Wide awake at bedtime!

[WeeRosesBigRose]

Hello! I am a longtime reader of the forums but here goes my first post...

My 7 month old has a pretty good bedtime routine. We've always struggled a bit to get her to sleep, but it used to be just because she needed some more cuddles and a bit of a rock to sleep (I know, bad habits!!).

I've never minded doing that but lately the problem has been that after feeding when I try to put her down, she just seems WIDE AWAKE! She'll roll onto her front and just look up at me and grin. It's very cute and all but when it's taking up to an hour to get her sleepy, it's not so much! I KNOW she's tired as she'll have been rubbing her eyes and getting sleepy leading up to bath time. I've always tried to keep things fairly chilled so she doesn't get overstimulated.

I'm not a huge fan of controlled crying but I usually try and say goodnight then leave the room if she's still awake. I don't go back in until she properly starts crying but then try to settle her and leave the room again. It still takes numerous attempts with me getting exhausted and inevitably ends in me rocking her to sleep.

A couple times I've tried staying in the room but not making eye contact or really engaging, in the hope she'll knacker herself out and fall asleep. No joy...

Just wondering if anyone has any advice! Keep doing as I'm doing (I.e In and out of the room until she goes to sleep - bang goes my evening/dinner time)? Or try a different approach? I think I need to choose one method and try to stick to it!!

Thanks in advance. :-)

What times are her naps?

They're never at set times, but on a good day she'll have one around 9:30 for maybe an hour, then a shorter afternoon one anywhere between 1 & 3. Her afternoon feed is usually around 3:30/4pm - I don't tend to let her sleep after that if I can avoid it.

I'd love to say we have a good naptime routine, but so far it's trial and error...

I should say, she does sleep relatively well through the night, once she's down. I am thankful for that! But I do wonder, is that the trade off?! 😂 I just feel that if we could get past this, I'd be a lot less exhausted and stressed out my box to actually enjoy what evening time we have!

(I know, it could be a LOT worse. But it's taken a while to get to this point!)

We've been going through this too for the last 2 weeks. It started when DD hit 7months. I'd put her in the cot when she was drowsy, next thing she's giggling away. It has been taking over an hour for her to go down for naps and bedtime. Yesterday and today it has finally gotten a bit easier. My DD has also been a bit bunged up and waking every 2 hrs through the night so I've been going a bit stir crazy.

Aw, I feel for you! Sounds like a very similar story. That's such a shame about the constant waking too, hopefully that'll pass soon. :( Did you find that putting her to bed just got easier by itself?

It sounds like she's not having enough daytime sleep and so she is probably overtired when you put her down.
At 7 months they do need at least 3 hours of naps if possible. If she wakes at 3pm from the second nap then you'd do a 6.30 or 6.45 bedtime.

Thanks! She's never been great at daytime naps, but much better now. Occasionally gets a good 2 hours in the morning but afternoons are always more difficult. Will try encouraging more naps and see if that makes a difference!

I think my DD is possibly transitioning from 3 naps to 2, and this weekend has been having a longer second nap which seems to help. Today for example she had 40mins at 9am, then 2.5 hrs at 12, and no afternoon nap. She did stir after an hour but I managed to rock her back to sleep. Whereas she was having three naps of about an hour. She went to sleep by 6.45 today rather than 7.30 which is her usual time. I'm worried now she'll be up super early tomorrow though! The other thing I've noticed is she has started sleeping on her side, so I've been putting her down on her side.

Sorry I can't give much advice, I'm just winging it! I Hope things settle for you soon.

Ha! I think most of my parenting style is just based on winging it! 😂 I guess it just is what it is! Good luck with your lo, hope her routine settles too. :)