crying at night

My Nefeli has been sleeping nicely through the night since she was about 8 months. At 12 months we did CIO which went very smoothly and it only took 3 days for both of them to be able to jabber to each other and fall asleep on their own. For the past 10 days Nefeli will sleep without any problem at about 7pm and at about 10 or 11 she'll start crying. Like she's in pain- real loud and desperate. She'll go on and on crying (more than 30'). If I pick her up she settles down and will fall asleep again. When I put her back on bed she'll start crying again but will fall asleep soon after.
I don't think there's anything wrong with her physically. She's not hungry because the couple times I fed her she wasn't interested. What's going on? Is it possible she's overtired and this is the result? She hasn't been sleeping at all in day care so she's not napping at all. Could it be separation anxiety? DH was away for 10 days and got back yesterday. She never did this before.
I feel so sorry for the girl- she cries so strongly and for so long. Any ideas? Any suggestions?
I hate to see her unhappy.

 

We have the same problem.But my boys do that together.They start just like on a command, at the same time.All of a sudden screaming loud.I was so scared when i heard them for the first time.It did happen once when my husband came too late home and couldn't tell them good night and to play with them.I think they do wait for him every day , even very tired , because they want toga play with him and to see him.Other thing i figured was that when they do it , they must have had something hard for dinner.Something that makes their bellies hurt and gassy.Like peas or sweet potato, so that why i started giving them smooth things like pasta with carrots, chicken with rise etc.
I hope that help you in some way.
If you figure something else out i would appreciate if you share it with me.Thanks

TSVETA

 

Poor thing! If she doesn't seem to be hungry or sick, my guess would be overtired and perhaps night terrors. (It doesn't exactly fit the pattern for night terrors, because children having those are not usually responsive to soothing -- in fact picking them up often seems to make things worse. But it does fit the pattern because they are more common in kids who are overtired, and they tend to happen just a few hours after initially falling asleep.) I don't know if babies that age can have nightmares, but maybe?

Is there something that might be waking her up around that time? One night, DH and I went in to check on the girls at 10pm (just before we went to bed) and somehow woke up Sarah and must have scared the **** out of her, because she cried for 2 hours, despite all our efforts to soothe her! Maybe you and DH walk past their room around then (on your way to bed) and it wakes her up?

DH being gone might be feeding into it too. In any case, I'm guessing it's psychological. My inclination would be to go in and soothe her, and hopefully she'll get over it. If she seems to get more and more dependent on your presence, you may need to think of other options, but hopefully she'll just stop doing it before you get to that point.

 

Addie used to wake and cry if she was constipated.

 

I think she's way too young to go through the whole day without naps. It might be that she is overtired, just as you suspected. Maybe a couple of days of sleeping in late and lots of naps will help her sleep better at night. Babies actually find it difficult to stay asleep when they are overtired. Why isn't she able to sleep in daycare?

 

This seems to happen to my boys when they are overtired. Sometimes when I have gone in their room to pick up whomever is crying there will be a little gas and I wonder if that is the reason too. Is she eating anything different? I have also noticed that if we go past their tired stage at night and they enter the hyper stage that sleep is much more difficult for them. Maybe she needs to go to bed earlier, especially if she is skipping her naps? We have had this happen recently and I think it is related to having so many changes going on around them (we just moved across the country). I have also noticed that this happens when they are coming down with a cold or some kind of sickness. I don't know if I really gave you any help here, but I think a variety of scenarios could cause the waking/screaming thing.

Good luck! It is so sad when this happens to them, not to mention exhausting for everyone.

 

You're not alone I am going through the same thing as you with my son, Justin. He just started doing this last week. I noticed it happens around the same time too. He used to cried BIG time for nighty bottle. We are wondering if he is going back to square one? But no bottle, I pick him up, hug, shsh, and then put him back down after 5 minutes. (This time I will just sooth him without picking him up and start the habit again -- my husband says, no pick him up because he is a mommy boy).

I flipped my book out "Toddler 411". It is too early for him to have nigh terrors/nightmares (usually happens.....Night Terrors (Older than 18 mos) and Nightmares (3-6 years old)

REM Active (Dreams) Second half of night, AM Nap
Non-Rem (Quiet) First half of night, PM Nap

Seriously, I think he happened to wake up, not sure where he is at, or has some sort of separation anxiety.

I would like to hear what others have done.
Diana w/Rianna and Justin

 

A tooth appeared today so I'm hoping that was the cause of her unhappiness along with her father being away. So far it seems like it will be a quiet night. Thanks for your posts.