Rolling/crawling around cot refusing to sleep

[ellie3009]

Hi all, hoping for some advice please!

My baby is 6 months old. He learned to roll about a month ago. Shortly after that he began rolling about in bed when put down for the night. Sometimes he would roll about for 40 mins before finally giving up and going to sleep.

However, things have got progressively worse, he now not only rolls about, but also gets up on all fours and tries to crawl. We give him plenty of chances and encourage him to practise this during the day, but he refuses, and only does it in cot before bed/naps. It is now routinely taking 1hr- 1hr30mins from putting him down to him being asleep. He usually only gives in and goes to sleep with aid of white noise and bouncing the mattress or patting his bum.

I always cuddle and rock him a little, and put him down quite drowsy, but as soon as his back hits the mattress he is wide wake and rolling about. This evening he was yawning non-stop so obviously tired and still took 90 mins to fall asleep.

I have tried just leaving him to it, (both sat by cot and leaving the room) thinking that he will go to sleep when he's ready, but he cries eventually, then I have to pick up, cuddle, then start all over again. (I don't believe in leaving him to cry.)

I am now a little concerned because last night he woke at 3.30 and wanted to do the same. I had to rock him back to sleep, but it took 20 mins of very enthusiastic rocking, and then I was wide awake and couldn't sleep myself.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice? How can I convince him that bedtime is not for crawling practise and reclaim my evenings?

Oh, and he is in a grobag already, makes no difference to how mobile he is!

no-one???

I'm afraid this is how they learn. They can't switch off the impulse to practise developmental leaps.

sorry, this is just a very tedious phase they go through. They also do it when they learn to sit and to stand up (and currently in my house when they are learning to climb out!)

I would start to put him down without the rocking/getting drowsy and get him settled in the cot. That way you at least cut down one of the phases. Pat his bum etc til drwosy in the cot then leave.

Go back in when he gets upset and repeat a million time until he gets the message.

I am not sure there is any short cut to this one, I'm afraid.

At around 9 months expect a phase where they stand up in the cot and can't get down again. Over and over again. Even in their sleep. They get v frustrated by this. Again, you just ride it out.

Same way that you can't sleep before a big day, the ability to self settle is overridden by the brain's insistence that they practise new skills.

Was just going to post something very similar...oh well, everything passes etc

I can really sympathise - my 10mo dd is currently on her knees, holding onto the cot bars, refusing to nap. She went through the rolling around and getting stuck stage a couple of months ago too. I lift her up and put her back down with her comforter. I then go back in every 5min to do the same if she doesn't settle. At bedtime, it's usually just one of these 'lay back down's' but y'day she refused her morning nap completely. It sounds like you've tried all this too. It only lasted a couple of weeks with our dd, and the same as yours, she didn't actually want to practice in the day.

It does pass, but v boring in the process. Perhaps rather than doing the rocking, as Queazy said, you could just lie him back down, tell him it's 'sleepy time' or whatever you usually say, and leave him - it takes quite a bit of repetition to start with, but eventually he will conk out. The rocking is taking up your precious time, and if it's not always working it isn't worth it... They do get bored of it eventually - DD went through a phase like that with crawling and standing, but the novelty didn't last more than a few days I don't think.