baby crying at bedtime every night

This is normal. Please stick with it. Our daughter cried every night for a bit before she went to sleep for about 8 months. She stopped after she dropped the third nap, so it was a while for her to stop crying at all when she went to sleep. Now she is capable of going to sleep on her own every night (without crying!) and has been ever since (she's 2 now). We don't need to sit by her side for hours or use any sleep crutches, she is a great sleeper, very independent. You're doing the right thing! Don't doubt yourself.

I do understand, however, that the crying is very stressful for you. What I did was to put ear plugs in and watch TV with subtitles on while she was crying/complaining. I would fold laundry to keep my hands busy. Again, this will all pay off in the long run. Good luck!!

Hi! I highly recommend the Precious Little Sleep Facebook group (and blog) if you're looking for help troubleshooting sleep problems. The admins and other parents on there are super helpful and can definitely give you some ideas on what to do about this (which I'm sure is normal... ).

I suspect it is.  Our situation is similar.  What helped me was reading that some babies (some people) simply need to discharge excess energy prior to falling asleep.  For babies, crying is an easy way to do this.  I myself am the same so this made sense to me.  I hate to see her cry but it helps her settle (and she does typically sleep through the night) so I have largely accepted it.  I thought I would white knuckle it through sleep training and be rewarded with a tears free (or low tear) bedtime.  That didn't happen, and was perhaps an unrealistic expectation in retrospect.  She cries almost as much in my arms as she does on her own (though perhaps at lower intensity), and she's always been that way.

Hi.

Well....I personally could not do sleep training.  What we did was take turns sleeping with the baby (in our bed with a crib up against it with no crib-wall).  That way one person usually got a good nights sleep, and the baby was happy that a big person was there.   *Howsomever* it depends on what you can do.  From your description, perhaps you can lay down with baby while she falls asleep, and over time shorten the amount of time you stay with her.   Sounds like you need the comfort with her as well.

xoxoxoxoxo

(....and now one son is 6'3".)

Totally normal. Lots of kids cry before bedtime and it doesn't mean they're fearful. Sometimes it means they are mad because they aren't getting what they want - you. But it can also mean they're over-stimulated and the crying is releasing some energy so they can settle into sleep. Think about how much information she's taking in right now and how much she is growing and changing! It doesn't take much to over-stimulate even the most consistently nap-scheduled baby. I feel you - I hated listening to my (now teenage) daughter cry - it was so stressful. But then I found being able to discern her cries really helpful. If you pay attention to what this crying sounds like compared to hungry crying or wet diaper crying, you'll notice there's a difference. Once I realized that her sleep time crying sounded angry, it made it easier for me to hear. As the parent, I knew she needed to sleep, even if she didn't want to. Here we are 15 years later and she still doesn't want to go to sleep when I know she needs to. That part doesn't really ever end, does it?

Our daughter is 18 months old; we did light/gentle sleep training at 6 months. She still sometimes cries when I leave her in her bed, although she's generally a pretty good napper and a GREAT nighttime sleeper. I usually consider it to be her protestations that she'd rather her dad or I stay with her while she falls asleep, or sometimes that she'd rather stay out in the world and play, rather than that her little heart is broken because we're leaving her. I understand how hard it is to hear them cry though! In the end you have to strike the balance that feels right for your family with crying.

I have a similar problem with my 9.5 month old. Sometimes I put her down and she'll go to sleep right away, other times she'll cry for an hour. I can't figure out the pattern. My baby is also not sleeping through the night even though we weened her from feedings and I'm at a loss since we did do sleep training and she can put herself to sleep, but everyone said they would start sleeping through the night once they could self soothe, but that is not the case for us. Sorry, this is not advice, just sympathy and hoping to see other responses to your post!

Sounds hard. I had a similar experience with my daughter. A family friend suggested that I take a soft, old t-shirt I was willing to stop using and sleep in it for 3-5 nights. This would embed the shirt with my scent. Then one evening, after putting on the nightly CD of lullabies, I had my daughter lay down to have her back rubbed. I then handed her the shirt. She actually buried her face in it and flopped down to sleep. Miracle. We grew concerned about smothering possibilities, so we tore the shirt in smaller pieces. This actually helped because we had spares in case a piece got lost during travels. After the first week or so, we just washed these pieces normally--they didn't need my scent on them to sooth her. No guarantee that this will work for you, but it's worth a try.

Yes I think it is normal...mine did that (not the 30 minutes of hard crying but the 2-10 minutes of wah wah wah every night for weeks or more).

He is now 11 months and mostly this is better but still he sometimes cries when he sees I will leave him in bed...sometimes refuses daytime naps also.

I think it is part of being a baby.  Don't enable the behavior too much - my friend's 10 month old is up every 2-3 hrs at night b/c he wants to be held, etc., and also got used to being fed in the middle of the night.

Every time my son went through a developmental phase (learning to pull up, crawling, walking), his sleep would change. He also went from falling asleep by himself to screaming bloody murder at bedtime, first time at 11 months, and then again whenever there was a big milestone. My best advice is to do what it takes to help your baby sleep--rock her some more, lay her down and pat her till she settles, and see if this is just a phase. Do your best not to get yourself stuck in situations you do not wish to last forever--for example, if you don't intend to have your baby sleep in your bed, don't bring her to your bed (if you want to, that's up to you too). But it's OK to take some time to help her get through this phase. Try to back yourself out slowly--rock her less and less, leave the room longer before coming back. Maybe this phase will just go away on its own. If it doesn't, you can sleep train again. 

I saw this video on this subject and is it interesting, I'll put the link so they can see.

https://youtu.be/nbCASQVmjrY

I couldn’t bare the thought of letting my son cry himself to sleep so I rocked him to sleep every night until he was 18 months.  Then we upgraded to a regular bed with rails and I layed with him every night until he fell asleep.  At 2 1/2, i was able to explain why he needed to sleep by himself and told him how proud i was.  It only took about a week and now he goes to sleep by himself no problem.  Every child is different, so go with your gut and do what you feel is right.  It’ll take patience and time in whatever patg you choose!