Hi! It has been a long time I have not been here... last time we were making improvements but were about to move and deal with a 12h time difference...

The time difference was not so bad - within 2 weeks we were all ok...

But sleeping... so so. Naps are good - I used the GR to prepare him to my return to work, and now for naps we just need to rock him a bit and it's working for 1h/1h30 twice a day (he is 13 months old). But went from 5h sleep before the move to a max of 3h - average 2h (however, last week he did 7h out of the blue... still trying to find what I did right!!!)

At night recently he has started to wake up screaming - big panic... instead of just waking up and crying a bit. I need to nurse him back to sleep (else it's just worse, and it can take some time before he calms down) and the GR does not work, and he gets "angry" at me. Holding my hand far from his mouth so I can't remove him... I don't know if it is a reaction of me starting to work on his night time sleep (he wakes up every 2h, max 3h). We usually end up cosleeping at the end of the night - I need to rest to be up and ready for work... I thought it might be bad dreams, but for almost every awakenigs, that would be surprising... Overall, he is probably getting enough sleep (about 10-12h/night+2-2h30nap).

Has any of you had the panic awakenigs and subsequent screaming? and if so, what did you do with it?

Thanks in advance for your tips!

I must add - I never let him cry... Once I know he is awake for real (that is where the crying a bit comes from), I go and usually nurse him back to sleep... or a combination of nursing and rocking...

Hi!
I'm wondering if he is not quite comfortable in his new surroundings yet... perhaps during the daytime everything seems fine, but at night he isn't super familiar with the surroundings so when he wakes and it's different than what has been home to him is not there it can upset him? It's only one possibility. If so, it just may take him a while to realize that this is now home.

Also, perhaps he has night terrors... does he truly seem awake when he wakes up screaming? With night terrors, they aren't truly awake and impossible to get them to respond to anything.

Or... perhaps you are right and it is a reaction to doing the gentle removal. At this point, Elizabeth Pantley suggests that the gentle removal is stopped and you take a break from trying it until he feels comfortable again... perhaps he is just very anxious and possibly experiencing separation anxiety... taking a break may help because of this.

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Host of:
The No Cry Sleep Solution
Attachment Parenting

Oh, I'm just looking up night terrors and seeing that on average people don't seem to think they start with children this young... so I'm just thinking maybe it's separation anxiety and him getting anxious with the removal method, that she does say can happen... it's okay, you can still use the method, you just take a break from it for a while...

I can tell you right now, my DS (11 months) will have NONE of the GR method at the moment, !! If I do a removal he just YELLS at me! It's funny... he's pretty laid back during the day, but he is VERY BOSSY at night time! Haha! Ahhhhh.... I'm soooooo tired! I have to go back to work in a week... yeesh!

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Host of:
The No Cry Sleep Solution
Attachment Parenting

I did not thought of it, but now that you mention it, he just started to be a bit more clingy... Many parents would not notice it, they consider him very independant, but compared to a few months back, he is more demanding of "it has to be mom"...

However, a couple nights ago, it revert it back to "normal"... Still doing the GR, and putting him in his bed before he is asleep, just with eyes almost closed... We'll see... I am back to work (it has been 2 months) and he is still waking every 2-3h... But to some extent, it is easier to go to work than to stay with him. He is very active, running all over the place and so curious... at least at work, my computer and my customers are not as demanding AND I can take breaks... Hope you will enjoy your return to work! The hardest part for my return was the semi weaning... for the first 3 weeks I went back at lunch time to nurse him... That was what was exhausting...

I have dropped the logs... I figured it was putting some stress... I don't really care how long it takes, I am able to function well during the day, but I think he needs to learn how to settle himself to sleep, so we are "working" on his sleep... As they say, when you are a working mum, you have two full time jobs!

Good luck with GR and work!