The Witching Hour

So Evie has added this new thing to her bedtime routine. For the past several nights she has tried to go to bed at like 7-7:30 and we have tried to stretch her to 8 so she sleeps until we get up at 5:30 in the am. Because really, 5:30 am is already very early! Last night she fell asleep while eating at 7 and because Monday and Tuesday nights were so bad, I let her, thinking 'she has to be tired from not sleeping well the last 2 nights'. Wrong.

So in between mommy and daddy getting home and playing with her, and her entertaining herself while we eat dinner, and then playing again, and then going through the bedtime routine [(change clothes, diaper; eat; read books; set in bed and watch mobile until eyes drift shut for the night) which I will add has been working for us 6/7 days a week for a month or so], Evie has added: screaming of doom. She just screams and hollers so much and so badly that she chokes herself, forgets to breathe, turns bright red and actually heats her entire body up several degrees because she is so upset.

Screaming of doom is not even something we can see coming. She has done it before in the past, usually once a week or less, but this even seems a little different because she cannot be calmed down once she gets going, and we used to be able to get her a little calmer if we tried a few special tricks. For the past 3 nights though she seems totally fine--falls asleep while I feed her (and we still read her the book and do the mobile and everything in the 'routine' to get her prepped for bed) and when we leave the room she goes from 95% asleep baby to 110% crabby baby. Sometimes it is right away and sometimes we think we managed to get her asleep and then 5-10 minutes later she starts screaming like crazy.

It is really kind of scary. The first night we thought she had an upset stomach and she has been really gassy, even with gas drops, the past several nights. I have slightly propped her mattress up so her head is a tiny bit elevated and that hasn't done the trick either. But I really wonder if she has reflux or something because you can actually hear the gas and food and such rumbling and settling in her stomach and throat (when she isn't screaming). Sometimes when I feed her I can even feel all that rumbling around against my belly and it can't feel nice for her. I have been eating the same thing for lunch every day this week and am going to try something else for a few days to see if that helps (it might be the salami? :P) but we have no idea what else to do and she seems ok the rest of the day so probably not teething? Hopefully we can get some tips from our readers (ya you) and the doctor next week when she goes in for her second round of immunizations.

Cross your fingers and say a spell that there is no witching hour tonight!