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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

Can anyone help with this new bedtime problem - I seem to have done something wrong with the no-cry sleep solution and it's made things worse!

11 replies

Caz10 · 14/07/2008 20:13

Dd is 7mths and a couple of months ago I set about trying to get her out of the habit of feeding to sleep, mainly for daytime naps because I thought I was going back to work a bit earlier and DH wasn't able to get her to nap in the day.

So I read the NCSS and managed quite quickly to get her to sleep without feeding to sleep, putting her down sleepy but not asleep etc. She now naps quite happily in the day from being put in her cot, buggy or car seat, no feed required.

At bedtime I was putting her down awake after her last feed, a few minutes of thrashing about and grumbling and she was off. Result!! It didn't stop her waking a gazillion times each night, but that is a different story.

Anyway to finally get to the point...the gap between putting her down after her last feed in the evening and her going to sleep is getting longer and longer, we are now almost at an hour sometimes. She is not unhappy, just rolling about wide awake. I would just leave her, but she gets herself into all sorts of stupid positions with limbs wodged through cot bars, trapped face down etc so I keep having to move her. She can roll back to front but not onto her back again, and as soon as I put her down she rolls onto her front, gets stuck and starts grumbling. If I flip her over she rolls back, and we can repeat this many, many times.

She is tired and almost sleeping after her bath and during her last feed, then seems to ping to life the minute i put her in her cot. I am now looking back fondly at the days I could feed her to sleep!

Any ideas as to why she might be doing this? Thanks!

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wrinklytum · 14/07/2008 20:17

Could you roll up a couple of blankets either side of her to stop her rolling over so she is sort of wedged in and cannot get her feet through the bars?

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meep · 14/07/2008 20:21

do you think she might be wanting to sleep on her front? I know that sounds scary (my dd only started this at 11mo and I found it scary even then)!

Maybe let her fall asleep on her front - then when you are quite sure she is sound asleep flip her onto her back?

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Caz10 · 14/07/2008 20:24

thanks!

wrinklytum she is such a thrasher I think she would just trash any blankets - she does full 360 turns etc in the pre-sleep rolling session!

meep i do think she wants to sleep on her tum, and have done that a couple of times (you're right, it's scary!!), but when she rolls over onto her front she doesn't put her head down but goes into "push-up" position, looking around etc

i'm a bit wary cos she hasn't learned how to roll back yet, or crawl

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Maenad · 14/07/2008 20:25

Oh god sorry, no helpful advice at all but DD used to do exactly the same after I stopped feeding her to sleep. You have all my sympathy. It's maddening.

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AnyFuleKno · 14/07/2008 20:36

Yep my dd does exactly this too. I'm afraid I reverted to feeding to sleep otherwise there was no way of knowing how long the bedtime routine would take. My dd seemed to get a bit stressed too as though she knew she should be sleeping but couldn't stop moving around.

Will be watching this thread, hope you find a good solution.

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Caz10 · 14/07/2008 20:49

well i suppose I'm glad it's not just me!

Maenad and AnyFuleKno what ages are your dd's? I wondered if it was in some way related to her being quite close to learning to crawl, roll etc?

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AnyFuleKno · 14/07/2008 20:59

My dd is eight months so the timing does fit with your experience.

Yes I do find since she's been more active she seems to find it difficult to switch off. She's like the man with the magic shoes in the fairy tale who can't stop dancing.

I sometimes hold her legs while she's lying in the cot and this does seem to help, she seems relieved when she can't keep wriggling.

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Caz10 · 14/07/2008 21:03

I "pin" dd down with my hand on her back to keep her on her side! There is something a bit manic about the way she just flips repeatedly onto her front and pushes up again and again and again..during the day she never does it!

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Washersaurus · 14/07/2008 21:13

DS2 has always been the same; I have to hold his legs and put my hand on his chest to stop his fidgets, he does seem relieved to stop moving most of the time. He also repeatedly flips over and over until he exhausts himself.

I usually have to sit next to the cot for about 15 mins these days (DS2 is nearly 1yo) - tonight though he lay still after around 5mins (hoorah!)

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Jojay · 14/07/2008 21:23

I think it's quite common at this age - they're starting to get more mobile and just can't keep still.

Like so many things, it's a phase and it will pass............

When my DS was that age I used to gently pin him down and sing him a song to settle him, or use the Baby Whisperer's 'shush pat' technique, but as he got a bit older, I just left him to it unless he was really howling, and moved him onto his back, facing the right way, once he was asleep.

In fact I still do, and he's 20 mths now........

I would try not to go back to feeding to sleep. You've done really well to get her out of that habit, and it would be a shame to start that again.

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Caz10 · 14/07/2008 21:28

Now this is why i love MN

an hour ago I was hanging my head in despair, now I know it is normal and will pass...

thank you!!