The Baby Sleeper Mystery

Forty-eight hours ago I would have said Cati was an excellent sleeper at night. Normally, she goes down around 7:15pm and is out until around 7:00am the next morning. She drinks her milk and gets put in the crib awake and puts herself to sleep. She tosses and turns like crazy but does not wake up crying.

Friday, this was not the case. First of all, Friday was the first time ever she did not nap in the ENTIRE day. Cati was up for a solid 12 hours and no amount of driving around got her to nap. We went to my in-laws house for dinner and while there Cati ate a lot of strawberries and some fried rice. She ate strawberries up until 30 min before bedtime but the fried rice she had with her regular dinner, which was an hour and a half before bedtime. We get home and she goes to sleep as normal. At 8:45pm she wakes up crying. I wait a few minutes in hopes of her going back to sleep. She doesn't and her crying escalates. I go into her room and try to rock her to sleep. While in my arms, she starts passing gas. Ok. Her tummy hurts. Sure enough, she poops a massive poop and then goes right back to sleep after having a little more milk. I concluded that she woke up because of a stomachache as a result from eating the strawberries too close to bedtime.

Saturday night, we planned on letting her spend the night at my in-laws so that we could go out to celebrate our anniversary with a dinner and a movie. We drop Cati off at 4:00pm. She plays and has a grand ol' time with her grandparents. Bedtime rolls around and she falls asleep like normal. However, she wakes up at 11:00pm crying. She's fine when someone is carrying her but cries bloody murder when she is taken anywhere near the crib or the room. At 12:30am my mother-in-law calls me to tell me Cati is crying and calling out for us. We go pick her up, she's wide awake the entire drive home, but goes to sleep after she has some milk and gets rocked some. She wakes up at her normal time today. So what happened? I've been trying to figure it and here are my theories:

1. New Environment: This seems to be the likeliest explanation. Cati wakes up during a bout of tossing and turning and realizes she's somewhere new. She cries and when my mother-in-law goes to get her, she's not satisfied and wants to be comforted by a parent. BUT why did she sleep fine in Tampa? That was a completely new environment. Was it because she knew we were in the room next door? Also, we have spent the night at my in-laws before and Cati has slept in the same room, same crib before without a problem.

2. Separation Anxiety: Is this a classic example of just missing and wanting to be with us? BUT why doesn't she act like this when my mother-in-law comes over to our house and puts her down to sleep? Does this go back to the new environment theory? Would she sleep just fine if we were away but she was sleeping in her room and crib?

3. Things Are More Connected Than They Seem: Are Friday and Saturday night indications of something deeper like a tooth coming in and not two different incidents?

I'm curious to see how she sleeps tonight and hope that it will answer some questions. More than anything I feel bad for missing out on the chance to sleep in because I felt soooo ready to have Cati finally spend a night away from home.