LO suddenly hates bedtime

angelsnight

I asked this on my BMB too and it seems I am not alone, but was wondering if anyone with older kids knows the reason behind this, and tips to help.  LO will be 10 months next week, and has been sttn since about 2-3 months.  She always went down very easily, for naps as well....sleeps in her crib, in her room since day one.

Not long after turning 9 months she started crying at bedtime.  Now it is an every night, every nap thing.  If I rock her she will instantly calm down, I can even sometimes get her to doze off a little, but as soon as I put her in her crib it's screaming and crying and she'll thrash around a little and use her feet to spin around in her crib.  Most nights we let her CIO for about 5 minutes and she's asleep, though it does break our hearts.  But like now, I put her down for a nap and she's been crying for 30 minutes off and on.  She'll settle down for a bit and then start up again.  She also used to wake during the night occasionally, look around the room, play with her paci and then go back to sleep, but now she wakes up 1-2 times a night crying.

She has two bottom teeth and I thought it was due to teething but it's been weeks and she doesn't have any new ones popping through.  She's also mostly fine when not being put down to sleep, but she does throw a pretty good fit if I take a toy from her, which she never used to do.  The only thing that has changed for bedtime was we lowered her mattress, which maybe contributed some but this new behavior started before we lowered it.

Could it be separation anxiety....or just being old enough now to decide she wants to do what she wants to do so she throws a fit when she doesn't want to do something (go to bed, have something taken from her)....any tips for how to deal with it aside from what we are doing?

SouthernAcorn

We've been going through the same thing with H, who just turned 11 months.
He started sleeping in his own room and self-soothing around 4 months. We never had to rock him or give him a bottle for him to fall asleep after that point. He actually seemed to prefer just being left alone in his bed to do his own thing.
For the last few weeks, however, he's been crying before falling asleep, waking up throughout the night, and just being a bit grumpier overall. His top front teeth are coming, so I would like to chalk it up to that, but the STM in me knows that this is the start of the separation anxiety stage, aka my least favorite after the newborn stage. C got so bad when she was a baby that I could barely walk from one side of the room to the other without her bawling. And daycare drop offs were rough.

This article explained things pretty well IMO.

https://m.kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/sleep/sleep812m.html

We just try to keep comforting brief and as uninteresting as posible. Extra cuddle time throughout the day helps, too. It's tough, but we can make it through this! But of course, if you are really worried, talk to your pedi. Good Luck!

Guennie

I agree with pp. You are at a prime separation anxiety age. Some babies have it worse than others but it's very very common. It's going to take some time for her to remember you will always come back. I know it's hard but remind yourself it won't be like this forever. Hugs.

angelsnight

Thanks so much, this was very helpful and the article was great I was beginning to think someone swapped out my easy going baby for this one that cries all the time.