Baby Screaming when put to bed

[AnnaR1]

My 8 week old son has suddenly started screaming when I put him to bed, previously he just cried a bit and then settled. He now screams so loudly that the monitor is constantly in the red. First night we picked him up and brought him downstairs and then he just smiled at us, so did not really seem as if there was anything wrong. Has anyone else had this happen and if so what did you do and what worked, as need to go to bed at some point and can't keep doing this.

Oh god yes, my DD never self-settled until about 5 months, am amazed your DS has been until now.

Can you feed or rock him to sleep? White noise (the hairdryer) always sent DD off.

He might have only just become aware of the fact that he's on his own when you put him to bed - it takes a while for them to work out that you're sometimes there and sometimes not, so he's telling you that he doesn't want you to go away!

At that age we used to put DS down in his moses basket in the lounge, with a muslin over it to keep the light out - he seemed to go off much better if he could hear us pottering about or watching telly (quietly). Could be worth a thought?

I think at that age they usually need to be rocked off or fed to sleep. Then you can put them in the cot. You could put a hot water bottle in to warm the cot, and then take it out, obviously, before you put him in.

Also, things like noise machines, light shows or music can be soothing for them.

There's no easy solution I don't think, you just have to try a few things and see what works for your baby.

Try not to let him get too over tired either, so nice and calm before bedtime and no over stimulating tv or anything. You could do some massage on him too.

This is entirely normal (despite what some parenting books say).

Babies are designed to wake regularly, so that they can feed regularly. They are designed to need adults to care for them, because they cant care for themselves.

Lack of sleep sucks though. I remember those days all too vividly.

with DS1 we:

made sure he was awake from about 5pm and well fed

then used a mobile with batteries that he loved

occasionally only breastfeeding would calm him but just to try and let him selfsettle now and again.

with DS2

(who hated the mobile)

we used a dummy when he was really upset, otherwise tried stroking/feeding.. - just for a few minutes then took it out (which I said I never would) which worked at treat and we removed for good at 9 months with about half a day of fuss.

Umm dont really know what do say but with both DSs they never settled on their own at that age. DS1 co-slept with us until he was 9months old by which point i was pregnant with DS2 so logistically he had to go into a cot. we had a month or so of unsettled nights but he sleep for 12hrs a night now.

DS2 is 24 weeks old and we still co-sleep. he snuggles up to me and feeds as and when he's hungry.

i have read somewhere (cant remember where) that you should think in terms of a 12month pregnancy as for the 1st 3months after birth your baby needs/wants to be next to you and almost panics when you arent there.