Lately, it seems as though my 10 month old daughter is terrified of her room or her bed. I'll rock her to sleep and put her in her crib (as I have done since she was born), but she immediately wakes up and starts crying and sobbing. Last night, I put her in our bed with pillows around her and left the room and she went right to sleep. I put her back in her bed, then, and she slept all through the night. But when she woke up this morning, she seemed scared again. She's never acted like this before....any suggestions of what may be scaring her? She absolutely will not just lay down in her crib and go to sleep (she'd cry for hours if I'd let her but I just cannot do that), so rocking her to sleep is what works for us.
Maybe try giving her a teashirt of yours to sleep with.
When my son was that age he started to get dependent on his blanky, and stuffed animals. He just snuggled with it.
It might be just a security thing. Just an Idea.
I don't seem to have any good advice, as my 10.5 month old has been doing the exact same thing for the past 2 months. I definitely think it's developmental, since it seems to have coincided with when she started crawling and walking. She will be asleep in my arms in my room and we'll walk into her room and her eyes pop open and she starts shaking and screaming. Just wanted to let you know you're not alone.
I would say it is probably the start of seperation anxiety. I know my daughter went through it for awhile and we had to do like the other poster suggested and put something with my scent on it in there. I actually ended up wearing her blanket around me all day and "stinking" it up with my perfumes and any other smell she might notice! lol It worked great! Sad to say- but I also have to do this with my dogs when they are put in a kennel!lol
Good luck finding something to get you all some peaceful sleep!
Many blessings!
I had a similar issue a few months ago with my then 13 month old son. His night sleep got crazy all of sudden. He did exactly what your daughter is doing. One night he was up from 1am-5am sobbing everytime I put him down. (I wrote a request in Mamasource if you would like to read it and the responses.) I also thought that he seemed afraid of something, then I thought it might be developmental because he was on the verge of walking. Be careful not to get in the habit of letting her fall asleep in your bed. They get used to things like that really fast. A friend of mine suggested music, so I let his lullaby CD play out after I left his room at night, and that ended up calming him down and eventually doing the trick. I did this for a few weeks and then he didn't need it anymore.
Also, it could be that she is not well rested. I ended up transitioning to one nap soon after his sleep episode, and he is doing great with it. Although it is probably too early for you to do this with your daughter, make sure she is getting her naps and put her down really early at night (if you can).
