17mths old - and starting to protest at going to bed

hi

just wondering really and i guess asking for reassurance that i am doing the right thing or i am being a bit to harsh - be honest please, heres the run down;

since around 6mths old lani has been a BRILLIANT sleeper, no problems going to bed or staying asleep etc etc - however once in a blue moon when i put her down particularly for the evening she would grizzle for around 5 mins then go to sleep, maybe do it the next night - then back to happy to go to sleep again for a few weeks/months.

in the last week she has been cutting her eye teeth and apart from the runny nose everything else in her seems normal - a little grizzly during the day but nothing major, 3 nights in a row last week she just went ballistic - basically what has been happening of late is she could be quite happy playing then i say okay lani 5mins then we change your nappy and we will have a story - she growls at me and goes off lol - after the 5mins i go and grab her and say come on nappy time for you, then we are having a story well she just kicks and screams and yells no no no, i struggle get the nappy changed - she has a cuddle and finishes her bottle whilst i read her a story - all good - she says her goodnights to everyone and blows kisses, we go in her room and get her dummies out of the drawer - she goes to her cot and gets in and says nigh nigh mummy blows me a kiss and i say my goodnights to her - i leave the room quiet not a sound then around 5mins later it starts - like she is angry, first night it happened i thought maybe her teeth are hurting - i ask her, and she put her fingers in her mouth were it hurt and gave me back her dummies (she gives me her 2 dummies after she wakes up from her sleeps and we put them in the drawer) i tell her no you can have the dummy it is time for bed - she just stands and stamps her feet, the first night i got her up and gave her a cuddle and then put her back she just grizzled then started screaming 10mins later - i left her and didn't go in and found after 5mins of screaming yelling - (hardly any tears) she goes to sleep. she did this for around 3 nights in a row, then the last 2 nights were back to normal happy and fine to go to bed (although she still yells and screams when i go to change the nappy b4 bed) i look in her mouth and yes she has a new tooth so i figure everything is okay - tonight well she started again, so i went in and explained it was time to go to bed (she had been up since 2.30pm and it was 8pm by now) well she wouldn't have a bar of it - wouldn't have the dummy she just threw it in her cot and she just stood there screaming, so i said goodnight mummy loves you and left her screaming - after about probably 5 mins she stopped screaming then every so often she would start up again - in around 1/2 hr she was asleep.

now i feel bad i didn't go back in there but it seems to me she is "testing" me - she is a smart cookie and i feel she is putting it on but doesn't help that i feel guilty about not going in there to comfort her - but i know if i did go in that it would just prolong the issue - even if i got her up and gave her a cuddle then put her back down she would have protested - hence it going on forever - my poor ds was trying to go to sleep (exhausted after first full day of school) and he just couldn't.

what do you think could be up with her (are my intuitions right would/could she be trying it on for me) am i handling it the right way - and have others gone through this and if you have how did you handle it.

thanks - and soooooooo sorry for the epic

I guess she could be trying to push the boundaries a bit, I'm not sure.

The other thing is that perhaps she has had a bad dream? Do you think that's a possibility? Perhaps something has frightened her a bit, or freaked her out. The other thing is that if she's teething and they've been hurting her, then perhaps she's associating going to bed with pain (most people if they have a toothache or anything that hurts find going to bed can be quite hard as the pain seems worse - I guess when you're in bed you have no other distraction from the pain IYKWIM?).

Perhaps you could try leaving a dim light on to see if that helps, or giving her a toy of some description that she could cuddle up to of a night time?

Jacob doesn't normally protest at going to bed and will usually chat/sing himself to sleep. If he doesn't, or starts to become upset, we go in to him and settle him (it can take a long time sometimes!). Sometimes we need to do only a little settling and other times, he will start to scream again as soon as we leave the room (like he did tonight - he's only been asleep for not even half an hour!).

I don't think I've helped any....eeek! Good luck!

melinda

i don't think it could be a dream because it really is before she goes to sleep - she has her fisher price aquarium going, and her pull clown thingy and her dolly she cuddles, she usually just talks or sings to - it is weird

some part of me is telling me she is trying to push the boundaries another part is maybe those teeth are bothering her a bit more than i think - i hate using drugs from teething lol, tonight i gave her some brauer teething relief and a little bonjela, but i really try everything before putting stuff like that in her mouth.

well tommorrow is another night so we will see what happens.

it is quiet annoying cause she isn't getting to sleep until around 8pm and i have to wake her up at 7.30am so we can get ready for school - arrhh those tricky little monsters.

Michelle

How has Lani been going?

If it is any consolation, Olivia has been up to similar tricks too, and just like you I thought she was "testing me", and I was in a real quandry about how to tackle it, becasue she normally goes down like a charm, so I was really confused at what could be causing the tantrums at bedtime.

I had a couple of exhausting nights where I just cuddled her to sleep (took hours).

Then I realised she was off her food (very odd for her) and was running a temp. Took her to our GP and she had a really bad ear infection, hence she was scared to lie down and sleep, because apparently it hurts more when they are horizontal? (24 hours after her first dose of anti-biotics, she was as right as rain again, and settling and sleeping beautifully.)

Just a thought, but either way, I totally sympathise.