have found at times, that giving him a little massage to the nape of his neck, trapezius muscles and back along the spine will soothe him and he'll stop fighting and be willing to nurse to sleep. That doesn't always work, but it does many times. I usually try holding him face down on my chest and bouncing or rocking while I lay on my back and rub his neck at the same time, and often that will help (but not always). Sometimes I just have to pin him down long enough so he cries for a minute, and then he'll be ready to nurse again to soothe himself (and hopefully fall asleep).
After he does fall asleep, often he will wake up every hour like clockwork (after each completed sleep cycle), for maybe the first 3 hours of the night. Then he will sleep in two or three hour stretches until about 3 or 4 am, and then need soothed every hour until 5:30am, when he gets very restless and needs soothing every few minutes until 6am, when he gets so restless he can't go back to sleep anymore. He usually looks tired and seems cranky when he wakes up. In the past, he used to wake up looking more refreshed and acting happy to see me. But in the last week or two, he will wake up with dark circles and slightly puffy under his eyes, looking like he was out partying till late. The last 5 or so nights, he has been fighting sleep until about 9pm. Tonight he did go down at 6:50 which really surprised me. Normally his bedtime has been 5pm or 6pm and then awake for the day in the morning at 5:30 or 6am. But with the 9pm nights he still got up at his usual time.




2. Does he/she describe any unusual sensation or pain in the body, especially when they are complaining of something? Seems like when he is sleeping restlessly/fitfully, he will settle into being asleep, then twitch as if something startled or poked him or bothered him, and then cry and need soothed back to sleep again.
He seems to always get earaches/ear infections when he is teething. He puts his finger in his ears and pulls at the earlobe.

3. What fears does he/she have? How does she/he react?
He is mostly fearless, and will attempt to do anything he thinks he should be able to do, regardless of if it's something age-appropriate or not. So he climbs all over the furniture and attempts to climb much higher than his age would seem to allow, but he is pretty surefooted as well and has good balance.
When he is afraid of something, depending on how scared he is, he initially will react by pulling back and clinging tightly to me, with wide-open eyes. If he is even more scared, he will burst into tears. Loud noises generally are what he is most scared by. He will also cry if he hears his brother crying loudly, someone suddenly yelling in an angry tone (but usually isn't bothered by a loud yell in a friendly tone).
His biggest thing that scares him or that he dislikes is being separated from Mom. He will cry if I go out of the house (say to take the garbage out) or if I close the door to the bathroom to take a shower. He generally can soothe himself and distract himself for a little while while I'm gone though. He hates going to the nursery on Sunday mornings. He clings tightly to me just upon seeing the classroom. He starts to cry as we get close, and tries to cling to me to keep from getting handed over to the ladies there. When I'm picking him up after church is out, if I make any motions like swinging him back in the direction of the room while holding him, he cries hard thinking I'm putting him back in there. But so long as I am around he really doesn't have much that scares him. He acts like he is large and in charge, and just ready to take on the world. There isn't much that shakes his confidence in himself. He has a pretty high pain tolerance, in general, as well, unless he is tired and cranky, then he cries easily at getting a bump or a scrape.

4. Was there any incident in the past that had a great impact? What happened at the time? Is there any ongoing reaction to this event? How does he/she talk about it?
The biggest thing I can remember is his surgery for the undescended testicle with bilateral inguinal hernias. I think it was harder emotionally for myself and my husband than it was for him. I think the worst part for him was getting taken away from me at the end of the hallway when they took him back to OR. They were very reassuring to me though and took good care of him from what I hear. They did his IV after he was out, so he didn't have to be subjected to all the poking and all that. He did have pain post-procedurally (he had pain meds), and woke more frequently in the night of course, but other than that it didn't seem to have much of an effect overall on him. He did have a side effect of the surgery where he did not urinate for about 20 hours. I kept calling the office as he went hour by hour with a dry diaper, and finally they said to bring him in. They had to catheterize him to drain his bladder and his bladder was as full as an adult bladder. After that he was able to urinate normally. The hospital did really great with the catheterization and he was quiet for most of it. They did a shot of lidocaine first and then had me blow bubbles for him while it was draining, and he was just as quiet as could be for the whole time.
I do also recall a time when he was still a newborn...maybe less than a month old? when we took him into the ER for being extra fussy and I felt something must be wrong. We had been told by his urologist that he was going to be more prone to getting a UTI than the average person, so I was worried about that. They catheterized him, and it was awful. He screamed and screamed and I had to leave the room in tears. Even my husband got tears in his eyes and I have never seen him cry. He did have several ER visits when he was young because he was such a fussy baby and I was trying to be vigilant and make sure he didn't have a UTI. The other times we took him in though, we asked for just a bag to be taped on because I wasn't about to go through that again for just a 'maybe'.

