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My once good sleeper has suddenly turned into a nightmare. I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on other than maybe teething. It used to be that at every night at 8 pm we'd kiss Ben good night, put him in his crib with a paci to suck on and one or two to hold, turn on his crib soother, say good night and within minutes he was sound asleep. It was rare for him to have a problem.
Now pretty much every night has become a battle and it started before the time change so I know that's not it. We haven't changed our bedtime routine or even our daytime routine.
Not every night is the same. Some nights he goes to sleep easily but then wakes up in the middle of the night screaming bloody.freaking.murder. I mean to the point where it scares DH and I so bad that we practically trample each other to get to his room thinking something awful has happened (this is NOT a pleasant way to wake up). Then it often takes a couple of hours to get him back to sleep.
Other nights he's a holy terror to get to sleep. We do our normal routine and put him to bed. Sometimes he'll lay in there for 20 minutes or so "talking" to himself. Then he suddenly throws his pacis out of his crib and begins to scream. It never starts with crying. It goes right to blood curdling screams.
Last night we put him to bed, he talked to himself for a while and I though oh good he's going to go to sleep tonight. Then the screaming began. I went in right away to soothe him. I picked him up and swayed back and forth holding him trying to get him to stop screaming. I kissed him, reassured him, sang to him and he kept screaming. I brought him out to the living room and rocked him and he was still screaming. I checked all over him to see if he was hurt somewhere. I gave him Tylenol because I figured maybe he has a headache (it's not like he can tell me) or he's teething. I waited and waited and that didn't seem to help. I rubbed Orajel on his back gums...no help. Gave his a washcloth to chew he threw it back at me while he screamed.
After about 45 minutes of screaming he got down and played and was fine. Two hours past his bedtime he finally went to sleep. He slept from 10-10:45 and woke screaming again. DH went in to him gave him his paci back and he went right back to sleep. He slept until 7 a.m (which I don't really feel is enough sleep for a 17 month old).
The night before last we put him in his crib at 8 and he went to sleep almost immediately. At 2:30 am he woke screaming. It took about 45 minutes of soothing, rocking, giving him a drink, changing his diaper, singing and everything to get him back to sleep. Then he woke up at 3:45! I put him in bed with me and after a few minutes he calmed back down. He laid there for almost an hour and wouldn't sleep. Then he sat up and wanted to play. I was exhausted and told him he cold lay with Mommy or go in his own crib. He kept playing and then head butting me. He ended up giving me a fat lip and and bloody nose. At that point I'd have enough. I put him in his crib and went to take care of my lip/nose. He immediately started screaming. DH finally got up with him and it took an hour and a half before he went back to sleep.
I don't know what else to do. DH and I are exhausted and miserable. I've tried laying down with him to sleep, co sleeping, and keeping a very strict bedtime routine. I'm at the end of my rope. I now dread bedtime every night. It should be a time of cuddles and kisses and safe happy feelings.
Someone suggested to me maybe he has an ear infection. Do you think that might be it? He has no fever, no runny nose and no other symptoms of and ear infection so I don't know. He's honestly never been sick at all ever so I'm lost.
I took Ashton in for an ear infection that was non-existant. It's a nightmare. The Screaming at the top of his lungs is what gets me more than anything.
I've tried the night time teething gel. I've tried the Hylands gel and the tablets. I've tried Tylenol and Motrin. I'm about to resort to the old fashioned whiskey remedy. If it doesn't help him at least it'll make ME feel better!
The worst is that he screams so loud I know it makes his throat hurt.
Location: Originally from Texas, In Delaware and moving to Alaska!
Posts: 5,582
Honestly, Jett cries EVERY night at bedtime... he has always cried and will until he understands what it's really about.
There is no rocking him to sleep and love and kisses. He fights them and no matter how much love I give him before bed, when I put him in his crib he stands up immediately and starts screaming. Huge tears rolling down his face. I turn on a tape I used to listen to as a kid, turn on his night light and give him a hug and kiss while he cries. Then I have to turn my back to him and shut the door.
It's heartbreaking but there's no other way to do it. I can't wait until he outgrows it. I wish he could go to sleep peacefully.
I do feel for you and I know what you are going through.. except Jett doesn't scream like he's injured.
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Thank you Cherry Berry. for my adorable siggy!
sometimes if i forget to plug it in, james will wake up and get scared of the dark and scream.
just a thought[/b]
His crib soother has a soft light. I turn that on and once it goes off he knows how to turn it back on. Plus his room isn't ever completely dark either.
Aww, that sounds really rough. Brayden went through a phase sort of like that months ago. He's just wake up for about an hour and just cry. It just stopped, I never did know what was bothering him.
You're doing what I would be doing in the same situation so I'm not a lot of help. Maybe you could try holding off his evening routine a half hour or so so he'll be even more tired when you put him down? Is there any change at all in his naps or anything? Hopefully it won't last much longer for you.
Sadly i have no advice but Isabella did do this about 2 weeks ago for a few night and just didn't do it anymore. I hope it passed soon. HAHA on the whiskey my mom did that a few time to me when i was a kid. She would give me a dropper full and i guess it worked.
Do you think he could be having any kind of nightmares/terrors? They can start this young even. If he isnt hurting anywhere, who knows. I only think of that b/c Dylan woke up one night screaming bloody murder and it was after we had watched part of a scary movie while he was falling asleep and even though I didnt think he was watching it, he must have been...it scared us SO bad when he woke up screaming that night the way he did and it took us forever to get him back asleep. My nephew had night terrors when he was around 2-3 yrs old, bad ones...Even if you've done nothing to trigger it like I did, they can occur.
Maybe you should talk to his doctor about this....something must be going on for him to wake up screaming that bad. Whatever it is, I hope its fixed soon and he starts sleeping better!
I thought about night terrors but sometimes it starts before he goes to sleep. The times when it happens in the middle of the night he seems fully awake when I go in to get him. He even says "Mama" and looks right at me. From what I know of night terrors they are usually still semi asleep. I don't know if that's true though because I have no experience with them.
He's napping good most of the time. Once in a while he gives me a bit of trouble. He usually goes down pretty well though. He has cut out his second nap but this started before he cut out the nap.
I feel so lost. It's frustrating. I hate hearing him scream like that. It just tears at my heart.
there could be something scaring him...i don't know if you all have seen the Discovery Health commercial advertising one of the shows that sang "..something beautiful about you..." and they show a colored 3d Ultrasound...DJ freaked out and just the song would scare him to death and he'd scream and cry and cringe while grabbing me.
So perhaps something is scaring him at night, or he's having separation anxiety or an ear infection. Could be a couple things! I am sorry ur having a hard time. If anyone understands I do, my LO just started going to bed without a fight.
I just made a Dr appointment for him. I want to have his ears checked just in case. I don't think it's an ear infection but maybe he has some wax build up or something that is causing pressure in his ear. For my own piece of mind I want to make sure there's nothing physically wrong before I can start eliminating other problems.
Ok we went to the Dr and his ears were fine. Even the Dr was kind of hoping it was an ear infection because that's easy to fix. He is concerned as much as DH and I are. He would like us to go see the neurologist at the children's hospital again (we saw him last October to check out why Ben has a big head....turned out he's just big headed! LOL) He wants to make sure that nothing was missed and there's no pressure on his brain anywhere.
I really don't think that's the problem and don't want to have to put him through that only to find out that it's teething or nightmares. I know the neurologist would send him for a CAT scan and they have to put him to sleep for that. No freaking thank you. I'm going to wait a bit longer to see how things go and if it doesn't get better I'll make the appointment.
Whatever it is, I hope its fixed soon and he starts sleeping better! 
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