5 month old screaming when put to bed!!

[KatieRabbit]

My normally quiet DD has taken to screaming when ever we lay her in the cot during the day or at night. She normally just has a pat on the bottom (10 secs) then is off to sleep herself in the next 10-15 mins quietly. The past 10 days has been very different. She cries her eyes out when she touches the mattress. Have tried tummy and back to no avail. Just won't settle at all. She is fed, changed, burped, etc etc Don't think teething as she only cries in the cot- not lying on the lounge floor or being carried around. When I pick her up she continues the crying and is most tricky to settle.
Any ideas would be grateful....

[~Trish~]

Hi Deirdre, it's annoying when they change the rules on you isn't it?!

Could you try rocking/jiggling your DD to make her drowsy before putting her down. I used to do this with my DS2, he would be almost asleep, then I'd put him down and he'd drift off by himself. I had to do this less and less as he got older and now I can put him down with a quick cuddle and wide awake.

Sorry, that's all I can suggest! I hope she starts sleeping well again for you soon

[Fig]

My DD started crying like that when she was about 4 months. It got to the stage where she would start crying as soon as we walked into her bedroom. One of the things that helped was that we stopped wrapping her, and put her in a grow bag.

We also introduced a settling time in her room out of the bed. We made sure she was changed etc, put her in her sleeping bag, then we sat in a chair and read her a book, before putting her into bed. For the first couple of months we only read the exact same book, everytime, before every sleep. It was amazing and still is working now 5 months on, except that we now read different books.

Maybe something like this could help.

[PinkPalace]

Deidre

DD's routine changed around this age.
I found that she screams because she wasnt ready for bed.

Lately i have cut out a sleep in the afternoon - she gets grizzly but i take her for a walk or something relaxing instead and then she is ready for her sleep.

If she goes down for a 2nd sleep then she is up half the evening not wanting to go to bed yet?

[KatieRabbit]

Thanks ladies!
Trish- she is sometimes very drowsy when I am puttingher down and bing! the eyes spring open and she screams or else, the eyes stay shut and she screams!
Fig- I may try the book idea. She is in a grobag and we have a little routine at night but doesn't help at the minute. It worked a treat before this started.
PP- I have tried keeping her up (3 hours) to make sure she was tired and I have put her down when she shows tired signs and even after being awake one hour in the morning and she still does it. The last 2 nights she has gone very quielty at 7pm as normal then woken about 2 hours later screaming until I pick her up. Then at 10 I give her a feed and that has settled her once but not the other time!
Yes, it is frustrating and I am know that it will pass. Just don't want to pick up not so good habits on the way- ie picking up, feeding to sleep, playing at night...