crying to sleep

[mylittlefidget]

help - my little girl is 16 weeks old and will not go to sleep without crying. We have tried everything- putting her in the cot asleep or half awake, letting her sleep in our arms, putting her in a sling. If we are out, she will go to sleep in her sling, but she has now started fussing at home if we try to put her to sleep in it. Nap\ Bedtime routine- I have tried but as soon as she recognises that it's "the bedtime routine", she starts screaming. It's as if she doesn't want to go to sleep. Nighttimes aren't great either but that's another story... Can anybody offer any helpful advice? It is really distressing to see her like this several times a day....

Hey there.
We had similar probs with DS when he was a couple of months old. We realised we had been keeping him awake too long and he was overtired. So we started to put him down for a nap after an hour or so or when he started to yawn, rub eyes etc, use same ritual order of doing things at naptime and things improved.
DS cried worse in the evenings and we found he really improved with having a quiet hour beforebedtime, so we turn all lights down low, speak softly and just chill out, then do bath, massage, feed and bed. He goes to bed without crying and it was such a relief cos it's so hard to listen to him crying so much.

Lolbilly, thanks for your answer. I have wondered whether she was overtired - but she barely stays awake for longer than 90 minutes, and in the mornings it is more like an hour. I try to start putting her to sleep when she starts fussing - but it's almost like the fussing signals that she is tired. And it is like clockwork - 60-75 minutes after she has woken up. Would you try putting her back to sleep even sooner?

I'm definitely no expert but we have really struggled with this. We've been following the baby whisperer routines and advice and from that it sounds like she's awake about the right amount of time but it does really vary with each baby.
Maybe she needs longer to wind down from activities in preparation for sleep. Before nap time you could try taking her to her room 10 mins before she normally gets tired and do really low key activity. We found lying on bed with DS next to us listening to classical music helped chill him out, and then he'd yawn and we'd pit him to bed. We had same prob as you that he seemed to recognise the naptime routine and would start screaming as soon as we started going up the stairs!! Taking him up before he got tired seemed to distract him from the normal crying.
Alternatively she may not be ready for sleep yet and her cries are protests that she doesn't want to nap yet. We've recently had this issue (am always confused as to whether DS is under or over tired when he cries!!). You could try extending her awake time by 10mins or so and see if that makes a difference. I did this with DS and after 3 days had seen an improvement.
It's really hard and it's trial and error.

Perhaps the crying is actually her way of getting off to sleep? My 10mo dd has always cried for a bit before she goes off to sleep, it's just one of those things. Personally I prefer 5 minutes of crying and a baby who settles herself to sleep, than a baby who needs rocking/singing/feeding to sleep. And if all else fails, this stage will pass soon!

my 7 week old is like this but a dummy soothes her - not ideal because I have to keep putting it back when it falls out, and can see problems in the future with this, but at least she will settle with it, she wont without it

My DD is exactly the same - she screams for up to an hour and a half before falling asleep through exhaustion. I've tried whisking her off to bed the second I see the first yawn, which just seems to give her more stamina to shout! Will try waiting until she looks more exhausted, as someone .suggested;

We're currently trying to perserve with the absolute same sleep routine for naps and sleeps, hopefully will see some results soon!