9 months old and sudden, random crying throughout the evening - why?

[adifferentwoman]

My 9 month old baby is usually fine at going to sleep in the evening. Over the past week, she protests much more at being put down and then once she's asleep, will suddenly wake and start crying / screaming with no build up, just a sudden burst. Sometimes she can be soothed in the cot with some back and head rubbing, but sometimes she needs to be held. Even then she thrashes her head around and pulls a lot at her right ear. Could this be an ear infection? Separation anxiety? Something to do with trying to start crawling?

Could be teething?

Hi adifferentwoman, we had something similar with DD at 7 months and lasted about 3-4 weeks, touchwood we seem to be at the end of it now. All of a sudden I couldn't put her down in the cot, she was screaming once I had put her down, took ages to settle and she woke more frequently in the night screaming. It coincided with her being able to sit up from lying down and I often found her in that position when she woke. I found it impossible to pacify her in the cot. I tried calpol some nights and it made no difference and I even took her to the doctor to get her ears checked, which were fine. She started crawling last Friday and since then it has settled down. We spent a few nights co-sleeping just to get some sleep I often fed her back to sleep to calm her down (after she had just dropped her nightime feed!) but it seems to have settled down now and she is going down again like a dream and sleeping soundly in her cot. Hop you see some improvement soon.

I'd take her to GP's to check out ears, just in case.
You might also want to consider whether she is overtired/overstimulated? It's such a minefield with these babies.

When my DD was around 11 months, all of a sudden she also protested at being put down in the evening all of a sudden. I put it down to separation anxiety and now stay in her room with her (or just outside her room on a good evening). However, unlike your DD, once she's asleep, she doesn't wake until morning.

Not sure about yours, but my DD is completely different for her naps. I just put her down and she sleeps without protest.
Just wish I could work out why the fuss around bedtime.

Thanks for your comments everyone. Naps? Well, she only just started doing more than 30mins at a time a couple of months ago, and some days she's brlliant at it and other times not...there doesn't seem to be any pattern or consistent reason for it! I did also find her sitting upright in her cot distressed for one nap - didn't know she could do that yet!

Last night she was up for 2 hours in the night crying - quite unusual for her. Her temp raised to 39 and calpol didn't appear to do much. Will take her to the docs in case its an ear infection.