Bedtime taking 3 hours - depressed

[CoonRapids]

Am having a momentary depression around bedtime in our house. Have ds 5, dd 3 and a 4mo. It's taking from 6 to 9pm to get them all to sleep at the moment. The two older children are fine. Once they've gone to bed at around 7 and 7.45 they don't reappear.

But the baby who is EBF is taking from at least 8pm to 9pm to breast feed and settle, feed again and resettle in the cot.

We co-sleep for most of the night (once I'm in bed and after he's woken for his first night feed). Then during the day he sleeps in the pram and sling as we're always to-ing and fro-ing with the older ones. So he's not v. used to sleeping in the cot.

I'm wondering whether to give up trying to settle him in the cot in the evenings for now and have him downstairs cuddling/sleeping/feeding until we go to bed.

I'm just a bit fed up of having no evening but guess that's babies for you!! He's currently screaming as DH is trying to settle him to no avail so best go....

Help!!

i would DEFINITELY give up on cot and just have him downstairs tbh
do you have a moses basket or something you could have downstairs, so if he does fall asleep you can put him in it?
may not work at first, but if you keep doing it he might get used to it, if not at least you have a sofa to use! lol

Thanks, feeling better now! He's now downstairs reclined in his chair . Will try the moses basket again as well though. So easy for a 3rd to be an 'attached to mum' baby as there's no time to instill 'good' sleep habits. I think back to the large amount of time I spent on baby whispering pick-up put-down with ds1. ds2 will probably be sleeping in our bed until he's at least 5 lol...

Poor you, you're obviously going through a tricky patch. I know exactly. Thinking of you and think the Moses basket suggestion a good one.