7mo with a zest for evenings

[rachelracket]

How do you convince your baby to go to sleep? my 7mo has been a hopeless sleeper and has laughed in the face of every single routine or technique I have tried to implement for about the last 2-3 months (go figure) but now he is so sodding impressed with his new found surfing skills that he is forgetting to get sleepy altogether . right now he is examining the nappy bin, and generally quite cheerfully crashing about his bedroom floor. he got up at 8am and he's napped for about 2 hours today (he's also a hopelessly light sleeper i seriously have never been able to get him to sleep with anything other than booby ever) (1130-1300 and 1700-1730 appx). but if i try to lie him down and feed him he will just shove me off and crawl away to go and investigate something or practice standing. he's had a bath. i need something stronger than a bedtime story. he is absolutely hyper it's like he cannot be still!!

It's difficult to tell from your post precisely what outcome you are looking for.

Do you want to sleep training to get better sleep habits? Are you looking to get baby sleeping in a cot? Or cosleep more easily?

well FATE! currently we co-sleep which is fine... ish. getting him into the cot is i suppose an issue for another day. but tonight and all week he's just pushing his bedtime later and later. for a start i would like him to go to bed at a reasonable time but this hyperactivity since he learnt to pull up and sit is something else. he just wants to use me like a climbing frame all day long.

normal procedure is to feed to sleep then i slip away for as long as i am able before he wakes up at which point we repeat this process. but he's usually in bed asleep by 1930!

This active phase is always difficult in terms of sleep.

You may need your physically hold him still, in a kind if firm cuddle that makes him understand that he must stay still and relax.

that's an interesting idea. i may have to ride out some proper tantrums but frankly i'm starting to think that is inevitable if i'm ever going to have a child who sleeps like everyone else's child seems to. he has now gone to sleep and i did quite literally (getting impatient with him) just repeatedly pick him up and return him to lying next to me several times quite firmly , as he tried to throw himself off the end of the bed to go and carry on exploring the very exciting upstairs landscape.

I notice from your it her thread that you are considering controlled crying?

In that case, it sounds like you are not looking for Google ways to support feeding your sleep. Is that right?

If sleep training us your thing, then I would look to doing everything all and changing these sleep habits in knew go. There are gentler ways to do it than cc though. But it would mean stopping feeding your sleep and cosleeping to get baby into the cot. You can't do cc while cosleeping.

hi fate i've just written a little disclaimer on the other thread re CC tl;dr I'm not planning anything yet just searching out ideas/anecdotes, essentially. I'm overwhelmed by all the different sleep issues we have going on in this house tbh

Dropping the 5pm nap would immediately solve the problem I suspect!

It sounds like he’s perfectly happy and healthy? My 10 month old has always laughed in the face of routine as well but around the 7-8 month mark she actually decided 7pm was bedtime and that was that! Can you wait it out a bit? It sounds like you’re overthinking it a bit (in the nicest way!)