14mths old screaming at bedtime whilst tired

kitten2014

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Hi guys, have to have a rant as its hard to keep it in, after having a 4.5mth old that settled and slept well thru the night to a loving happy baby at bedtime at 10-12mths to now a raging screaming baby inbetween eye rubbing and yawning that eventually sleeps but not before screaming the place down when she sees me leave the room....

Ive tried quiet crawling out when her head is down vs waving nite nite and both result in the same....she will be fully settled before this and happy giggling etc she just doesnt want to go to bed...regardless of naps this happens, I hate to see her crying to sleep but there really is no other way, I keep to a reasonably tight timing and routine at bedtime (dependant on naps and what she's been up to) but short of keeping her up til she drops (and dont reckon she wud she'd just get overtired) dont know what else to try...it makes me cry to hear her but there is nothin I can do except wait it out...it used to be 1-5mins and she'd b asleep but sometimes half an hour and if I go thru then I have a repeat after I leave for another 30mins...

I know she is teethng bad atm as have had three out of 7 broken nights sleep where ive had to go thru n give her extra milk and calpol so hoping its a phase but it gets to me....

The milk thing is a query too, when a 14mth old is on 3 large meals, sometimes 1-2 snacks and a drink of maybe 4oz milk in the morning, is it bad that she still has 9oz in a bottle at bedtime and sometimes another 4-5 after during the night if she asks for it? I did start weaning the qts down a while ago then stopped when she had a bug and needed the qty so its back to a full 9oz bottle...should I try and wean her off the bottle do you think? I kinda want to but also realise its her bedtime thing and it may affect her bedtime sleeping if she just has it in a sippy cup...weightwise she's fine but she does look a bit rounder round the belly than some others her age...she has always been a good eater too so no issues there but wonder if all this milk sitting in her belly at night is a good thing or not?

Finally she's asleep but OMG its hard to listen to them but when you think to yourself 'thats it, im going through, plonking her on the floor in the lounge and Im gonna watch tv' I think that wont help her at all and she'll get harder and harder to settle later as she'll b overtired but you get so frustrated with the situation...thinking back, it was nice the days when she would settle to sleep in her cot with us in the room and a few times even fell asleep to us stroking her cheek...that baby has gone...instead we have an overactive toddler who knows she needs sleep but refuses and has a meltdown when left on her own to o it...


sorry for the rant but its been bugging me and any tips/suggestions or simply 'yeah its normal's would be nice.

Thanks
 
I'm not sure what to suggest sleep wise but wanted to say my lg (who's a couple of weeks younger) has 8oz in the morning, 9oz at night and 3oz during the night, I've no problem with the quantity she drinks although u gave started to water down her 3oz to try to encourage her to sleep through

It sounds like it's a teething phase to me, I hope it doesn't last long
 
Thanks E1len, im hoping so but good to know what qts you are feeding your LO, guess I just figured she'd be on small sippy cups by now but it must b helping....thanks
 
Hi I've found my lg can be the same at night fortunately occasionally now. It was worse if she didn't sleep well during the day, she got over tired or wasn't quite tired enough but teething was a big thing. She would scream when I left but after a minute she was chattering to her toys and went off. If she just wouldn't settle we brought her back down for some more stories then try again after 15-20 minutes but wouldn't let her play. She still has same bedtime routine of bath, books, bottle (9oz) then more books then bed after three eye rubs. That's the only bottle she has now. She has a bit of milk in a sippy cup at breakfast but water throughout the rest of the day. We found she goes off to sleep better now we have a black out blind stuck onto the window. If she does really start screaming we put the Tommy star projector on, it's enough to catch her attention to calm her, this really has helped when she's been over tired but recently ewan the sheep has been enough, if she's not quite off she will turn him on herself now. Good luck it's so hard, especially when you know they need to sleep x
 
Sounds like a teething phase. My little girl is making a tiny bit of fuss at bedtime and the first time in about a year she woke in the night last night and took about 45mins to resettle. She is cutting four molars at the same time so I completely forgive her and hope that she'll return to normal soon. The key is to stick to the routine and then after teething issues she'll go straight back to how she was.

I have two children, and learnt from my son that routines are important. He settles and goes to bed so well as he's so in tune with routine. He still naps and it never has a ripple effect on bedtime because, bedtime is bedtime. He went through random phases of being a tinker but he has always gone back to normal. Just persevere and fingers crossed she'll be okay.
 
