[familyequalslove]

DD is 5mo and it can take up to two hours to put her to bed for the night. She has the same bedtime routine which consists of a bath and BF in her room with the music on and she is put into the cot awake. Sometimes she will grizzle for a little bit but can put herself to sleep okay. Other times she screams when I put her down and might fall asleep after a few minutes, only to wake up 10 mins later. I have to go in and pat her back to sleep but this cycle can go on for two hours.

I guess I'm just wondering when she will go to bed without grizzling or yelling or screaming!

She feeds once or twice overnight and settling back to sleep after these feeds is fine.


Help!

[Bek&H]

Has she always taken this long to go down at night or is this something she has started recently?

[FlamingoG]

My DD is five months, too, and the only thing that is guaranteed to get her off to sleep soundly is feeding to sleep. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it works for me. What are her daytime sleeps like? Mine is rubbish at naps, so figure that helps tire her out for bed. Wishing you luck!

[familyequalslove]

Has she always taken this long to go down at night or is this something she has started recently?

She's always been like this. I thought as she got a bit older then things might improve but they haven't.

My DD is five months, too, and the only thing that is guaranteed to get her off to sleep soundly is feeding to sleep. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it works for me. What are her daytime sleeps like? Mine is rubbish at naps, so figure that helps tire her out for bed. Wishing you luck!

I do try and feed her to sleep, put her back on the boob, she'll have a few sucks then put her back in the cot, then she'll wake up moments later. Naps are not too bad, still have the screaming, and patting to sleep most of the time, but it doesn't seem to take as long as the night time sleep As long as she gets put down after 2 hours of being awake then I'm fine. If her routine is out of whack or if we are out and I miss that window, then I have to put her in the sling.

[Bek&H]

deleted old response because i didnt realise you had replied.

Sounds like you have a bit of a fussy sleeper on your hands

Just keep trying everything you can, trial and error, see what she responds best to, could be singing, rocking the cot, giving her a comforter? (dummy, toy?) or even cuddling her until shes nearly asleep and then patting her off from there....theres lots of things you can try, you just need to find what works best for you.

Goodluck!

This post has been edited by Bek&H: 11/12/2012, 10:22 PM

[mibi]

I think it sounds like she's overtired and like you said in post #4 she gets like that when you've "missed the window." I would say that that happens then do whatever you need to get her to sleep - don't stress about doing whatever bedtime routine, but just whatever works best to get her settled.Bedtime routines are great when you can time everything, but if things get out, just do what you need to do - feed to sleep, rock, pat etc.

As she gets older and is able to stay awake for longer that window gets a bit bigger and you'll find that these times happen less often.

[Ace1976]

I think you are doing too much to try and help her get to sleep and she is becoming too stimulated and in the process, over tired.

I'm a big believer in teaching my children to put themselves to sleep from a very young age. When they are born they do not know the difference, at 5 months old she does. She knows that you pat her to sleep, she knows that you are not there when she enters a lighter sleep phase. She wakes because she is wondering where you got to.

I know that my thoughts aren't always popular but it has worked for me three times, anyone can put my kids to bed and they are able to put themselves to sleep, and they stay asleep (or more likely are able to resettle themselves if they wake through the night).

I think at 5 months this would be difficult to teach bub, it will involve some crying......but that crying won't last very long, each night it will get shorter. I think you will be surprsised at how quickly it works. When my first child was born and she got to the stage of not staying asleep when we put her down (so like 4 weeks ish) we had a terrible couple of days where she just cried and cried for hours. My health nurse showed us methods of self settling, this firtst time she cried on and off for 20 minutes, and it only got better after that.

Sheyne Rowley has a great book called The Dream Baby Guide, it's really thick but easy to just read the bits you need. My third child was particularly hard to get to sleep through the night and her explainations helped me a lot.

I hope this helps and makes sense.

[WaitForIt]

(wrong thread)

This post has been edited by WaitForIt: 12/12/2012, 01:29 PM

[Ehill]

I just think routine and consistency are your best options. Be consistent with the method you use every night and dont miss the tired cues. Off to bed as soon as she shows tired sign to avoid overtiredness.

But for some it is hard to get to sleep. It is what it is. Please dont feel like there is some magic trick and you are 'doing something wrong'. Chances are you are doing fine and it is just how she is.

Good luck.