5. Is there any story (book, fairytale, cartoon, movie etc) that seems to really resonate with her/him? What does he/she say about it? Unknown.

6. What kind of fantasies does she/he describe to you? How does this translate down into play, games, toys? Does he/she tend to draw particular things over and over? If so what are they? If you point to these images, what does she/he say about them? Unknown.

7. Does he/she describe any dreams or nightmares to you, and what are they? How does she/he react on waking from them? Unknown.

8. How is he/she when interacting with other children? What about sports or games? How about obeying rules or social conventions? He does a lot of side-by-side play with his big brother, but also loves interacting with him, when big brother will run down the hall and he follows, he will laugh along with Ethan and try to crawl fast toward him. He tries hard to imitate big brother in his play, and they both love to bounce together on the bed. He likes to copy noises Ethan makes and laughs when Ethan makes silly faces at him.

9. How is she/he when interacting with older people? Is there any difference between family or friends and strangers in terms of reactions and behavior? Yes, he is leery of strangers, and acts shy. He usually is being held by me, and will hide his face in my shoulder and then peek out and smile. He dislikes being held by strangers, or even family that he hasn't seen in awhile. He warms up slowly but once he feels comfortable he will ham it up and try to show them how cute he is.

10. What kind of activities does he/she enjoy doing? Which of these do she/he spend the most time at? He loves playing with toys that have noises, lights and music. He especially loves ones that are favorites of his older brother. Big brother loves it, so it must be cool! He likes to push around Ethan's monster truck toy and make 'bbbbbb' noises to go along with it. He loves to climb up on anything and everything he can reach. If I leave the gate open in the kitchen, he likes to open the cupboards and pull out everything. He likes to open the drawers and stand in the lowest one while opening the next one up, trying to climb to the top, I imagine. He likes to play with the remotes and anything 'off-limits' must be the best thing ever. He likes our pet cat and dog, likes to sit on the dog's back (she's a black lab), and try to pet the cat in his rough way. I think he really does try to be nice to the cat though, he really seems to like him. He just started walking and likes to show us how he can take a few steps, and is so proud of himself. He loves playing things like Peekaboo or when I do the 'this little piggy...' game on his toes. He loves to chase the vacuum cleaner. He usually will spend about half the day entertaining himself alone, and the other half wanting to be held or interacted with.

11. What qualities seem to make your child different from other children? He seems especially smart. With our oldest son, people comment on how smart he is, and Kody seems like he will be even smarter than Ethan. He really seems to take everything in and will look intently at you when you talk to him. He doesn't let anything get in his way--when he's crawling, and comes up against a barrier, he just puts his head down and plows through. He tries hard to communicate (pointing, making noises, and a few signs I've taught him). I feel like I can already see just how he'll turn out as an adult. I feel he will be the kind that takes life by the horns, knows exactly what he wants, and goes after it with a quiet determination and tenacity that will make him go far. He will be unflappable, dependable, and cheerful. I feel like I have a connection with him, more so than with the oldest, although the oldest I feel like he and I are more alike in personality. He seems to listen to what you say and file it away in his brain when you talk to him.

