Why will DS settle happily in his cot for naps but not at bed time?

[lrb1982]

DS2 will be 7 mo on Sunday. He has two naps per day in his cot and is put down awake and quickly falls asleep. But bed time is a nightmare. He will only fall asleep on the boob or being rocked and then wakes up after 20 to 40 mins and needs settling to sleep again. This pattern uduslly repeats itself for about 3 hours. We want our evenings back now! Has anyone had the same problem and found a solution? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Also he still wakes 2 or 3 times between 11p and 7am but will feed and then happily settle in his cot again afterwards so it is only bedtime which is an issue.

Sounds like he's overtired by the end of the day, so needs some extra help to wind down - very normal!

Could he be overtired? If you tried putting him down a bit earlier would it make any difference? Ds has never been able to settle if he goes down too late.

X post!

Or of course the other answer is that his daytime naps need cutting down so he is more tired at bedtime. Always tricky working out which one it is... [comfused]

Doh

Thank you for your replies. I did wonder if he was overtired so tried moving his afternoon nap later but that didn't make a difference so I should try moving bed time forward. My main challenge is then what to do with his two yr old brother...put him to bed earlier as well or persuade him to watch cbeebies while the bedtime battle commences?! Should I just try putting him down an hour early or gradually bring it forward by 15 mins per night? I feel too brain dead to work out the best way!!

I would make any changes gradually, stick at it for a good few days, to see if there is a difference.

What are his current nap times? Maybe there's a different way you could structure them?

He normally naps at 10am for an hour and a half, sometimes 2 hours then I've been trying to wait til 2.30 to put him down again. He will usually have another 45 min to 1 hr then.

Doing it gradually sounds easier as DS1 is dropping his nap most days so would prob benefit from an earlier bedtime too!

Could you reverse the times, so wake him after 45 mins in the morning, and make the lunchtime one earlier and a good 2 hours? That would help to carry him through better to the end of the day I think. You'd need to persevere for a week or so to get him used to a different pattern.

That's a really good idea, thank you. I will give it a try & persevere for a while! Thanks.

Good luck! It's so nice when they're older and you don't have to worry about micromanaging sleep!