5 month old won't settle in cot

[Auster]

Dear All, We have a 5 month old who happily slept in a Moses basket. We moved her to a cot in her own room recently - the first 2 nights were fine, but the last 2 nights she hasn't settled at all - crying and shouting, etc. She is also more irritable during the day, and not 'herself'. Any ideas or advice?

Could you put her in the basket in the cot to get her used to the new room/being alone first?

The day time irritability could be because she's not sleeping well.

how's the room temperature? we're having some of the same trouble and i'm sure its the heat

When we were moving DS from the basket in to the cot we did what Soupdragon has sugested for about a week or so and he was perfectly happy after that to just be popped in his cot.

I found that getting dd used to her cot at times other than sleep time helped. When she was small I used to lie her in her cot to play with her toys for an hour or so every morning. It allowed me to get on and tidy up etc (I never left the room for more than 2 minutes and always spoke/sang to her as I was moving around) and also seemed to make her more happy to be put down at sleep times/night.

Thanks for all these messages. It's cooler tonight, and she's gone down more easily. We will try the basket in the cot if things get worse - annoyingly, she seems happy to sleep in the cot in the daytime! Also, she was only in a vest last night, and we think now she might have felt a bit insecure. It's hard sometimes to remember that dd has her moods too!

Have you tried Grobags - the baby sleeping bags? I think they are fantastic for sleeping and are my 'best buy' for DS.

You can get 0.5 tog ones and DS has been sleeping in these in just his nappy. They signify 'sleep time' for him and he will be taking his to the childminders to have his naps in.

If you're interested, kiddicare.com had them on offer last time I looked.