12. How does your child cope with school, school work, study, deadlines, speaking in front of others, following directions etc? As for following directions, that depends. Usually if he is faced with me telling him 'no' when he wants something, he will cry because he really wants it and is super determined to get it. He works hard to get his point across of what it is he wants. So to hear me say no he can't have it, just ruins his day. He usually needs a cuddle or for me to walk with him a bit to calm him down. But for other things, like, 'Can you hand me the ball?', he loves to try to do what you ask of him.

13. What kind of questions does he/she tend to ask you or other adults? He likes to point and 'show' us the things he sees, just to have us say, 'Yes, I see that thing.' He sometimes has a tone to his voice like he's asking what something is. So I tell him. Sometimes he will point to the ceiling and smile, and when he does, I wonder what he sees. Angels maybe?

14. What makes her/him laugh? What makes him/her cry? He will laugh when the mood strikes him, such as if he's in good spirits and Ethan makes a funny face at him, or does 'spit words' (as Ethan calls it, where they blow raspberries at each other). He laughs when you tickle him softly, or when something you've done strikes him as funny. He laughs when you repeat something he does and it turns into a game.
He cries when he can't have his way and he is really determined to get it. He cries when he is separated from me or can't see me (behind closed door). He cries when he is trying to say 'no', he doesn't want something, and we're not understanding that and keep trying to offer something. He cries when a loud noise takes him by surprise or startles him. He cries when he gets a big bonk/bruise/scrape.

15. What makes him/her angry or irritable? When he is tired, he gets irritable, or hungry. When he is teething, he is very irritable, upset about the least little thing, crying at the drop of a hat. Also when teething, he is not very interested in food and will primarily nurse for nutrition. He has never been very keen on solid food though, and didn't really show much interest in it until a few months ago. Even now he sometimes seems he could take it or leave it, yet when someone has a plate of food, he's very interested in it and wants to grab at it. He likes to 'beg' for big brother's food when I serve Ethan something.

16. What does your child do when alone? He finds things to amuse himself. He is very good at entertaining himself when he is alone. He will wander off to Ethan's room and just play in there for an hour sometimes. I usually check on him a few times just because he is so quiet. He plays with the toys there, explores, tries to draw on the chalkboard, etc.

17. Is there a particular person or type of person that he/she reacts to, and what kind of reaction? To Daddy, a positive reaction. He always gets happy when Daddy comes home, and will smile and make happy noises and hurry to get over to him. To the nursery workers at church, he will cry, because they mean he is going away from me. To strangers, he will act reserved and shy. To people he counts as his friends or family he knows well, he will try to charm them and show them how cute he is. He loves animals of any kind.

GENERAL STATE OF YOUR CHILD

1. What position does he/she sleep in? Just about any position, it seems like. He seems the most often on his back, but sleeps on his tummy, his side, and sort of half-side half-tummy. He always kicks off the covers. He sometimes will sleep apart from me on the bed and sometimes will seek me out and want to be touching me while he sleeps.
2. Is there any position he/she seems unable to sleep in? Not that I can tell.
3. Any unusual behavior during sleep? I can't think of any.
4. Any problems with sleep? Yes----see above.
5. What foods are craved (cravings are strong desires) What foods are hated? He seems to like meals that take time to prepare. So say the other night, we were eating chicken fajitas. He loved them. He likes taco meat, spaghetti, scrambled eggs done fancy with onions, cheese and bacon. He doesn't like teeny pieces of things--he wants big pieces like big brother gets. He will refuse to eat it if I grind things up in the baby food grinder, or cut the pieces too small. He likes most carbohydrates like bread, pancakes, graham crackers, and such. He likes bananas and cooked carrots. He likes pieces of Ethan's peanut butter and jam sandwiches. He does not like applesauce and will cry if I try to feed it to him (same with baby food from a jar). He doesn't like squishy/slippery things, it seems like. Although sometimes after inspecting them, he will try them. Many times I can't seem to figure out what he would like to eat because he seems to refuse food unless he is mooching off of someone else's plate. He eats very small portions (even for his age) and then is hungry again soon. He does enjoy a bowl of oatmeal and will eat it every morning.

