10mth old won't sleep- just jetlagged or due to falling off bed??

[hungriesthippo]

We returned from the US a week ago. Just before leaving to catch the plane, my dd fell off the bead- a nasty fall as she was lying on her back, propelled herself back with her heels and landed on her head, then flipped onto her stomach. Another family member put her like that . My immediate thought was not to fly but she had calmed down within 15 mins and was then her smiley happy self, laughing and eating lunch fine etc. She only slept about 2 hrs out of 10 on the plane. I would have given her medised (as I did on the journey there) but thought that a bad idea so the lack of sleep didn't worry me. Since being home, she is totall her normal self, even going down for daytime naps fine but it's a nightmare in the evenings. She slept for 20 mins this eve before waking up and crying/screaming for nearly 2 hrs unless we are with her. Has been similar every eve. She seems to just want us in the room and basically doesn't seem tired. I keep trying to tell myself it's just jetlag but I can't get her fall out of my head. Please can someone give me their opinion?? I haven't contacted any dr etc. From experience with ds, I thought all A&E would do is a)be charmed by a smiley baby, i.e. not take it too seriously and b) monitor her temp, give her calpol and monitor her oxygen sats. but maybe I'm wrong . She is still crying now and it's just NOT like her. Also can't feel any teeth coming.

fell off the bed

It is scary when they fall off the bed (DS2 crawled off ours this morning and fell on his head) - the perils of co-sleeping!

Do you think maybe the sleep problems could be jet lag related?

My head tells me it's probably jet lag but I can't get the fall out of my head. It was nasty and who am I to know how it's affecting her. There's also her neck to consider because of the way she fell. BUT, she is totally herself at other times. Last night we gave up and bought her down in the eve. She just played calmly and happily but when put to bed, she just seems scared?? The room on holiday was v. dark so can't be that...

If it is only at bedtime that there is a problem with her screaming then I doubt it is related to the fall off the bed (but I'm def no expert). They are quite robust at that age. Does she nap OK in the day?

My 9mo DS cries like that most nights (since birth unfortunately - hence the co-sleeping)

I hope I can reassure you, hungriesthippo. We returned from the US on 20 April with our 9.5 month DD. She is a fantastic sleeper and since about 6 weeks old we have been able to put her down at bedtime and she goes off without a murmur. When we went out to the US, she adpated to the time lag in 2 days (first day woke at 2.30 am US time - her normal UK time, next morning 4.30am, and by day 3 was in the swing of things and sleeping 12 hours through until 7.30). The way back was a completely different story! She slept 7 out of the 8 hours on the plane (different to your DD) but other than that - sounds completely same experience. She is totally back to normal now, but it took about 8 days to get there. First night we put her to bed at 7ish, she woke 2 hours later - brought her down to play a while, put ehr back and she screamed (like she was scared, as you describe) in a way she has never done so before. Following night, same happened, brought her down to play. After several nights of bringing her down thought better try not to do that and it took a good hour or so of being with ehr in her room for her to go back off to sleep. The time she was waking got earlier and earlier, until she brought it to 7, when we put ehr down, so she screamed then instead. After about a week, she seemed to have adapted and got back into her usual swing of things. But she was definiteyl really really affected by the jet lag. Your description of your DD sounds very similar indeed (though this might all be too waffly for you to realise that!!) - I would bet my bottom dollar it was just jet lag and I hope for your and her sake that she gets over it soon - from our experience, I would think you dont have to suffer it much longer.

Thanks for your post curleyshirley, that's really reassuring to read. We let her cry for ages last night and it did no good. She justs wants us there while she goes to sleep. I think you're right that the only explanation is probably jet-lag. She is marvellous at going down for naps in the day so it's just frustrtating why she won't at night. I hsve been increasingly restricting her naps this week to see if that helps. No luck yet, we'll see what happens this evening...