Baby takes ages to settle at night

[Rachel1210]

Hi all
I’m having trouble getting my little 9 week old down to sleep at night. During the day he naps fine - albeit in the sling. At night we used to pop him in the sling until he fell asleep and then transfer to his crib (we’re waiting until around 12 weeks to wean off the sling!) but lately he just won’t settle in the film at night. It’s taking approx 2 hours of waking around in the sling, rocking, shushing etc for him to sleep to then transfer him. He doesn’t really cry - he’s just really wriggly and unsettled. Wonder if I need to keep him awake a little longer so that he feels more tired? Any advice?

My now 16 week old daughter is the same. And also the same with naps - in the day we had to get her to nap in the sling as she wouldn’t nap any other way! But like you we have weaned her off the sling and started putting her to sleep in her cot. We did it about 2/3 weeks ago and it was actually not too bad. She took to it really well! Think she was actually glad to get some proper sleep ha..well worth it for us :)

But although she now she goes down for naps like a champ, she is still hard work at night...it was taking us three hours to get her down! Mix of her being wide awake (over tired by the end of the day as she cat naps!) or just not wanting to sleep. We did start putting her down earlier. It was 7pm but we moved it to 6pm. Seems very early but it now only takes an hour or two so is better...that helped us anyway. I guess it was over tierdness for us? We have to go in, pat her back to sleep, then repeat a good few times before she goes down. She gets up at 6/7ish but I prefer the early wake up to the three hour evening fight!

Not to sure how to get her to settle any quicker than the hour or two it now takes...maybe it’s something they will grow out of? I think a nap schedule helps? but we can’t seem to get the hang of that so can’t help much there....! She naps as and when...!

Oh also my daughter wriggles herself to sleep. We leave her to it unless she starts to cry which is when we start the shhhh and pat to resettle her. She just likes to moan herself to sleep..she sends herself to sleep quicker that way. She seems to get more annoyed if we try help.

There’s a growth spurt at 8 weeks. Your baby may need more food.

(Baby sleep isn’t like adult sleep, by the way. You may need to do some reading up and adjust your expectations ahead of the 4 month sleep regression. ;))

I can only feed mine to sleep which is worrying me and it's very tying as it means my husband can't settle him :( no amount of rocking, shusshing, patting etc helps, he just gets hysterical until he gets my boob in his mouth :( sometimes he's not even feeding, just having a chew it seems, but he won't take a dummy. I dont know how to change it :( good luck everyone!

I can only feed mine to sleep which is worrying me

Don’t let it worry you, honestly. The hormones in breast milk mean babies are designed to feed to sleep. Just keep doing it. It works for a reason and one day they just stop doing it. Honestly

@potteringalong thank you :) it would just be nice if my husband could settle him for sleep / naps occasinally and often when he wakes in the night he doesn't need a feed but can't get to sleep unless he has a quick suck. I wish the patting / shusshing would work on him. Hes only 12 weeks though so still very young. Thank you for the reassurance xx

He is . My third is 21 months and still breastfed but he doesn’t feed to sleep anymore. They just seem to get less fussed one day somehow