6. What drinks are craved? What drinks are hated? He loves water. He's not a big fan of milk, occasionally will drink a bit of it, but seems to drink lots of water. He likes juice as well, and occasionally a small sip of my tea (black tea with milk and sugar). He would probably drink more of that if I let him.

7. How does he/she react when hungry, or hunger is prolonged? He seems to be able to handle being hungry for a long time, or ignore hunger cues perhaps, by distracting himself. Sometimes it seems like he drinks water to stave off hunger. When he is hungry enough he comes to find me and says 'Mama, mama' which means usually that he wants to nurse. Sometimes he uses that to say he wants to eat something (solid food). When he has told me over and over that he's hungry, 'mama, mama', and I don't feed him, he starts to whine and complain, and get cranky and eventually cry.
8. How does the weather affect? It doesn't seem to affect him, although he loves being outdoors in the sunshine, or any weather. He seems to especially love sunny days though.
9. How does the temperature affect? He doesn't sleep well when it's too hot, he tends to have a hard time falling asleep at the beginning of the night and then wakes often. When it's cold, of course we can just put more clothes on him. But if I don't dress him warmly enough, he doesn't like to sleep cold, either, and will wake up more often.
10. Are there any other environmental influences negative or positive (season, noise, music, moon, light, dark, day, night, time, smells etc.) He does like music, and falls asleep easily when there is a constant, loud music going on (for example if he is tired and I have him in his baby carrier during worship at church). He sleeps better if we have a fan on high to block out noises that might disturb his sleep.
11. Problems with stool or bowel habit? Usually no problems. Once he was constipated badly and cried, but usually it's soft and regular.
Problems with urine or bladder habit? No, but sometimes I wonder if his kidneys or urinary system has something to do with what's wrong with him. I was apparently a terrible sleeper, and had kidney problems, with frequent infections. My mom says I had trouble going to sleep, like he does. She would let me play in my crib until I'd fall asleep from exhaustion around 1am. Then I'd sleep fitfully the rest of the night, too. I have bilateral duplicated kidneys and ureters. I wonder if he inherited something from me? I read also that in Chinese medicine, the kidneys store the body's vital force or essence, and also regulate many other parts of the body, including teeth and ears. I just wonder if there is some connection there. When he was in utero, they were giving him frequent ultrasounds, because he looked like he had one duplicated kidney like I have. Both his kidneys were dilated during the second half of pregnancy. It was diagnosed around 20 weeks, and then from there forward they watched it with ultrasounds every month, and then twice a month, and then weekly until birth. Then he had a voiding cystourethrogram at 1 week old. At that point they still thought he had a duplicated kidney, and the dilation was better, and they were just watching it. Then he had ultrasounds every 3 months to watch it. By about the time they did his surgery to correct his testicle, the kidneys were looking good apart from a slight stritcture at the ureteropelvic junction (probably what caused the dilation in utero). When they did his surgery, they looked at his kidneys as well (xray I assume?), and discovered they were not double, just one kidney on each side. Still, he had some issues with them, so I wonder if maybe they are part of the problem. Perhaps he gets some kidney pains from having that narrowing/stricture at the UPJ?

12. Where does he/she sweat most? Does it stain or smell unusual? Usually I will notice sweat on the sides of his head by the temples, and on his upper lip. It doesn't seem to stain or smell unusual.

Thanks! Glad to help if it will help you.

Third night in a row of the screaming 3 hours after he goes to sleep. He looks at me like he doesn't recognize me and like I'm a stranger in the bed next to him. He started out by stirring, then I went to nurse him, and he acted like he had something in his mouth that was bothering him (like a fuzzy or a hair) each time he went to latch on. Then he started with the screaming after the third time of trying to nurse. I would almost say it's night terrors, but I thought they were supposed to go back to sleep right after those? He just ends up waking up after about 2-3 minutes of screaming and trying to get away from me.

