It is 7:55pm and.....

[Breezy]

I have DCbaby for another 50 minutes, thankfully. BUT, she has been crying all day and all night! She just doesn't STOP! Unless I hold her of course. She has taken two tiny 30 minute cat naps and then wakes up screaming because noone is holding her. She screams when she is on the floor not being held even if I am sitting right there. She screamed all through DH and my dinner. My DS is in bed for the night and I am praying she doesn't wake him up with this screaming. And when I say screaming, I mean at the top of her lungs screeching like she is being killed.

But, as soon as you pick her up she stops immediately and laughs. She is 8 months old and I am sure she is held constantly at home still.

Also, her dad brought her in a sopping wet diaper which soaked through within 10 minutes of her being here. Totally soaked, pants and all.

Anyway, she is in the pnp in a nice and dark room with white noise on and she will not stop crying. Unless I open the door and she sees me and then stops on a dime!!

42 minutes left until she is picked up.... and back at 7am tomorrow for another day of this.

[Kaddidle Care]

You have her 14 hours a day?

[Breezy]

No, she came at 12:30 today because her parents work retail so dad worked the evening shift. Mom works 8am-8pm. Tomorrow she is here 7am-5:15pm. Monday she was here 7am-11am. So it varies all the time.

[Oneluckymom]

How long have you cared for her? She JUST wants you to pick her up. This is easily solved by simply NOT picking her up when SHE wants you to. If you know she is not hungry or in pain then let her be. She will learn but it may take a few weeks.

She has learned how to get what she wants ...

[Breezy]

Since November of last year!! She doesn't get it at all. I literally only hold her when a) she hasnt been crying for a while or b) when I am feeding her. That is it now because it has gotten so bad. She holds her arms up and just screams. When DH got off work today he walked over to me to give me a hello kiss and stopped for a moment at her to say "Hi" and she stopped crying right away because she thought he was going to pick her up and then when he leaned over to kiss me she started again.

I have tried totally ignoring her, talking to her and singing to her, making silly funny faces and smiling huge at her (which used to make her laugh). She even stops with my 14 month old DS goes over to her thinking he is going to pick her up!

[sharlan]

My new dcb absolutely loves the stroller. I started taking her for short walks, now I just walk her around the house. No more screaming.

[cheerfuldom]

I feel bad for you but infants on random schedules are almost always like this. She has got to be waaaaayyy over tired and that doesnt help the situation.

[countrymom]

hmm, I had a dcg like this (I still have her) the only way to fix this problem was to NEVER hold her, I mean never, didn't matter if she was happy or anything. It took a long long time but she finally stopped crying (trust me, I thought there was no end in sight) also, she needs a schedual, it has to rigid. You need to train her to stay asleep, usually they still take about 3 naps a day.

[Breezy]

DCM said DCG slept like a rock last night because she was so tired. I usually have had great success with getting DCG to sleep well here if I swaddle her. But, since she rolls over it scares the crap out of me to swaddle despite me checking on her every few minutes. So, I was trying yesterday to get her to sleep without being swaddled but as soon as I swaddled her she fell asleep. Mom does not swaddle.

Today I will keep an extra eye on her cues and get her down when she starts getting tired so she doesn't get overtired. So far so good, she has been here for 30 minutes and (knock on wood) has not started crying yet. She is playing nicely on her own and every time she glances at me I give her a huge smile.

This is how it seems to go though, day 1 of not being here is awful and then the next few days of her regularly being here is good. Its like she is being retrained I guess?

After today I am not sure when she is going to be here again as I have not gotten her schedule yet but her great grandma will be taking care of her the next few days so you can bet she will be held the whole time!!

Sometimes it makes me feel badly that my DS was never like this- like I didn't hold him enough as an infant. I held him a ton and even had family members tell me I shouldn't hold him so much but he was never like this. He has always been independent. Always been able to play on his own.

[Breezy]

Spoke too soon... the crying has started! She is right next to me but wants to be picked up. I hope she doesn't wake my DS because he was up every hour last night

[countrymom]

sounds like she is disrupting your life. I think if gma is willing to, she needs to be picked up at 5pm and brought home and tucked into her own bed. This child sounds like she needs consistency.

[Breezy]

Originally Posted by countrymom

sounds like she is disrupting your life. I think if gma is willing to, she needs to be picked up at 5pm and brought home and tucked into her own bed. This child sounds like she needs consistency.

Grandma is visiting from Seattle. Dcf have no family members in this state