Bedtime freakouts (6-11 mo)

[mizlizzy]

My dear daughter, now 11 mo, has a weird reaction to getting put to bed (co-sleeping with me). She gets extremely hyper and throws herself around, climbs the walls, jumps on the cat, pulls fur and hair, laughs manically, etc. She is very easy going and happy all day, not much of a crier. The bed time comes, I lay her down to nurse and BAM! She gets crazy! Jumping and bouncing, pulling anything she can reach. Banging on the window, attacking the cat. I lay her down again, get her nursing. And she pops up again, and gets playful and giddy. We go back and forth til she bunks her head on the wall and will whimper and cry a little then accept nursing and sleeping. Not every night with the bonking, but enough is enough! She has been doing this since about 6 months. Why?
Has anybody had a kid do this?
How did you help them get to sleep?
PS sleeps through the night after that

[blessedwithboys]

how about deep stimulation? try a deep pressure scalp massage, or maybe a weighted blanket to help her center herself.

do you have all the lights out? is the room very quiet and cool? how about burning some lavender oil?

and keep the cat out of the room LOL

[BlueWolf]

Subscribing. My DD does this (6 months), she gets really hyper and active right before bed. We have the same nightly routine as ever, and it's calm and quiet. She just gets really revved up once her back hits the mattress.

[Penny4Them]

My Ds 7 mo has a burst of intensity before going to sleep at night. It's like he has to do it before he can drift off. I feel like he doesn't want to sleep and he's trying to fight it off. I hold him (he has difficulty going to sleep by him self) and rock him and sing to him and tell him it's ok. I talk right up against his face so he feels my breath and it seems to calm him down. If I don't rock him, he throws his bottom up and down, almost like he's trying to rock himself. It's such a funny ritual, but it really seems like he's almost scared of sleep. Right before he gives in (and nods off) he usually has a burst of sweat. This whole pattern kindof reminds me of "colic" where we needed a ritual to alleviate his panic with that too.

[Comtessa]

I feel you -- DD did this until midnight last night!!!

Poor DH and I just lay there in bed exhausted, while our crazy 8 month old jumped on us each in turn and giggled. Nothing we tried worked - she just had to get it out! What finally worked was turning off all the lights so it was pitch-black, grabbing her and holding her very close, and giving her a pacifier. But I don't think it would have worked before she "worked out" all the energy she had in there.

She used to go berserk like this this EVERY night, late into the night. I finally realized that I had been drinking a lot of coffee during the day, and there was a time-lapse between when the caffeine entered my system, and when it got into my milk in a quantity that would affect her. The poor kid was getting a day's worth of caffeine in one big bedtime dose! So I cut my caffeine intake pretty dramatically and it made a BIG difference. (I switched half the coffee in the pot to decaf... I'm working on weaning myself off, but for the moment I've fooled myself into thinking it's still "real" coffee.) Now she only does it occasionally, usually when her daddy's been winding her up right before bed.

[mizlizzy]

Oh my gosh, Comtessa, that is so helpful! I hadn't made the connection! I do drink coffee in the day time, when she hardly nurses at all.

[dachshund mom]

We've been dealing with this same thing for the last couple weeks with 10.5mo DD. Minus the cat but add pointing at the door and yelling DA DA until he comes in to join the fun. I think she's trying to keep herself up but it also could be that she needs to drop to one nap. Problem is since she only sleeps 10 hours a night now, she really needs that am nap.

I nurse her to sleep easily for naps on my lap on the couch, so I might try doing that then taking her into the bed.

My other idea is to put her to sleep in her room (babyproofed and has mattress on the floor) and just read while she wears herself out.

[mckittre]

My 11mo does that sometimes too. For him, he's worse if we let him stay up too late (oddly he goes to sleep more easily if we catch him before that "crazy point"). Also he's worse if he gets an evening nap - we try to wake him up if he falls asleep too early.
I hold him down loosely in bed when he gets like that (not pinning his limbs, but keeping an arm around him so he can't actually crawl off). He fusses a bit, but calms down more quickly.
And when the bed makes him crazy anyway, I do find that nursing to sleep in my lap first helps some.

[evening start]

You may actually have better luck putting her down a little earlier. One of the things I've read about infant wake/sleep patterns (sorry I can't remember which book exactly) is that as a babies (actually anyone's) fatigue builds throughout the day the body has to "work" to stay awake later in the day. One of the things that can happen is that the body will increase it's production of adrenaline if it gets really tired and in infants this can rev up a very tired baby and make them hyper. If you can get them to sleep before they hit the stage that their body starts producing the adrenaline surge it is definitely easier. I have noticed with Colin that if I wait until he looks exhausted and starting to zone out to put him in his PJs he will get very hyper and hard to put to sleep, but if I start bedtime routine while he's still happy and alert, he will usually calm down and fall asleep sooner and easier. So maybe a slightly earlier start to bed time could help? Good luck.

[Amandala]

You may already be doing this, but I'm going to go right ahead and suggest that after dinner, you get that girl down on the ground, and forget about LETTING her blow off steam and work her energy out - MAKE her!

Have crawling races! Tickle! Chase! Make her laugh her butt off! Drain her! Buzz her belly! If you've got other kids, get them to get down there and get silly! Get her to walk whatever walker-thingy she has all around the room! Play Extreme Peekaboo!

Then after that start any calming and relaxing routines you may do.

I find my 11 mo guy is always ready to sleep and plonks out at bedtime, then sleeps half the night away when he has spent the evening with my friends who have a 6 and 9 year old, and everyone over there always does such a good job of wearing him the heck out by doing all of these things..

[half-pigeon]

my 6 month old does this. his version is being really chatty, screeching, & flailing limbs while laying on his back. i usually let him do that for a bit until he is ready to nurse, which usually is signified by fussing & crying. i do think he is too tired & overstimulated. i try to put him to sleep before he gets too wound up.

[mizlizzy]

thank you evening start and amandala, these are both really good ideas. I have noticed that when we put her to bed earlier she doesn't get so hyper.