My local store doesn't carry it. I can definitely order online though.

He got a fever last night, about 102F, and was gagging like there was something in his throat, just off and on like it was annoying him. This morning he threw up just a little, seemed more like from gagging than really a true throw up. We took him in to the doc this morning because my husband was worried something might be lodged in his throat. The doc didn't see anything though and sent us home.

Just thought I'd update in case it helps.

Also, I was thinking, it seems like a trend that when we put him in the nursery at church on Sunday, he gets a fever about halfway through the week after that. It's not every single time, but it's pretty frequently. I know it could easily be just some bug he picked up, but I wonder if it's somehow a psychological reaction to the fear of being separated? Should I just keep him with me during church?

Oh and also, about the questionnaire being more complete this time, yes I think it did help having the questions that are geared for children. I think it helped me to be more focused and answer it better. It felt less confusing than trying to answer one made for adults. I was thinking, for my older son Ethan, should I maybe re-do his as well using the children's questionnaire?
[message edited by alaskamom on Thu, 03 Jul 2014 19:41:40 BST]

Another 'just in case it helps' information. Yesterday and today Kody has been asking to turn fans off in the house. It seems like they bother him, not like it's a game. Yesterday evening when he was so fussy after waking up 3 hours into his night, is when it started. He pointed to the fan dial and made a question kind of noise. I turned it off, and he seemed happy. Then turned it back on to check, and he made the noise and pointed again. Then he pointed to the air vent in the bathroom, which was on, and wanted me to turn it off too. Today he wanted the ceiling fan in the living room off.
Also he slept about 5 hours straight today for his nap.

It seems like it shouldn't bother him. The first night he did that, it was probably 80 degrees in our bedroom, and he still wanted the fan off. I don't think it was because it was cold to him, it almost seemed like he was afraid of it, when normally it never bothered him before. The air vent in the bathroom was not blowing on him either, he could hear the noise of it though. But the ceiling fan in the living room is nearly noiseless.

Not yet---we just got paid yesterday and I wanted to run the numbers first.

All right. I ordered Stramonium locally, and it should be here in about 6-10 days. The other two I ordered from Helios, and I just sent them an email to ask how long it might take, since it just said 'standard shipping' but didn't specify a date. I ordered a larger amount of the Carcinosinum since we may need it for all three. I wish I could have found the Stramonium locally.

While I'm waiting for the remedy to come, is there anything I can give Kody for the current illness that he's got? Assuming it's an illness, anyway. This afternoon he had a short 1-hour nap, then woke up looking ragged, a bit puffy on the undereye and flushed cheeks with a bluish look around the eyes. His fever seems to have gone, but he is just not himself. He's been fussy still today, I can feel yet another molar wanting to come in (that makes 3 all working their way out right now), and when I laid him down to change his diaper, he started crying, and didn't stop even when I carried him around, bounced and shushed, tried to offer him the breast, and he didn't want to be comforted. It was just like his middle-of-the-night episodes, but this time after he'd already woken up first and was wide awake. So definitely not a night terror I don't think. The only thing that seems to work is turning on the TV. After I did that he got quiet, and just laid there for a long time, looking unhappy but distracted from whatever was bothering him. He held my finger very tightly while laying there and seemed to have frequent little twitches in his body as if uncomfortable. Should I just wait till the Stramonium comes, or would there be something else I can give in the meantime? Something that comes to mind is, I hope he doesn't have a UTI. With having had a fever and no other symptoms to pin the fever on, I worry that it's something internal that we can't see.

OK, good to know. Thank you.

Hello there. Still waiting on the Stramonium. It shipped yesterday so I'm hoping it will be here by Saturday.
Something I noticed this evening on Kody is that one of his nipples is reddened and slightly raised as compared to the other. The redness extends just slightly past the areola into the surrounding skin. I wondered if I should be concerned or if this is something related to the underlying condition. Thank you!
[message edited by alaskamom on Fri, 11 Jul 2014 05:59:19 BST]