Help! All of a sudden he is screaming at bedtime

[Lucy123]

I could have written this - down to your baby's name - my Ryan is 6 days older than yours. He has slept in the bedroom next to mine in his crib since birth, and has been an angel of a sleeper. He's suddenly "off" napping and screaming when we go to bed. I turned off the white noise, because I thought he was associating it with getting ready to be left alone in his crib and protesting. Maybe I am wrong, dunno. ANyway, he still screamed, but not as soon as we walked into the room. He stops screaming if I walk him out of the room, but obviously that won't work. The past 2 nights, I put him in his crib swaddled (we always swaddle from chest down) and shushed him while I rubbed his tummy hard and fast enough to jiggle his head, and he conked out within a minute. Not sure how many nights he'll fall for this, though!!

Good luck!!
Lucy & Ryan 6/30/03

[houseof3boys]

Ours fell for that trick about 3 nights and then back to the screaming for a few more! DH has been standing up (instead of in the glider) and rocking him to sleep and waiting until he is in deep sleep before he lets his head hit the mattress. If he puts him in the crib when we "think" he is asleep, the crying starts up again.

Ahhhh the joys of parenthood! I know this is just an evil phase and will pass.....soon I hope.

Thanks Lucy!

[drsweetie]

I'm sure you've thought of this already, but maybe Ryan has an ear infection? Sometimes for babies with ear infections, lying down is painful, so he could be associating the end-of-the-day routine with pain. What made me think of this is when you said that nursing doesn't help -- the thing that clued us in to Laura's most recent ear infection was that she was crying while she nursed on one side.

Good luck!

Ellen
Mom to Laura 6/9/03