Thanks guys like to think routine helps as she always responded well to it when younger, yes rooster her molars are the culprit too and its only this past week Ive noticed the increased midnight wakeups (between 12-2 I find is the worst) and sometimes they just do have to resettle themselves...

Aimee she has plenty of toys, teddies and we have homemade blackout blinds (cardboard and duct tape lol) as it helps with heat and darkness... she used to be fine and in the mornings she is quite happy to play with teddies for half an hour or more but at bedtime she just starts throwing teddies out and throwing a tantrum if I dont throw them back in, only for her to throw them again...she has recently started a new trick of reaching out towards table where nappies, clothes and books are, and kept thinking what is it you want then realised it wasnt specific, anything will do, so long as I stay in room...Ive tried leaning against cot on my knees looking asleep to see if she'll ignore me and start getting herself sleepy before I leave but it doesnt work either...I keep varying the 'going when she's down (she's a tummy sleeper) vs going with a wave as dont want her to avoid sleeping as she'll know I go then or worse not wave back with the bottom lip going as you proceed out the room...

The only other recent variable is her cot height has increased as she has finally gone down to third height as she was starting to try and climb out...now the first night she had a midnight wakeup was the day before this so dont think its all it is but definately think she feels more trapped as its a lot farther to go to get up to see me now and think that frustrates her...4inches seems to make all the difference but cant go back as it was getting dangerous, been avoiding lowering for past two months as it was...

FX those molars come as she seems v unsettled tonight even for her, usually when she drops I dont hear a peep let alone see movement for at least 2hrs but she has been all over the place and had one sit up then back down already...sigh..gonna be a long night bless her...
 
Oh kitten I feel for you at about 11 months we had an issue that Lucie wouldn't go down and hater her cot bed but would settle fine in our bed. We actually took the cot side off and made it in to a toddler bed and she was instantly better. She didn't like being held in her cot. My oh cut a length of wood as long as the side and screwed in to the holes to make a lip so she couldn't roll out and she got out 2 or 3 times but that was all. The first 2 nights I slept on a mattress on the floor all night, then I left the mattress and laid until she was asleep. Then I started leaving when she was nearly asleep but not quite until after a week I popped in bed with a bottle and kissed her and left. It was the best thing we ever did. She didn't get any teeth until 10 months and practically teethed perm from then so she was teething when I did it.
 
hi kiagirl, wow the idea of no side on the cotbed is v scary but wondering if it has somethin to do with it...last night I was very close to joining her in nursery and have her sleep with me (we have a single bed in there already) but just as was outside her door she put her head down finally lol...she slept all night in the end and has only been awake 20mins today but I tried and failed to get her to chew on a cold flannel (thing is she chews on her woollen blanket so why a flannel is any different but that mouth was jammed shut, be interesting to c if any teeth have appeared overnight as she was unsettled...oh well time to go and find out...
 
Good luck kitten it's so difficult isnt it? My lg will throw the toys out too at times. Other morning she amused herself with giving herself a facepack with her own poop. My mum didn't know where to start as she had her that night, bk in to sleep suits now, funnily enough she's going down better in them than pj's probably just a coincidence tho. I'm sure your lg will all of a sudden start going down straight away, wish you all the luck. X
 
Hi Aimee, oh my facemask with poop, nice...so far she managed to get her nappy off once when she just had a dress on but luckily no poop altho her hands are startin to get in the way during nappy changing time lol

OK well tried a new technique tonight, after the usual wind down with tv, bottle, teeth and teddies we went through and did my usual playful routine for about 10mins then started gradually calming down to the point I was leaning on cot rails just humming to her closing my eyes occasionally ignoring fussiness for about 10mnins and then eventually lying on the floor pretending to be asleep...this seemed to work as she sat down and started playing with teddies etc knowing I was there so after 5mins managed to crawl out of the room and took her a minute to get up to check I was still there to find Id goine, cue crying but only for about 30 seconds then straight back down again, perhaps as she'd got herself calmed for bed and was tired enough...either that or she just had a tiring day as today only one 2hr nap 10.30 (i know good right, usually hr n half but knew she'd be playing catch up...) and went swimming this avo so plenty tired for bed....we'll c if we get any midnight wakeups...FX
 
That's great, fingers crossed for you, hope the new technique works x let us know how things go x
 
well it kinda worked but then she woke at 1am again and clearly wasnt tired but tried same trick and think it helped but didnt solve problem, she slept in to make up for it tho...
 

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