My 7 month old won't settle in the evenings

[Terryann22]

Hi I was wondering if anyone has any tips/advice, my 7 month old will just not settle in the evenings. He is awake most evenings until 10.30 and that's after hours of screaming due to being over tiered. I have tried creating a routine that he will stick to which is bath, pjs,book, bottle and then bed but it doesn't seem to be working. When he was smaller I used to cradle him to sleep but as he's got older he doesn't want that anymore. Any advice/tips would be much appreciated thanks in advance.x

How does he nap in the day? Ds2 is 6.5 months and evenings are unsettled here, but that's largely down to him being used to feeding to sleep and co-sleeping so he hates sleeping in the cot in the evening until I go to bed, when he comes in with me (so it's no wonder he won't settle but am currently too tired to do anything about it as can't face prolonged wakings during the night itself!)

Ds2 naps in the pram after the morning school run and has either one or two naps after that, depending on how long he sleeps for during the first nap. Do you think your ds is getting enough sleep in the day or is it this that's making him over tired at bedtime?

And how does he fall asleep for naps and where?

What time are you starting your routine? Maybe he's overtired by the time you start? My 8 month old is usually ready for bed by 5.50.

He has about two naps in the day one in the morning for about and hour and the same in the afternoon for another hour, when he sleeps in the day he either falls asleep playing in the living room or I can put him in his cot and he will go down. The day he's much better with naps just goes down no problem, I start our routine about 5.30 after supper so he ends up being put down about 6.30 yeah he is very agitated by 6.30 so maybe I should do the routine earlier and see if that helps.

Worth a go trying an earlier start or shortening your routine! If he happily goes in the cot in the day (lucky you! ) is there anything different you do in the daytime that you could incorporate into your eve routine?