Suddenly not playing ball

[Sillymummies123]

Hi all,

My son is 10 months. He’s our first so have no earthly idea what we are doing at all.

Basically I would say that literally every single night since he was about 1 month we have done our story at 7pm, turned the lights out in his room, given him a bottle (he falls asleep during) and then gently put him to bed, where he sleeps soundly until 6am.

This week he has his milk, talks, is wide awake, if we put him down he either cries or does a roll, gets tuck, moans, pulls out his nasal cannula (he’s on oxygen) and then we have to spend 40 minutes rocking him into an unconscious state.

We need help!

Help us get our life back. Advice appreciated.

He's of an age now where he needs to start going to sleep where he stays asleep. The same is true for daytime naps as well as bedtime.

I would start completely separating feeding and sleeping. So have the bottle downstairs before even getting ready for bed. That then allows for brushing teeth (when they arrive) and not having anything else to drink after brushing teeth.

Then develop an in-cot settling technique so that he learns, gradually, to go from fully awake to fully asleep all in the cot.

If he can stand, teach him (during daytime play) to be able to get himself from a standing position to a lying down position on his own. If he can sit but not stand, again teach him (through daytime play) to be able to follow the instruction to lie down by himself from a sitting position.

Then get into the habit of putting him in the cot standing (or sitting if he can't stand), tapping the mattress and telling him to lie down.

You have to be a broken record about it, constantly getting him to lie back down. Up down, up down, up down- just keep being boring and repetitive and don't relent.

You might want to hold his hands in yours as he settles. This provides your reassuring touch but also helps him still and stops him pulling the cannula out.

If he's crying a dummy may help. If you don't have a dummy then use in-cot reassurances- patting, shushing or stroking. The important thing is that he learns to go yo sleep in the cot, and that you'll be there to reassure and comfort him while he does this.

We have a 9.5 month old and we have just switched our feed routine around so we do - bottle, bath, story and bed. We were told by the health visitor not to do bottle then bed because the milk collects round their teeth and can cause problems, so the bottle needs to come before brushing their teeth. Been a bit of a transition as the milk before bed used to zonk our DS our (not completely to sleep, but make him milk drunk and sleepy) but we have been doing this a few days now and it's starting to work. He was going down wide awake and would cry but now he is getting more used to it, he just rolls around a bit and then goes to sleep by himself. Might be worth swapping this around now to get him used to it, and as the pp ways, try some ways to settle him in his cot (dummy, pat and shush etx)