1 yr old suddenly hysterical when being put to sleep

[AKC808]

We started PU/PD when our daughter was 11 mo & it worked wonderfully. We were ecstatic to have her sleeping through the night - 7:30pm to 6:30am. Her naps were 9:30 & 2:30 for 1 hr & 1.5hr. We would put her in her crib, she would run around a little & then go to sleep. We were getting ready to start trying to leave the room & I was starting to sit on a rocking chair in the corner. Then last week things changed suddenly & we don't know what's happened. Almost every time she's put in her crib after her normal routine she gets hysterical. The first few days I tried calming her from her crib (words, patting her back, lying her back down), but she would get more & more upset. If it went on longer than an hour I would pick her up, but then have a really hard time settling her down even being held which has made me a little nervous to see her that upset. She definitely wants to be held & rocked to sleep, but I don't want to go down that slippery slope! The same week she also started getting up most mornings at 5:30 too. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Those first and last A times might be a bit short and she may well be undertired at bedtime, my youngest would pitch an absolute fit if we tried to put her to bed UT! That coupled with the ew makes me think you need to start the 2-1 switch. I will be honest and say that I did that cold turkey with all my kids but it is totally possible to do it more gradually but capping one of the naps and tweaking nap timings.

[AKC808]

Thank you *so much* for your response & suggestion. What do you think if she does seem really tired though? All her sleep signals are there & we also sign with her & she signs sleepy & snuggles with her frog for about 15 seconds before she flips out. The last couple days it hasn't been every single time she's going to sleep, about half & half. Thank you again!

[AKC808]

She was only upset once yesterday & it seems to be steadily getting better which is great, but my main question now is what to do when she gets so upset that it quickly escalates into being inconsolable. Something Tracy said in an interview really resonated with me was that if you end up nursing or rocking them or do whatever it is that they wanted to help them go to sleep then you just made them cry for no reason & that was cruel. That makes sense to me, so I'm trying to figure out when to pick her up so that I'm not making her cry uselessly or reinforcing that if she cries long enough I'll eventually pick her up, but I also don't like seeing her that upset either! Thank you for any suggestions!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Great that it was better! Was she upset before a nap.or at bedtime? I remember that part from the book, I suppose it is a case of knowing your child. My kids are all variations of spirited mixed with textbook or touchy qualities and they have staying power so I tended to take a more gentle, gradual approach when we hit blips as pu/pd just made it worse. Do you think she may be having some separation anxiety? They go through phases of it as they develop more realization that mom is a separate person and can leave.

[AKC808]

Thank you for your response. Knowing that not all kids respond well to PU/PD sometimes was really helpful to hear. Since she did well with it initially I was really confused last week as to what was going on. We've had three days now of everything being back to normal (whatever that is!) & I think we're ready to try to start getting out of the room. Now she runs around her crib anywhere from 15-30 minutes before falling asleep while I sit in the rocking chair. I saw a post the other day with links for how to do that next step. Thank you again & wish us luck on this next stage!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Lots of luck! These toddlers like to give us a run for our money sometimes don't they?