Screaming abdabs at bedtime...AAARRRGGGGHHHH

[Lisa78]

And thats just me! DS2 is 8.5 months, sleeps like an angel but the last couple of weeks, as soon as bathtime is over he starts to cry and scream.
Its bad enough that he won't even take his nightime milk half the time and its taking ages to get him to sleep. Then he is waking 3 or 4 times in the night - I am absolutely worn out and worse still, its severely curtailing my MN time!
He's just started getting clingy - crying when he is dropped off at the childminders (lasts about 90 seconds!!) and when I get in from work, he won't even let me put him down whilst I get changed so I don't know if thats anything to do with it.
Any advice for me? We are feeling very frazzled by it all

you're letting me down mners! I told a rather scornful DH I would ask here and someone would know - he is looking frighteningly smug now!!

I think you hit the nail on the head already - he's just reaching the age now where he realizes that you're a separate being and that you can go away, and that frightens the life out of him...
My advice would be to give him all the reassurance he needs at the moment - even take him into bed with you if you can bear it - until he gets over this stage and feels more confident again.

have you had this emkana? I thought about doing that, but I wondered if it might end up being a long term thing? I didn't want to start a bad habit???

I think I would introduce a new routine and bathe him at another time......they can get very grotty at this time and it sounds like he is over tired. I would wash him down, give him milk and then start a story and read to him in a calm voice ( if you can!!) and then sing a couple of songs to him. He has to learn to go to sleep by himself so maybe introduce controlled crying?? HTH

okay, will try that tomorrow night
(Then I am coming over to your house to sleep!!! )
thanks

Lisa, just had exactly the same with my 8 and a half month old. Felt like a right cow, but did controlled crying. Three nights of hell, DH holding me in bed to stop me getting him at one point, but then, suddenly, he went from 8 until 6. First time ever. Feels like crap doing it, but it really works. Good luck xxx

...to stop me getting DS3 from his cot that is.

Yes, Newbie's right. It's super-hard, though but worth it if you can bear it!

Although I am a great fan of controlled crying - is it possible that he has had a virus or has he been ill recently and still on the mend?

My DS is very much like this when he has been ill - he becomes clingy, difficult to settle and generally a bit unpredictable... he went through a phase like this and it was only after a doctors visit that I realised that he had been ill...(no real symptoms but the doc told me he would have been feeling tired, listless and he couldn't articulate himself sufficiently to tell me)

Just a thought...