Screaming at bedtime - why

For the last two nights Max & Lily rub their eyes, ask for "night night", and the minute the books are over and the light is turned off they start SCREAMING. The screaming turns to crying and last night it took Lily an hour to cry it out after DH decided to pull them out of their cribs for 30 minutes, which I thought was wrong. Right now they are screaming, crying, and yelling "Daddy".

Has anyone else dealt with this? Is it a phase...please let it be a short phase. They used to lay right down and we have no issues at naptime. Any suggestions instead of turning the volume up and having a drink :headbang: ? I will lose my mind if this continues for too long.

 

Mine are in a phase right now where they have to have lights on to go to sleep. We have always had nightlights in their room, but thats not good enough. Now the hall light has to be on. It took us a week or so to get to that compromise though. They kept wanting us to leave their bedroom light on. :unknw: Do you think that could be the issue? Scared of the dark? Whatever it is, I am sure it is just a phase though.

 

My girls went through this about 2 months ago. Thankfully it was a relatively short lived phase (a couple weeks) but it felt like eternity when we were going through it. Things are finally back to normal at bedtime now around here. For now at least. GL!

 

Mine like the light on too. We leave it on until I go to bed, then I turn it off.

 

oh boy, I never thought to ask if they'd like a light on... oh ugh, trying to figure it all out. good luck!

sometimes I give our water, but I am really trying to break them of that habit... does seem that every month its something new.

 

I would see what compromise would help them. We turn on music which they love, a night light and door open. It always used to be closed but they decided it should be open which I let as long as there is no crying. Also for a while I give them each one book to look at, something to calmly do while settling down.

 

It feels like every couple of months we go through a new "phase" with sleeping :headbang: They need something new-- a light on or new music or a new stuffed toy in their bed. I hope they phase passes soon for you guys!

 

My daughter has become very scared of the dark -- so it was my dh who thought she needed the hall light on. I wouldn't have thought of it myself. She has woke at 4 am in a fright and we take her into our bed. We don't want to and have always had them sleep in their own bed but I just dont' know what else to do, she is so scared. She sleeps in the same room as her sister too ! I am ok with putting down the rules most times but I hate when kids are scared I guess I find it hard to say no to her on this one. Last night even with the light on she screamed to sleep but I just had to leave her because it was one thing if she woke from a dream but she hadn't even went to sleep yet !!

 

Well we kept them up a little later and then turned on their light, which has a night light type bulb in it. They only screamed for about 30 minutes before falling asleep instead of an hour plus.

DH is thinking since they are already screaming maybe this is a good time to go cold turkey on the pacifiers. They have been hurling them at the door out of anger because we are not rescueing them from their cribs, so I think it may be a good idea.

 

Maybe we have solved the mystery. Last night DH was out at an appointment at bedtime. Max & Lily kept telling me it was not "night night" time, so I let them stay up until 8pm instead of the usual 7-7:30pm. I gave them their pacifiers, they layed down and went right to sleep with the night light on. So maybe it is time for a little later bedtime, but of course they were up right on schedule <_< , no extra time for mommy in the morning.

We gave up on the taking the pacifiers away during the last crying session when they said they didn't want them and then freaked out worse when we didn't give them at sleep time. Oh well, that will happen in time. This is definately a learn as you go process. No matter how many books I have read it is really trial & error.

 

I was going to say, they probably don't want to go to bed yet... I'm going through the same thing, bedtime is creeping closer and closer to 8.30pm and I hate it!

 

Yep, same here! Just when you think you get into the groove of things, they throw something else at you. :headbang: Our routine right now includes: water cups, music, lights on, door open and box fan on. Ridiculous, I know. ^_^

 

crazy that their expectations change! some nights they are easy to go down, others not. last night was crazy. my dd kept fussing and finally it was close to 8:45p... I went in and held her for a minute. I didn't want to offer nursing her... am really trying to only do that for a set amount of time out in the living room... so that it doesn't go on and on. anyway, since I could sense she wanted something I asked if she wanted Water. yep, that was it. I promised water and said she needed to wait in bed while I went to get it. there was never another peep out of her, she took the water and quieted down.

tonight, because both kids had pooped on the potty I offered the glo animals that I'd been promising if they pooped on the potty. wow, they went down quietly. they still chattered until 9pm, but they were quiet so that was all I cared about. I am still trying to figure out the mix of naps and wake time before bed etc.

good luck to you!

 

Yep, I think the posters were right. Last night we put them down at just about 8pm, with book reading, pacifiers, and their night light. They were asleep in about 10 minutes with no screaming :woo: for the second night in a row. Please let this be the new trend. We can deal with a later bedtime with no SCREAMING.