My daughter has been STTN since she was about 9 months old. I finally dropped the dream feed around 11 or 12 months and she's still slept beautifully all night long. However, for about the last 3-4 weeks, she has been waking at least once every night, and the last 2 nights have been strange, and quite frankly, a bit scary. In the past 2 days, apart from a very long and shocking tantrum just before bath time (same hysterical, inconsolable crying!) on Monday night, she is in good spirits. She has gone down easily at bedtime, but then will wake up and SCREAM. It's like she is in pain, because the cry is so different - it's very intense and lasts for about 30 minutes. She can't hardly be consoled, even with holding her, rocking her, trying to nurse her, taking her into another room, etc. So, we've managed to squeeze medicine into her cheeks during these crying episodes, keep holding her until she finally quiets, and put her back in her crib after 45 minutes to an hour after it started. Then, she'll wake again later, usually in 2-3 hours, crying (this makes me think it isn't so much pain-related, and more something mental). Sometimes she's crying hysterically again, sometimes not. Because I have no idea what's going on with her, I try to nurse her and put her back down. Sometimes she goes down, other times she cries as soon as I put her back in her crib.
Complicating matters is the fact that I am weaning her now as well. She's down to only being nursed before bedtime, and then when she wakes at night. I realize I've gotten into a habit of nursing her back to sleep ever since vacation, and that's probably part of the problem. However, I have no idea what all I'm facing since this hysterical crying has started - is it teething pain? frustration over being weaned? something related to development milestones?
What am I missing? Any suggestions for where to start to try and get her back on track? My first thought is stop nursing her altogether, and just get on with having her recognize that nursing is over and that's not an option.