separation anxiety? or something else?

OK DD is doing my head in, up to a week or two ago, 13mnth old DD used to go to bed and fall asleep no problem, i would put her in her cot, leave the room and normally that would be it. She might wake a little later in the night but usually went back to sleep in no time, sometimes with cuddles or on her own.

Now the past week or two we've had a screaming session that's lasting an hour or so. I've not changed her bedtime routine at all. I put her to bed as per usual and everything seems fine. Then about 3-5mins later she starts crying. Has a huge set of lungs so you can't miss her and can hear her all over the house! SO i leave her for a few mins and then go in and she's usually standing up. I resettle her, she laughs or giggles sometimes and then I leave the room. This seems to be going on for an hour or so.

So obviously what i had been doing previously is not working anymore. Should I tough it out, is she just being mischievous and is just a phase? or suffering separation anxiety? Any suggestion? should i change the routine that's worked since 5/6months old?

I hate seeing her so upset. I'm feeling a little stuck at the moment as I'm wondering at what point do they start pushing boundaries? any suggestions would be very welcome!

disco:(

It could just be a phase, maybe testing her boundaries.  I would also recommend perhaps moving her bedtime say 30mins later and also perhaps try more activities late arvo so that she's really knackered and may just crash at bedtime.  She might be needing that bit more stimulation or something?

GL anyway.

G is a bit older but I have just been doing sleep boot camp with her for this very reason. I thought hers was separation anxiety but over the last two month of it taking me increasing longer periods of time to get her to sleep (up to 3 hours) I came to the conclusion that she appeared to be playing me. I took a slightly softer approach than CIO because G screams so much she makes herself sick.

Basically I put her to bed and I walked as far away as I could before she cried. Then I stood in the room with my back to her (eyes averted, making no eye contact at all) and slowly one step every five minutes or so type thing made my way out of the room. If she screamed I took a step (or more, whatever it took) back in to the room but no eye contact with my back to her. The first two nights I ended up spending over an hour standing in the doorway with my back to her while she yelled Marmeee over and over, but at least I got to read my book Gradually my time in the doorway got shorter and shorter and after about 6 days I was back to walking straight out of the room and she just calls out for 10-15 minutes. No crying just calling my name. Wish I'd done it sooner coz I could have avoided 2+ months of screaming, crying, sitting with her, popping in and out of the room, her getting out of bed and wandering out etc.

OMG disco I could have written your post! My 19 month old has just started doing this the last couple of weeks, it's totally doing my head in. Found some good info on this on the sleep store site, sounds like this is something all toddlers do at some stage... but I def think doing more activities in the afternoon might be something to try, I used to take him to the park most afternoons but since having DD it's been a bit tricky... might have to try harder!

My DS has been very hard to get to bed at night too - fine for his daytime naps but crap at going down at night time. He'd talk to himself for about an hour and then start crying. When we'd go in there, he'd be standing up in the cot and when we tried to lie him down, he'd cling to us. I'd then have to sit with him without talking to him while he floated around in his room for 15 or so minutes, looking at books, getting up onto my lap, getting down off my lap, looking at more books. And then, he'd finally go down without a fight.

The Sleepstore suggests a number of things but the biggest things I took from the site were:
- Bedtime routine needs to be relaxing (so no wrestling type play before bed DAD! It's not rocket science)
- No TV an hour before bed, quiet play only.

And Finally, the biggest thing was that they said that they sometimes just want more time with Mum! Some Mums (hey, lets face it - ALL Mums!) are so busy that they don't have much time for one-on-one play during the day. I know I don't because I don't get home til 530 and then it's teatime. Sometimes they just want to spend some time with us (a type of separation anxiety I guess) so 10 or so minutes extra before bed for cuddles, song, story etc. is all they're really crying for.

This was for my situation anyway but may help you.

The fact that Dad's not there could just be a coincidence (as so many things often are when they're developing so quickly).

I haven't read everyone elses comments and I think this is a bit of an old post now! But anyway, my son has done this a couple of times, just suddenly out of nowhere decides to get grumpy every bedtime. When this happens dh and I swap jobs - normally one of us does the bath etc and one does bedtime, so if I've been putting him to bed then dh does. It's solved the issue every time so far!