Anyone's LO all of a sudden having nighttime separation anxiety?

shellylovelee · December 2012

I searched for an old post on this but only turned up a long thread where bumpies argued back and forth over co-sleeping.

Here's the short-ish version: DS has been a great sleeper since about 8 weeks. 90% of the time self soothes to sleep and in the middle of the night. He normally wakes from naps and in the a.m. chatting or quietly moaning to let us know he's up. Then a few weeks ago he started this horror film-worthy screaming each and every time he awakens.

The bigger issue is lately at 4:30am he wakes screaming and will not go back to sleep unless one of us is with him. 1/2 the time, due to our exhaustion, we bring him into bed to give us all another hour of "sleep".

Anyone out there with this issue or encouragement that it's hopefully just another sleep disruption phase? TIA!

Chunstad · December 2012

I'm sorry, this sounds horrible!! I don't have any words of advice, but I'll tell you what I do. C wakes up 1x a night to nurse. Sometimes during his naps, or in the early hours, he'll wake up whimpering. I have one of those sleep-sheep things (mine is a frog) that lights up and projects stars on the ceiling while playing music. I'll turn that on, rub his back for a couple of seconds while telling him quietly that it's night-night time and then leave. Most of the time it works. We keep it in the crib because sometimes he'll turn it on himself

Good luck!

vitan · December 2012

My little girl has been doing this lately. She'll wake around 4 and start screaming. The only thing that calms her down is a bottle of milk. I attribute this to the fact that I would nurse her back to sleep so she's used to that, however, I have weaned her from the boob for a few weeks now. What I try today now is have a bottle ready so when I hear her stir, I give her the bottle, she drinks and goes back to sleep. She doesn't do it all the time but she did this morning and no bottle was ready. Oh, and we Cosleep.

Fianschneid · December 2012

DD has been STTN since 4 months but . . .

A few times in the last two weeks, DD has woken up around 2:30am, sat up in her crib and babbled for an hour or so. She's fully awake, just talking to her teddy bear. Then, she puts herself back to sleep. The morning after, she sleeps 30-45 minutes later.

Last night, she did it again and at the end of the hour, started crying for about 15 minutes, then put herself back to sleep. She woke up crying again at 4:30 and got up earlier than usual (because she peed through her pjs) this morning.

What is going on with these LOs?

LatteLady5 · December 2012

N has never been a good sleeper. She has STTN only a couple of times since she was born. She still wakes up at least 2times to nurse.

We are in the process of buying a home and until then she still shares a room with us. Normally when she wakes up it's a mild whine until I get her or until she falls back to sleep. Every now and then she will wake up screaming. Like a high pitched, eerie, piercing scream. I am sure she's waking from a bad dream or scared or something. I typically get her right away and picking her up and soothing her helps.

Do you think a night light or one of those sleeping light buddies would help your LO? I'm sorry you're dealing with this. 4:30am is for sleeping.

Chunstad · December 2012

Fianschneid:
DD has been STTN since 4 months but . . .
A few times in the last two weeks, DD has woken up around 2:30am, sat up in her crib and babbled for an hour or so. She's fully awake, just talking to her teddy bear. Then, she puts herself back to sleep. The morning after, she sleeps 30-45 minutes later.
Last night, she did it again and at the end of the hour, started crying for about 15 minutes, then put herself back to sleep. She woke up crying again at 4:30 and got up earlier than usual (because she peed through her pjs) this morning.
What is going on with these LOs?

Good question. C was up from 4am-5am whining and crying in his crib. Then again at about 5:15am. DH wakes at 5:30am and leaves at 6am. I wake with him so I can drink coffee in peace. Needless to say, we are both exhausted today.

patchen30 · December 2012

DS had been screaming at naps and/or at night and I think it was due to his sleep being disturbed b/c of a schdule change - he is in the process of switching from 2 naps to 1. This caused him to get overtired and have a hard time sleeping in general.

If your LO is suddenly waking up in the middle of the night maybe take a look at the big picture of their sleep and see if there's something changing.

nikki2246 · December 2012

Us...DD was a decent sleeper and usually got up 1x a night and went right back down but the last week or two she has been screaming and clinging to us when we out her back down at night. She is going from 2-1 naps a day . I would LOVE to sleep 5 hours straight.

shellylovelee · December 2012

Interesting comments...

I keep telling DH it has to be a phase. DS has also just recently started crying when DH leaves. I'm thinking it's a separation anxiety phase and when he wakes at 4:30am in his sleep cycle, it's triggering the anxiety and he just won't go back to sleep unless we're with him.

He's been a champion sleeper, 12 hours a night for last 8 months plus two good 1 1/2 hour naps.

I feel like I've entered a bizarro world.

Elsa1984 · December 2012

We are going through the same thing. But I try and keep Gator in her room in the dark and not bring her out of there. I don't want her to start thinking if she screams and freaks out, she will get to come out of her room. So I go in there and calm her down....and get her back to sleep. My cousin was going through the same thing with her son in August (he was 13mo) and would bring him into her room just so she could go back to sleep. Now it's a habit and when he freaks out and screams, he knows she is going to come in and bring him into her room because he will continuously scream. He is now 17mo, and she is regretting bring him in her room because its happening nightly and she cannot get it to stop. Not saying that will happen with other babies, but Gator is really quick to pick up how we react to her different behaviors and she would fully take advantage if she knew she could scream and get out of her room. So I avoid removing her from her bedroom at all costs.

nikki2246 · December 2012

Elsa1984:
We are going through the same thing. But I try and keep Gator in her room in the dark and not bring her out of there. I don't want her to start thinking if she screams and freaks out, she will get to come out of her room. So I go in there and calm her down....and get her back to sleep. My cousin was going through the same thing with her son in August (he was 13mo) and would bring him into her room just so she could go back to sleep. Now it's a habit and when he freaks out and screams, he knows she is going to come in and bring him into her room because he will continuously scream. He is now 17mo, and she is regretting bring him in her room because its happening nightly and she cannot get it to stop. Not saying that will happen with other babies, but Gator is really quick to pick up how we react to her different behaviors and she would fully take advantage if she knew she could scream and get out of her room. So I avoid removing her from her bedroom at all costs.

This is us..DD knows that when she freaks in teh middle of the night we will bring her into bed so we can all get some sleep. Before Superstorm Sandy we finally had it where she was getting up but we would bring her ito another room and she would fall back asleep. Not our room. Then sandy happened and since we were displaced for a bit we lost what routine we had ...I know we have to be strong and break the habit. I like sleep though.

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