Do all babies scream the house down at bedtime?

[Sprite21]

Just wondering if this is normal...My 7 month old dd has a nice bedtime routine at 7pm of story, bath, pajamas, into grobag, then lights off and musical nightlight on while she drinks her milk (bf), then bed.

It all goes well until she gets out of the bath and into her pajamas when she starts crying in her most distressed tone until she is plugged in (to me).

She used to fall asleep on the breast but now she often doesn't and needs to be shushed or rocked to sleep.

She is a terrible sleeper throughout the night (wakes 4-5 times at least) so I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong at bedtime. Could she be overtired? Is this normal?

Thanks for your advice.

Could she be overtired?

Just that our 11 month old is exhausted after being awake for 3 hrs approx. so if he wakes from his lunchtime nap at 3, by 6 he is often already sleepy. ( has recently dropped 4.30pm 20 min cat nap)

Tend to try and get dressed and bathed quickly if this is the case. If you have time, could you do bath/ pjs 30 mins earlier, then start a routine of feeding/ reading book/ gentle singing etc to her until seven?

I'm not sure about bedtimes, everyone I know does it differently.... We do 6pm and he's in bed by 6:30. We did have crying phases, but I went a bit Gina-Ford-esq once he was over 6 months and after two or three days he was out like a light very quickly.

Thanks for your thoughts. She hasn't dropped her afternoon nap yet and normally has a nap from 4-5 so that would suggest it's not overtiredness but it's a good idea to try and switch around the routine a bit.
GrandOldDuke What does Gina Ford esque entail? Does that mean you started subscribing to a strict routine and that worked for bedtimes? Or does that involve leaving them?
I tried that for about fifteen minutes the other night but she was so beside herself I didn't see how she would ever calm down enough to sleep. How long did it take before he fell asleep?

Not sure if they all do it but my 4 month old is exactly the same. If it's any consolation my 4 yr old was exactly the same til he was about 11-12 months :-( but he did grow out of it! For my ds1 I think it was the hatred of being dressed and faffed about with after a bath etc and also screaming in bed started about this age with separation anxiety, I just stayed with him or tried to shhh him and keep my hand on him til he was deeply asleep and then crept out avoiding the creaking floorboard! He eventually got over it and would settle with me just standing in the door way for a minute or two and by the time he was 1 it was all sorted and he settled himself without me and stopped screaming while I dressed him too.

With DS2 I think it is overtiredness. Dispite him bei ng alseep on me now he still is extremely tired by 6pm but if I try to get him to bed at that time he just cires so I keep him up til 7 and feed him to sleep and creep out again! It's all a phase and it will end at some point. I am very envious of people who don't have crabby babies in the evenings and who's babies doze off on their own but neither of mine have been like that!

sorry typos DS2 is asleep on me and typing one handed!

Gina would advise giving one boob before bath and one boob after bath.

She would also advise putting babies down to bed awake from day dot in order that they learn to fall asleep on their own.

She would advise in the bath and out again by 6.15 so that baby was fed and in bed by 7, not starting bath at 7.

Obviously its only the second point you couldnt change instatntly (assuming, of course that you want to do it the Gina way).

Gina aso hasn't had any children of her own and doesn't seem to have ever encountered babies like mine who simply CAN NOT soothe themselves to sleep. It works for some I'm sure but don't pin your hopes on it being an instant fix. Not all babies are the same.

Sounds a bit like mine though now with DS the screaming starts once in cot as we are trying to get him to self settle. Still wakes several times a night which I can't understand as he is full and tired. Most of my friends babies of same age have been sleeping through for ages.
Am hoping someone posts the 'magic solution'

Hoping for magic solution too! Seems like everyone's baby but mine sleeps through the night. As for self-soothing, it's a nice idea.

Sprite21 in our case crying at bedtime was overtiredness and we overcame it with longer naps, or at least a proper nap structure, during the day (but then DS wakes often and early so we got peaceful bedtime at the cost of interrupted and little sleep)

Sounds like my dd, maybe they think they r missing out on the fun by having to go to bed. Mine usually wakes twice, sometimes more and very occasionally less. I've tried all sorts including cry it out but nothing works. I introduced a dummy only 2 months ago which seems silly as she lasted so long without one and it works a bit but still not great. I'm just waiting for her to grow out of it. I always think ... Maybe tonight...!

I'm pretty much with Gina Ford on this one - my two screamed louder and longer if I tried to settle them to sleep. Rocking them/ feeding them to sleep sounds lovely but just couldnt get it to work! I think the issue with advice and theories is that they all work with different babies. What works for one doesnt work for another!

I dont know if not being able to self settle and sleeping through are related. A friend whose baby slept through really early always fed him to sleep both day and night. She was about how I ever managed to get mine to go off

This is always my 4 month old's tricky time too. She is usually a bit fractious between bath and BF, but she does tend to go down (now) without too much fuss. In the general interest of avoiding crying before sleep (ie naps as well), I've been getting some success through starting the routine far before she's tired. That way I find she doesn't get too upset by the suggestion that she might like a nap. If I leave it until she's tired, the very idea of a darkened room or a swaddle is an affront to her dignity .

In the day it's half-an-hour before, with story, lights down, then feed. For the night-time routine I start almost an hour before I want her to be asleep, to allow for the bath. I have found this really reinforces that the path to sleep is a downward slope...makes it harder to battle their way back up it, if that makes sense! I've never had any luck getting her to soothe down from a full-throated cry, but this way she does manage to settle even after a bit of fussing. THat said, she's also waking up in the night more often than she did about a month ago...so this clearly isn't the magic solution! Good luck.