Why is my kid crying?

kmm2150

DD has gone to bed like a rockstar for a year. Suddenly in the last few weeks she has started to cry and scream for me at bedtime. I feel like I'm having to sleep train and it is wrecking me. We had a great, fun day today, fine all through bedtime, and now screaming for the last 10 minutes. Aaaaaaaargh I hate evenings like this.

I'm also just waiting for the 'I have to go potty' which will mean we are up another 30 minutes.

Btw she's 2.5, my siggy is ancient.

kmm2150

Through with molars. Yeah we seem to be in a real mama phase, she gets upset more easily if I leave or even just go to the bathroom and don't tell her where I am going, etc.

It's torture because she's been so good about going to sleep for so long, and nothing has really happened, so I second guess myself that maybe she's sick or something hurts, etc. But I do just think it's a clingy phase...plus I've caved and gone up and rocked her so now she thinks I'll come back.

minervacullen

DD does the needing kisses from daddy and big brother over and over. Then she has to confirm that they are going to bed too. Then she needs socks, doesn't needs socks, needs a new diaper even though hers is dry... It's exhausting.

secretsout

We went through this recently.  It seems to be settling down again.  At first it really was difficult for me to ignore him, but eventually I realized that he was just trying to manipulate me.

He would fake cry in his crib forever and needed one thing after another.  The worst was when he would be in there "crying" and saying "mama come hold me."  

He was just stalling, and he still tries, but I tried as hard as I could to not give in to it, and to just ignore it as much as I could and it seems to be getting better.  

TheRunningGinger

My 3 year old has been doing this for a year.

Good night. But I need to potty. Fine. Can I have water? Fine. Can you sing to me. Yes. Tuck me in. Ok. Where's my care bear!? I don't fucking know kid! <----- bed time in my house every night.

I don't really cuss at her but omg she works my nerves every night. This is why I drink. Good luck.

kmm2150

fredalina said:

2 is the age of stalling at bedtime. I'm surprised you weren't hit by this 6 months ago TBH. Hang in there.

She has been stalling for a few months, but more like the "I have to potty/get a drink" etc, not the total meltdown tears. And now it's like she saves it all up - bedtime routine is fine, very little procrastinating, but when I leave the room she just instantly freaks out and sobs - breaks my heart.

flyingsaucer

Could she be over tired? What time is bed time? Does she nap? I have learned that there is a magical window for bed time and if you wait until they are overtired and miss the window it's melt down time. Would starting her routine earlier help? Hang in there, hope this stage passes soon

fancynewbeesly

My daughter's famous line is: "but...I am hangry (hungry); my tummy is rumbling." It makes me melt a smidge each time. 

Ziegeficker

My son has just started doing this, and I'm not sure why either. He's also been waking up more in the MOTN. I sadly have no advice, but I'm sorry you're going through it, because it's pretty stressful...ugh!

BluepointToasted

I have no advice either. Just wanted to let you know I was in the exact same boat a few weeks ago, then I came on here and posted a please-help-me post like this, and the next night ds got his act together and started sleeping though the night again. Nothing I did actually mattered

BluepointToasted

*and for the record, the reason I am posting at this god-awful hour is because ds just woke up 3 times in the past hour after sleeping with no problem for almost 3 weeks.

Rainovertx

fancynewbeesly said:

My daughter's famous line is: "but...I am hangry (hungry); my tummy is rumbling." It makes me melt a smidge each time. 

Mine says "but my body is telling me I'm hungry! My tummy says 'J----- you need to eat!'" (Her tummy speaks in a gravelly old man voice.) and she's totally playing me-I THINK-but I don't want to start ignoring messages from her body, so....

fancynewbeesly

Rainovertx said:

My daughter's famous line is: "but...I am hangry (hungry); my tummy is rumbling." It makes me melt a smidge each time. 

Mine says "but my body is telling me I'm hungry! My tummy says 'J----- you need to eat!'" (Her tummy speaks in a gravelly old man voice.) and she's totally playing me-I THINK-but I don't want to start ignoring messages from her body, so....

It is REALLY hard for me to ignore either. DD's oncologists ALWAYS ask about weight gain/food/etc--and she was hospitalized on her birthday for low blood sugar. So even though I KNOW she is stalling--I always try to make sure I give her a cup of milk or something right before bed--so I can remind her that she just ate. (We are trying to avoid the feeding tube route) But yeah--I know she is completely playing us today. 

bensmommy518

So I am lucky enough to have a special snowflake who goes to bed just fine but will wake up at 3 am and pull these shenanagians.  I want a drink!  I need the potty!  Read me a story!  I want to read!  Blanket! No blanket!  and on and on and on...

RayRay007

DD was always an awesome sleeper. Bedtime was unbelievably easy and she sttn. The trade off is that she hasn't napped since before she was 2. The last several weeks bedtime has been horrific and she is waking up 1-2 times a night, ending up in our bed by 4am most nights. Turns out she has started napping at daycare. I don't know how or why they got her to nap, but I think it is completely screwing up her sleep (on top of the usual 2-3 y.o. stalling). Has something like that changed for your LO recently? I'm honestly thinking of telling daycare not to let her nap.

lisaren

Have you tried a night light in the room?
My daughter did this for a while, she is 6 now but when she was younger she started to be fearful of noises and lights from outside. We did a night light and a small radio with light enya playing and back to sleepy world she went, mommy free.

LTMama

My 3yo goes through phases like that, too.  She's usually awesome about sleep, but every once in a while she freaks out at bedtime and will scream for a few minutes.  But it usually only lasts about 5 mins, then she stops and goes to bed, and she'll only do it for a few days.  I think it's just a phase?

One thing that helped a little was to just leave her to freak out.  DH tends to keep going back in to check on her and try to get her to stop freaking out, and that just agitates her all over again.  Letting her settle herself down works best for her.

Good luck!  They like to keep us on our toes, don't they?