Help me please!

[Nadine216]

I have no idea where to post, so please move if this is not the right spot

DD is 8 months next week. She is an angel. She has been sleeping so well. We put her down anything from 6:30 and she is soundly asleep by 7:30 at the latest. I can even put her down and give her a toy, sing a little, give her a goodnight kiss and leave. She will fall asleep by herself, I just check in every odd minute. Then she sleeps till 11, I wake her for feed before going to bed. Sleeps through, she will wake, but I just pop the dummy back in and she is off. I will wake her the next morning for feed at 7. Then it's off to day-care.

Here is the thing. Since Saturday she has been waking at night. Ok, she has a cold and terrible wet cough. I have medication that is helping that. But she don't want to sleep flat. She wants to be on my chest. I checked her ears, but she don't mind me touching them and she does not moan when I do, so no earinfection. When I pick her up at night, because the dummy and tapping does not work, she falls asleep straight away (on my chest) but when I put her down, she gets stiff like a board and screams and I pick her up again, over and over and over. Later we are so exhausted that we just sort of fall asleep crying! I tried putting her in her snug-and-safe chair, it worked, but not through the whole night. I think her little body gets sore.
I tried giving her some milk and I know I am doing all the wrong things (lets her play with my hair while she is sleeping on my chest). Her gums are not swollen or red, but she keeps on chewing her hands. She must be teething, but how long is it going to take? I can't see anything. She kick her legs straight and then she moans and sometimes she farts. Could farting hurt She is not eating anything strange lately, I stoped introducing new stuff when she got sick. I can hear her tummy grumble, but she is not hungry. I have no idea what to give her to help that. It could be a number of things, right? Sore throat, muscle pain, headache ...
And the night before last I gave her some (3ml) pain/fever medication (Panado) just to get her to sleep - I feel terrible about that. It worked, but I don't want to drug my child just so I can get some sleep. She did not have fever or nothing, but after two hours of holding her on my chest, I was desperate!! I can't even sit down, she wakes up. I can't leave the room, she wakes up. So I am constantly standing and shhhh'ing her. Last night she fell asleep and I managed to get into bed with her in my arms and slept sitting up!! Later we just sort of slide down and I left her in bed with us. We slept like that for two hours, she woke at 6. So I got up for the day.
I think it gets me bad, because I was so used to her sleeping so sweet, that this is a shock to me.
Do you think I should take her to a dr? Is this seperation angst? Could it be hayfever - how do one know these stuff?
Please just give me some answers or advice or anything!! I am not coping
Topping it off - DH is sick, so he is not helping, not that he would. I love him to death, but he is not the waking-up-in-the-night type of person. My deal with him is that I'll get up, and he will stay down and shut-up. He may not say anything or get worked up. So far he is keeping his end of this bargian, but I don't know now that he is sick if he would be able to.

[{sarah}]

It sounds to me like her cols is making it hard to sleep. I can suggest a couple of things that we've tried with Zander was waking constantly due to a cold that might help.....

Brauers cold & flu (I think is what it is), basically it's a homeopathic cold medicine that has no drugs in it. It might help relieve some of her symptoms & there's no worries about having drugged her, I know that feeling I hate giving meds too.

If she likes being upright at the moment try a pillow in her cot, because of the SIDs risk, try putting it underneath her mattress (or even put the head end of the cot on phone books). This will put her on a bit of an incline so she can breathe easier.

HTH & that her cold goes away soon.

[Nadine216]

Thanks Sarah, I'll check the parmacy for Brauers. It sounds familiar, so maybe I have seen it before.
I actually did put a wedge under her normal baby pillow, so she is at a bit of an incline. That helps, but only at the begining of the night (say 7 - 2) then she does not seem to notice that she is not flat on her back. Do you think that maybe her body could be getting sore, because I usually put her on her down on her right side? Does not matter, because she does not sleep on her left side. Back or right side. - By the way, when do they start sleeping on their tummies?

[Beach Mama]

Hey Nadine, when Izzy was sick I put her on quite a high incline with towels under her mattress to help her mucous drain out of her nose at night. If you have an air vapouriser that should help her breathing too. Some people also put Baby Balsalm on the cot rails where they cant touch it. HtH

[Nadine216]

Great idea Tan!!
I'll try the baby balm on the rails - have not thought of using babybalm at all Don't have a vapouriser. Maybe I can hire one at the pharmacy
I'll also maybe try to get the incline higher!

[JoMarie]

Nadine - I use a vapouriser woth Eucalyptus oil for Nicholas when he has had colds. Also, I put a bit of vapour rub on his singlet.