How to wind down a very active baby

[Bumperlicioso]

Dd2 is 8 months old and since she has started rolling and crawling she has been a nightmare to get down for the evening. We don't have a routine as such but she has always come into my bed and fed to sleep lying down, but now she just wants to roll about the bed and climb on me. How to I get her to wind down and just bloody feed?!

I don't really want to do a bath time routine as it isn't really practical for us.

Could you do a story instead of a bath? I know she's only young but maybe the act of getting changed for bed and being read to might act as a sleep cue. And it's calm but engaging so she might wind down without getting bored.

Sorry if this is useless, mine's only 3 months so I have all this to come!

Just saw this and thought, "Ooh, that's interesting", and it's you, Bumper

I just had to straitjacket tuck DS in to the cot really tightly with a sheet to stop him thrashing about. Half the battle with him is getting him to bloody well stay still. Always has been, though - well, you know we swaddled him until 6.5 mo ... sure you can relate.

He's getting stronger every day. Bedtime's like a wrestling match

Bathtime gets him excited. We still do it though - think maybe it lets him burn off some energy. He is unfeasibly excited by books too, so bedtime story's out. Same with lullabies.

So just pinning 'em down. That's my top tip.

Count, I tie up swaddle DS as it's the only way to keep him still enough for him to get to sleep. I don't see it ending any time soon either and am reassured by someone else swaddling past the 3 month mark!

I also swaddled till the same age chopmonster, and didn't have any problems deswaddling (well, not that we'd notice what with all the other sleep issues...). Plus ca change count, non?

Will try a consistent story. Anyone know of good books for this age when they couldn't give a toss and just want to abseil down the bed to reach your phone don't understand?

We used to read DS a book called Goodnight Moon. I always thought it was quite boring but for him it was like the baby equivalent of The Da Vinci Code: he couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

It's a classic, though, and only takes three minutes or so to read.