Hi, I'm new here. I hope you don't mind me starting with a big issue post, but often when I'm googling for information, I end up in the Mothering forum archives, and I really don't want to ask for help anywhere I'm likely to hear "So put him in another room and shut the door, he'll fall asleep eventually..."
My son is 20 months old. He's generally been a great sleeper, with only the usual bouts of sleeplessness while teething, growth spurting, learning lots of new skills, whatever. But mostly, my husband puts on his pajamas, then he and I crawl into bed where he nurses once on each side, then he's asleep.
This suddenly changed a few nights ago. Now, he nurses once on each side and then LOOKS asleep, but when I unlatch him, he starts screaming right away. I don't even have a chance to latch him back on. He sounds desperate and panicky and starts running around the apartment; he won't let me or his dad pick him up. Screaming and screaming and screaming... Tonight, my husband decided to take him for a car ride, which is how we had to get him down for a nap today. (An hour after his usual nap time, he was still awake though clearly tired. The car put him to sleep, but it took much longer than it ever has before.)
Then... to get back to the past few nights... when he wakes during the night, instead of quietly asking for milk as he always has, he starts screaming right away.
DH just came home and put our sleeping son in bed, thank God. But we can't really afford the gas to go driving every night. What do we do... to help our son sleep? To cope with the screaming? I feel shaky and angry. I hate feeling angry at my son. I don't believe he's purposely "doing this to us." So I could also use help moving from anger to compassion.
My son is 20 months old. He's generally been a great sleeper, with only the usual bouts of sleeplessness while teething, growth spurting, learning lots of new skills, whatever. But mostly, my husband puts on his pajamas, then he and I crawl into bed where he nurses once on each side, then he's asleep.
This suddenly changed a few nights ago. Now, he nurses once on each side and then LOOKS asleep, but when I unlatch him, he starts screaming right away. I don't even have a chance to latch him back on. He sounds desperate and panicky and starts running around the apartment; he won't let me or his dad pick him up. Screaming and screaming and screaming... Tonight, my husband decided to take him for a car ride, which is how we had to get him down for a nap today. (An hour after his usual nap time, he was still awake though clearly tired. The car put him to sleep, but it took much longer than it ever has before.)
Then... to get back to the past few nights... when he wakes during the night, instead of quietly asking for milk as he always has, he starts screaming right away.
DH just came home and put our sleeping son in bed, thank God. But we can't really afford the gas to go driving every night. What do we do... to help our son sleep? To cope with the screaming? I feel shaky and angry. I hate feeling angry at my son. I don't believe he's purposely "doing this to us." So I could also use help moving from anger to compassion.
