10mo inconsolable at bedtime

[SleepSOS]

Our 10 month old has suddenly become inconsolable at bedtime. We’ve had a good routine of bath, bed clothes, book, milk and then rocking to sleep in the dark and with lullabies, pretty much since she was born. She’s usually been calm in this routine and is sleep within about 10 mins of rocking.

However, over the past few nights, she gets incredibly upset as soon as we turn off the lights or try to lie her sideways in our arms to start the rocking. I’ve never heard screaming like it, and we’re unable to calm her down. The crying, screaming and thrashing about goes on for 45-60 mins until she gets so tired she eventually cries herself to sleep on our arms.

On the plus side, when she does fall asleep she has been sleeping the entire night without waking - about 11 hours. Beforehand she used to wake a couple of times at night.

Is this normal?! Does anyone have any idea what could be causing it and how we can get her to sleep calmly again?

We do think she might be teething at the moment but she is broadly happy in the day and naps / feeds pretty well.

We moved her into her own room a couple of weeks ago and the transition was a breeze with her sleep not changing at all at that point and her waking up for the day quite happy. I also dropped her night feed last week and that didn’t seem to affect her for the first few nights either.

Thank you!

You're pretty much peak separation anxiety age, so that might be part of it. She also might not be quite tired enough - you could try moving bedtime back twenty mins and seeing. Or (and this is where my money is) it's teeth. It's always bloody teeth. Try giving her nurofen half an hour before bed and see if that helps.

Thank you - will give those things a try!

probably teeth as always worse at night , the lying sideways could be aggravating them.

She’s possibly outgrown the rock to sleep routine- mine had by that age.

Thank you. @DailyEnergyCrisis what did you do when they had outgrown the rocking?

Sorry I should have included that too!
DD transitioned really well- she had a bath, soft music, milk, stories, a dummy and soft toy and would settle herself.

DS was harder. He had the above minus the dummy as he wouldn’t take one and at the end of stories would quite often cry when he knew it was bedtime. Id give him a few mins of cuddles and then put him in his cot and slowly retreated. He would cry for a bit but not that long and then he slept through.

I feel you’ve answered it yourself when you say she thrashes and screams until she gets tired…? Maybe try a later bedtime and you
could lie with her or sit with her if rocking isn’t her thing anymore.

Thanks everyone. She’s been quite unwell this week and I’m pretty sure has been teething too so we think this is what’s caused it. She’s gone right back to normal now! We do need to move away from the rocking to sleep as my back can’t really take it any longer so will try to implement that when she’s well enough. Thank you!