It's been this way for about 2 weeks, now
Dec. 10th, 2004 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dampscribblerThe baby simply refuses to go to sleep at night without spending 10-30 minutes screaming first. She napped so wonderfully today, but comes bedtime, and she has to scream like hell. Why??
Another possibility...
Date: 2004-12-17 07:44 pm (UTC)From what I've read there is a chance that children at this age have been through a lot of stimulation all day and have difficulty organizing it at the end of the day. They're basically in overload, their nervous system not quite caught up with the increasing stimulus. Many people call it colic; a lot of folks treat it as if it were indigestion. I tried warm water bottles, rocking on their tummies, changing diets -- nothing worked...
Until I found that something which created white noise actually calmed them; in particular, vacuuming worked. When they got cranky somewhere between 6pm and 8pm (bedtime fluxed with age and nap length), I would put them in the NoJo sling and wear them while I ran the vacuum. It would calm them down enormously, to the point where they'd fall asleep. Part of it was the rhythm, but I could put my son in the baby swing and just leave the vacuum on for noise. My daughter preferred the sling. Mother-in-law got a kick out of it; she's always commented on how clean her carpets were during those vacations we spent at their home when the kids were that age.
I've seen and heard a lot of feedback about hairdryers used for this purpose, too. Can't hurt, might help to try vacuuming during these jags. Eventually they grow out of it as their nervous systems mature.
Re: Another possibility...
Date: 2005-01-02 04:30 am (UTC)