6 month old not settling to sleep

[CharleytheFrenchPoodle]

I'm sure this has been asked many, many times, but does anyone have any ideas as to how to help settle a baby for sleep? My DD is nearly 7 months old and up until a couple of weeks ago went to sleep no problem. We had moved her to her cot without a hitch, and had established what I thought was a good bedtime routine. I would put her down when she was sleepy and she would settled herself and fall asleep with hardly a murmur. For the past couple of weeks or so however, she has been crying, moaning, shuffling around her cot and it can take up to 2 hours for her to get to sleep. I've been putting her down as usual when she seems to be tired (rubbing eyes, quieting down, yawning) but when she gets in her cot and I or DH would leave the room, within 10 minutes the whinging will start and she will get progressively more worked up to the point of loud crying. At the moment, we've been going in, shushing and soothing her until she quietens down. If she doesn't stop crying we have been picking her up to calm her, then putting her down, but she'll often start crying again. By the time she does go to sleep she's exhausted because of all the effort it's taken!
Once she is asleep, she is usually fine and will sleep through until the morning. She is also fine for naps, and will settle herself without a problem, it just seems to be bed time that she's struggling with.
Can anybody help with advice or ideas? TIA

Anyone?

What are her naps like? Is it possible she's overtired?

I wonder if she is actually overtired by the time you put her down. You say she goes down when you see her rubbing eyes, yawning etc - I think by then it is actually too late. You are then one step away from melt down - and this is then playing out with her getting frustrated and crying. Try bringing things forward by 30 minutes maybe? Does she have a set bedtime or do you wait for the 'sleep cues'?

We try to have a set bed time of 8pm but am wondering if this is part of the problem and we need to change it. Her routine looks like this:
7am bottle
8am porridge
9-10am nap
11am bottle
12pm lunch
1-2.30ish nap
3pm bottle
7

Ahh sorry
4.30-5.30 nap
7ish bed time routine bath/bottle/story/ quiet time then bed between 7.30 and 8pm

I do wonder about the late afternoon nap and whether I should try dropping that and bringing her bedtime forward? Maybe I haven't been reading her cues properly and she is overtired. She seems fine until I leave the room then it's tears almost straight away.

At that age my DDs routine was exactly as you describe except her lunch time nap was maybe 12-2 then her afternoon nap was 4.30- 5, bath at 6 then in bed asleep for 7. Perhaps you could try that, maybe she is getting a bit overtired by 8?
Good luck.

Yup I'd second bringing forward bed time by an hour. The last nap of the day is the first to go, so I would keep it short and aim to have her sleep from 4.30 until 5pm and no later. I got to the point where my dd was napping for maybe 15 mins at that age in the late afternoon. She eventually didn't need it. Try if you can to string out the after lunch nap for two hours. Then in the evening I'd do something like this:

4.30-5pm - nap (could start as early as 4, but don't let her sleep later than 5)
Between 5.30- 6 - dinner
Start bath time between 6-6.15.
Milk, stories, quiet time etc from 6.30 and then in bed for 7.

Right that all sounds doable.....as long as she plays along will definitely try shortening the evening nap and bringing her bedtime forward and see how that goes. Thanks for the advice all

Just to let you know that we tried this tonight- nap 4-5, bath at 6, bottle 6.30, bed at 7 and it worked! She cried for about 2 minutes after I'd left the room then began to settle and by 7.15 was fast asleep. I'm not going to get carried away as it may all go wrong tomorrow (or later tonight!) but at least tonight has been a massive improvement on the past couple of weeks so thank you!
Can I just ask- am going to introduce food next week at tea time. She already has breakfast and lunch and loves it, but just want to know,how on earth you fit in all the meals, whilst ensuring you have enough gaps between to make sure they are taking enough milk? I would think her new afternoon routine would go something like;
12pm lunch
12.30-2.30 nap
3pm bottle
4/4.30-5pm nap
5pm tea
6.30 bottle
7pm bed

It just seems to be a lot of food and milk to pack into the afternoon and evening! I suspect she will be dropping her 11am bottle at some point, but am keen on making sure she has a good bottle at bed time at least and just wonder if she'll be hungry enough for it at 6.30.
I'm aware I should probably ask this on the weaning board, but thought I might ask since I already have this thread up and running

I read your thread as have a 4month old whose naps are a bit sporadic. I think the current issue is that he seems to only sleep for 45/60 mins at a time. How did you get her to sleep longer?
My older ds wasn't a good sleeper, so i am trying to get it right this time. I do however remember when i started weaning it was full on for a bit whilst all we seemed to do was sleep, eat, tidy up after eating and then breastfeeding. Full on chaos, it does get better, and i remember clearly we went on holiday when he was 9/10 months and he ate so well he just shared our food and only breastfed morning and evening.

It does seem to be full on at the moment, there just doesn't seem to be time in the day for all the feeding and napping I just don't know how she'll be hungry enough for it all!

Nap-wise, it can be hit and miss. The routine I described is her 'ideal' but she doesn't always follow this. I've noticed she seems to sleep in 45 minute cycles and if she's not tired enough, she'll wake after almost 45 minutes on the dot. She did have a spell of doing this around 4/5 months but has improved with this since (and now bed times are the struggle!) If she does wake I do often leave her for a bit to see if she'll settle herself again and just keep an eye on her on the monitor. A lot of the time she will do, and go off for longer, or I'll occasionally go in and shush her. I've learnt with her morning nap to keep her going until 9am, as she's then tired enough for a good nap, and the same with the afternoon one. It was the late afternoon one we were struggling with and thinking now this has probably had an impact on her bed time. Ironically, I find it quite easy to spot when she's tired during the day and am more confident about when to put her down for naps than I am at her bed time. No idea why

I have learnt with her that she can generally only stay awake for about 2 and a half hours before needing sleep and that length of time seems to lead to good naps. But honestly, besides that, and leaving her to try and settle herself for longer, I haven't done much else....which I suppose isn't very helpful
Of course, all of this goes to pot if we go out for the day. She cat naps in her buggy at best so the ideal routine only works if we're not really out and about much during the day!

Hi Charley,
Sounds good, I am glad you got through it.

As for introducing a 3rd meal, yes your schedule sounds about right. It will seem a bit weird as she will literally be waking at just before 5 and the you will be doing dinner at 5, but that gives her time to get over dinner and then have the milk at 6.30 and ensure she is sufficiently hungry for it. Once she drops the 4.30 nap which could be any time from 8 months onwards, then you can relax dinner time to 5.30 just making sure you leave an hour between dinner and the final bottle.

Keep it up!

Thanks for the advice blueberry It's still going well at bedtime which is great and have introduced a little bit of food around 5pm, which doesn't seem to have affected her bedtime bottle too much. Fingers crossed it carries on like this!