bedtime difficulties

[jenniferlynn]

Hi, this is my first time posting so advanced apologies if there is too much/not enough information

My daughter is 4 1/2months old and the past month we have had real difficulty getting her ready for bed. Normally around 6pm she will start to get tired, she is taken upstairs where the routine is to top and tail her, put her in bedclothes, feed her (breast fed) and then put her into bed. The past month however she has started to cry as soon as we take her upstairs, this becomes progressively louder and she becomes more agitated as the routine goes on. It can get to the point where we have to calm her down to eat and it is becoming quite distressing for all of us.

I can't think why this has started happening, as far as I know nothing has changed in the routine. We have tried taking her up a bit before normal, trying to catch her before she is tired, but this normally only buys a few minutes quiet before she will start to cry again.

She will normally wake around 7am, nap 9-10am, again around 12 for 30m-45m and 3/3.30 for 30m. She sometimes struggles to get to sleep during day, but it is definitely worse at night.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We're thinking of trying to get her to nap around 4.30ish for half an hour and then take her up a bit before 7pm to see if this helps. Worth a go do you think?

The good side is once she is asleep she does sleep well!

Thanks for reading

where does she sleep during the day? is she ok going for naps during the day or does all this happen at that time too? xx

Sounds like you are doing really well! Do you ever take her upstairs for any other reason than for her to sleep? My DS was a bit like this and developed a bit of a dislike for his bedroom. I started playing quietly with him in there a couple of times a day so he didn't get quite so worked up.

shufflebum, same here! my DD got a bit anxious at bedtime when it was time to go through, so i made sure she took her naps in the day in the bedroom, and when we go through for naps during the day we read a little storey have a nice cuddle, and then sleep,
also during the day i take her in there to sort out washings or to do some ironingm so shes used to the bedroom and no longer gets anxious when we go through, she actually kinda looks forward to it, she kicks her legs about and gets all excited knowing shes getting milk a storey, and a nice bedtime cuddle with mum x

Hi, thanks for replies

During the day she will sleep sometimes in her moses basket, other times in pram if we're out for a walk. She doesn't normally nap in her room so that might be worth a go...

When she wakes up on morning we normally play upstairs and during day I'll normally change her up there once or twice as well as thought she may be anxious over being in a different room.

Will keep perservering! My thoughts are she is too tired as does not sleep for very long periods on afternoon and us jangling her about to get her washed and changed aggravates her (understandable I guess)

I would say she is either overtired or overhungry. Try bringing bedtime forward a little bit and see how you do?

Would try to introduce a nap in her room too, good luck!

Hi again all, we've been trying to make nap times more settled during the day, which has worked a bit, going to keep at it for another week or so and if not then try something else. Thanks again for advice

wow, your nap routines are pretty much spot on the same as my DD. She also has bedtime problems...hehe, I started a thread asking for advice also..just next to this one :-). Lets wish us both good luck :-)