Just as it was getting easier to get my 9 month old LO off to sleep we now suddenly have this. He is learning to crawl, sit up, stand and grow another lot of teeth (he has 6 already) all at the same time and it's turned bed time and nap times into complete hell and I'm not sure of the best way to deal with it so if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.
We've probably got all sorts of bad habits in place because until he was 6 months old he would go off to sleep easily (although waking 3-4 times a night). In the last month I have stopped feeding as a very last thing and have a story afterwards. I tried doing the feed before bath and he totally kicked off so this is a compromise. He would scream if I left the room so I started with sitting by him shushing and rubbing his chest until he went to sleep which usually took 10-20 mins. Then I sat further away and put on Ewan the sheep (white noise) and this was working quite well. We have been considering CC but he has been teething almost constantly since 5 months so it's never seemed the right time. So, just as I was thinking bedtimes were becoming less difficult and stressful this happens!
It's taking hour to settle him now. He compulsively rolls onto his tummy and tries to get up on his knees, repeatedly. He gets caught up in his sleeping bag and starts screaming and crying, or his leg gets stuck underneath him. Every time I lay him back down it happens again. If he eventually gets up to sitting or standing position he is smiley and laughs, which is an improvement on the screaming and crying but not helpful in getting him to sleep. Also if he sits up he invariably topples over and hits his head on the cot - cue more crying and screaming (obviously). Amongst all of this, he's frantically chewing his fingers, toys, cot bars etc and wailing. I give him ibuprofen or calpol at bedtime but he's getting more and more resistant to taking medicine and certainly won't let me get any anebesol or bongela anywhere near him!
Me OH and MIL both think I should leave him to it, whilst checking on him regularly, to settle himself. They reckon there is the same amount of crying whether I'm there or not and he will learn to get himself to sleep. I feel this would be traumatic for him, given the circumstances and that he needs my help to get through this - even though I come away after an hour with my last nerve frayed and on the edge of tears myself. Am I being PFB, or is this reasonable?
Also, I was keeping him in a sleeping bag to try and avoid him standing but he seems to be able to stand anyway. Considering he is getting all twisted up in it, is it better to just use blankets until he settles down?
How long does this compulsion tend to last? I'm only 4 days in and finding it really hard.