Where am I going wrong with bedtime?

[Rattlerattleshakeshake]

Hi all

please can someone enlighten me where I am going wrong with bedtime for my 7 month old.

this week at bedtime she has just been relentless. She just screeches really loud when held and when you lay her in crib she just rolls around and makes herself sick from all the rolling back and forth.

I am seriously confused. She started to get tired around 5pm recently and I had moved bedtime earlier but then she was waking earlier in the morning so I’ve been doing a small nap around 5 and then starting bedtime around 6 with the hopes she’ll be asleep by 7pm. However she still is over tired by this time despite my best efforts. Rubbing eyes and moaning but won’t actually go to sleep and won’t let me rock her.

I actually do feel helpless as I feel I can’t understand what she wants and I’m clearly not giving her what she wants. We just go round in circles and what was once a half an hour job is now taking over 2 hours. The most frustrating thing is that she is tired but just won’t go.

I looked at whether she wasn’t napping enough or too much but neither seemed to make any difference she is still awful to but to bed now.

pleaseeee help a stressed mumma lol

5.00pm has to go. don’t let her sleep later than, then up for milk and bath and bed by 6.30 - blackout blinds up. Be consistent and she will be fine

What's the rest of the day like?

What are her naps looking like?

I don't let my daughter sleep past 3pm for a 7pm bedtime. 6.30 if she's really cranky.

Does she have a bedtime routine?

If my 6.5 month old had a nap at 5pm she wouldn't be happy falling asleep until 8pm. They need some "sleep pressure" to fall asleep.

It's so tricky getting the right schedule, but I'd try to move the cat nap to more like 4pm

Thanks all - honestly I’ve tried to shift it all earlier but she just won’t have it she just really kicks off until I stop trying as she’s not tired enough and by then everything has moved back too late if that makes any sense.

so we get up 7-7:30. Bottle, nap around 9-9:30am. Breakfast. Then the second nap of the day is a bit all over the place at the moment as she won’t sleep while I’m out anymore.
so today for example she refused her 12pm nap, so we did bottle and nap at 1pm, she woke at 2:15pm but because she was over tired she woke still tired. I went for a walk and she fell asleep around 4pm and slept until around 4:35pm. Then did bath, some bottle, bedtime story, rest of the bottle and then down for bed which obviously no longer happens.

bedtime routine is always consistent. If not bath is a wipe down, into sleeping bag, same bedtime songs on, bottle, story, more of the bottle if she wants it, dummy, down with shush pat in crib.

i definitely am struggling with the mid day nap as she just doesn’t want to go down when I’m out but I guess I’ll have to push bedtime back if she is having her third cat nap too late.

thankd ladies

I think going to two.naps rather than 3 will also help. At 7 months we were doing 7am wake, 9.30 nap, 2pm nap and 7pm bedtime.

I worked with a sleep coach and she advised that you need to give nap changes a solid 2 weeks to take effect. Consistency is key, baby will have good nights and bad nights but don't change course and it will eventually settle down

I hope you find something that works for you both soon ❤️