Sudden Crying Before Naps and Bedtime
My 10-month old son, Ryder, had been going down for naps and bedtime beautifully. I couldn’t have been prouder – as a parent AND as a Pediatric Sleep Expert.
Then, yesterday, all of the sudden, he FREAKED out when I put him down for his first nap. I mean, really cried and screamed. He pulled up on the side of the crib and was screaming towards the door.
It startled me because he hasn’t ever done that, so I assumed something must be wrong. I went in and checked on him. I laid him back down in the crib and rubbed his tummy for a minute. He looked at me and started giggling.
I’m serious!! He started giggling at me!!
I kissed him and left the room again. He pulled up on the side of the crib again and started screaming and crying. I waited about five minutes and then went back in and did another check-in. I laid him back down in the crib and rubbed his tummy. He started giggling again.
I was on to him now. He was testing the process.
I exited the room again. He pulled back up and cried. But this time I just watched him on the monitor (to make sure he was okay). He cried for a few more minutes and then laid down and went to sleep.
The same exact thing happened for the second nap. Ugh!
I am sure many of you can relate to this story! So why does this happen?!?! Why does a baby who has been sleeping beautifully suddenly start screaming and crying before naps and bedtime?
It is often related to a developmental milestone.
My son has recently started crawling. About two days after that he started crawling up steps. And about a day after that, he started pulling up. That is a LOT of developments in a short period of time.
When children go through developmental leaps like this, their brains are working in overdrive to process these new skills. They work on the skills when awake, and their brains work on these skills when they sleep. That creates lighter sleep during these phases – which often results in difficulty settling for periods of sleep, more frequent night waking, and early morning waking.
How do you make it stop!?!?
Make sure you work on whatever new skill they are learning a TON during awake hours. Lots of sitting, lots of crawling, lots of walking, lots of talking, etc. Whatever the new skill is, practice, practice, practice. That helps the new skills incorporate into their brain faster.
With regard to sleep, you need to be super consistent in your responses to your child during these phases. Sleep will often be disrupted during these leaps, so expect that. Be careful not to over intervene or you will cause a more significant sleep regression. Revert back to whatever sleep training or self-soothing technique you use for your child and reimplement it. Your consistency will help diffuse the situation and keep sleep more on track.
When dealing with sitting and pulling up – children will often do this in their crib, just like my little guy started doing yesterday. You can go in and help them down a time or two. But after that, give them time and space to learn that action on their own. If you keep intervening, they will not learn how to sit or lay down independently.
Developmental milestones are SO much fun to watch. Try not to get discouraged by the temporary sleep disruptions they can cause. If you are in a hard place with your child’s developmental leap, let me know and I can help you navigate the phase. If you need help with teaching your child how to self-soothe, I can help with that too. Shoot me an email and we will get to work!
