18 month old screaming every night at bedtime

My LO screams and screams and cries every single night for two weeks and me and DH have tried it all. It lasts for about 2 hours and she wakes up once in the midddle of the night and sometimes fall back asleep and if not she will wake up super early and almost impossible to get her to go back to sleep so I'm up for the day at 430 or 5am. Its heartbreaking and its taking a toll on all of us, we are sleep deprived and don't know what else to do. Took LO to doc, no ear infection, not sick, not teething. I just don't understand what happened, LO was soothing herself and sleeping beautifully though the night and now it's like a complete 360. I've tried night light, new bedtime routines, earlier and later bedtime, lullabies, and CIO but not for too long bc she screams so hard and violently that she shakes and I when I pick her up and she falls asleep but as soon as I put her down, no matter how much I wait to put her down, the screaming and wailing starts again. When I try to calm her down while she's still in the crib, she throws herself like a fish out of water all crazy all around the crib, it's scary Bc she can really hit her head hard or get her legs and arms stuck in the crib slots. It's unbelievable. I'm telling DH I think it's separation anxiety Bc I'm with her all day long and its always so much worse when I go in the room as opposed to when DH goes in the room. It's very frustrating and upsetting and I just don't know what else to do. Any help or advice is appreciated. Anyone go through anything like this at all? What worked or helped?? A big TIA.

Message edited 6/12/2014 1:05:45 PM.

18 month old screaming every night at bedtime

Probably anxiety. Leave the light on. WHen my DS did this I would talk to him and tell him mommy is right next door and that I will come back in a few minutes to check on him.

We had to leave the light on all night but IMO a small price to pay for the sleep.

Re: 18 month old screaming every night at bedtime

Google 18 month sleep regression. We went through it badly over here! For a good two weeks, the only way she'd fall asleep was if one of stayed in the room with her, and when she woke during the night, only way to get her back down was to sleep on the floor next to her bed. CIO did not work at all during that time, she'd make herself throw up! It was rough, but after the 2 weeks, it gradually got better. Now at 20 months she's sleeping great through the night again.

18 month old screaming every night at bedtime

We went through something similar around 16 months. After a few weeks of it escalated and none of us getting any sleep, we decided to do CIO and stick to it no matter what. We took away her musical seahorse and just gave her a lovey and white noise. The first night was rough and she cried for 40 minutes and then passed out and never woke up. The next two nights got shorter and shorter and she stopped waking at night from the first night. So worth it if you can do it!

I highly recommend troublesometots.com. It was so helpful when we went through this. She talks about how staying in the room just increases their anxiety bc you're not there later when they wake up and eventually they stop wanting to go to sleep at all bc they know what will happen. The info and advice fit our situation exactly and her solutions really worked for us.

18 month old screaming every night at bedtime

yep, we had the same thing too. I used to bring DS into the bed with DH and I (which is not really that great since he'd kick and punch us all night ... but at least he wasn't crying). I did that for about a week and then decided to try something else (didn't want him getting in the habit of coming to bed with us).

I went into his room and didn't pick him out of the crib, but he just stood there and we cuddled and I told him that it was still dark out and he had to go to sleep. It usually took about 20 minutes but he ended up going to sleep.

That only lasted about 2-3 days - after that, he just STTN again.

18 month old screaming every night at bedtime

Thanks for much for all your responses. I will check out the websites some of you mentioned and try the dim lights on instead of night light. CIO is not an option at this point Bc she totally screams, cties, kicks, flips, it's insane! and last thing I want is her to.make herself sick.

Message edited 6/12/2014 3:41:05 PM.