Any idea what is causing this?!

jamie217

So last night and Friday night one of my girls woke up in the middle of the night screaming.  She has been STTN since 5 months (now they are over 10mos), teething has never affected her sleep- even when she cut 4 teeth at once.  It seems more like she scarred or upset.  I went in both nights and held her, calmed her down and rocked her and she was fine...as soon as I but her in the crib - FREAK OUT!  So I would take her out, hold her longer, take her in our spare room and lay down with her and she would lay for a little bit and then try to play (so I know she's OK).  As soon as she goes into playtime mode, I put her back in the crib because I do not want to send the message that I will get up and play with her in the middled of the night!

At that point both nights I put her back in the crib and let her CIO, the first night was only a few mins, but last night was about 45 mins and I caved because listening to her cry was killing me and went in and got her in between and had to put her back again because she would not lay down.

I don't know what is causing this, her diapers were clean both nights, no teeth on the way and like I said this hasn't phased her so far.  I thought maybe separation anxiety, but she goes down without a problem and is usually fine when I leave for work in the morning.  The only other thing is H was home yesterday and let them nap 4.5 hrs (and didn't do a damn thing around the house - there's an entire vent session post right there, but I'm too exhausted to go there right now!!).  I know she could have had enough sleep, but Friday she napped her regular amount and the same thing happened - it just didn't go on as long

Any idea what could be causing this?! Sorry this is loong, like I said I'm drained! TIA!

meldoo2002

I don't know what's causing it... are you still rocking her to sleep before bed or nap?  Sometimes if you are.. when they wake in the middle of the night they don't know how to get themselves back to sleep.  Have you done CIO in the past?  So she knows what it is?  What happened after you got her last night and put her back down?  I would try some motrin or tylenol before bed, see if it helps, if you're sure there's nothing wrong I would let her cry )c:   It would be hard and make me anxious, but it's what I'd do.

jamie217

No, I've never rock them before bed and they go down drowsy, but awake and they have always gone down without an issue.  We did CIO after we weaned their night bottles because they were waking up out of habit and would take an oz or two and fall back. 

 The problem is my H works nights and he was off 3 days in a row  when we did it before (and it only took 2 nights and wasn't bad) and I'm a huge sissy when it comes to letting them cry, so when he's not here with me I tend to fall apart! Although I did end up letting her cry in the end both nights.

kafunder

I don't know what it is, but I sympathize. We had a period a month or two ago where DS woke up screaming a few nights in a row. He was inconsolable. The only way we calmed him down was either feeding him a bottle (even though he'd just had a big bottle 2 hours before), stripping his clothes off, or putting him in the bath (just to change his state of mind). After we did each of those things, he was back to his normal self--playing, cuddling, giggling, splashing in the bath, etc. and then went back to bed. I have no idea what caused this night screaming.