In desperate need of help to get 6mo to go to sleep for the night

[Miss E]

My DS has always been very good at self settling. However, over the last month or so it has become increasingly difficult to get him to go to sleep at night. His day sleeps are great, he will self settle 9 times out of 10 without even a grizzle. But come bedtime it is on for young and old. We have a really solid bedtime routine (bath, book, cuddle/song and then into bed when he is snuggly), but it seems to me that he knows it is the end of the day and simply doesn't want it to be.

So I need your help in finding a way to get him to go to sleep. Usually we'll pop him in bed and he'll chatter away to himself for anywhere between 5 and 20 mins (exactly as he does during the day before he goes to sleep), then he'll start crying. So we get him out of the cot and give him a cuddle (only way he will stop crying, patting etc doesn't work anymore) and settle him back down till he is snuggling again. But then the minute we put him back in the cot he is screaming. So most nights we have ended up rocking him to sleep (sometimes after an hour or more of up and down). When he is really over tired and exhausted I can feed him to sleep, but generally speaking it just doesn't work for us (we've always done feed, play, sleep, so a feed seems to energise him).

Is the only answer to just accept that he needs to be rocked to sleep at night and just start doing it every night, or do you wonderful ladies have any other ideas that could work? TIA

[*Infinity*]

We've had a similar experience this week with DS, and he's at a similar age I think to your DS Miss E. I think our problem surfaced after we broke his bed time routine a few nights in a row (being out for xmas things etc) that stuffed him up and he got all confused. We had 3 or 4 nights of really bad bed time carry on - basically he just wanted to stay up and party LOL!

Having said that though, it did occur to me reading your post that maybe your DS *knows* his bed time routine so well that he's predicting it, and consciously objecting to going to bed. At this age they are so much more aware of what is happening around them, I think they cotton on to what we're up to and are starting to get cheekier! So, maybe you can try and trick him a bit.....i.e. don't follow the normal routine and see what happens? We've tried it and it seemed to work last night thankfully. We basically lengthened out the time he was awake, switched his bath to much later, rather than earlier and it seemed to work. I read to him a bit more (I read him 6 books) and we did it sitting on his play mat to sort of trick him into thinking it was playtime when it was sorta helping him wind down IYKWIM?

The nights that were really difficult I just went with it rather than getting too stressed about it. If he was going to fight me so hard, I wasn't going to persist. We just got him up and played with him some more until he was tired enough. Eventually he had to konk out! I genuinely think that they simply develop more capacity for awake time so its adjusting to that as well.

Mostly for our day sleeps DS will self-settle really well, but 9 times out of 10 at night, its still feed until drowsy then cuddle & pat to sleep in my arms and then into the cot. That works for us so I'm happy doing it.

Good luck, HTH

[BekZ]

We've had these challenges too. Although it is every sleep for my little miss.

What I would do in your case. Keep your routine and keep persisting, eventually he'll get it. Additionally I would put him down in the usual manner, then if he doesn't settle I would comfort him. For us holding DD until she is 3/4 gone helps. Then I put her down on her side and pat her bottom until she falls to sleep. If she wakes again I'll repeat the process or offer boob. hth

[Miss E]

Thanks ladies! I think we might try mixing up the routine tomorrow night and see if that helps things along. DH rocked him to sleep tonight, it was so nice to be able to eat dinner before 9pm!

[MantaRay]

I was also going to suggest mixing up the routine - or try putting down a bit later. Doing the bath last thing before bed can help. GL.

[Fleur]

hmm, no advice sorry
I was going to start a similar thread tonight
For us it has been the last week or two, daytime sleeps are better but still not great.

Good luck here's hoping for a magic bullet huh

[beckoes]

DD settled on her own some times when she was a few months old, then went to having to be rocked to sleep, sometimes i would be in there till 9.30!!! this basically went on till she was about 12 months (from about 7 months) when we dropped the second day sleep and now she is fast asleep by 7.30pm at the latest. We do feed to sleep, but sometimes she will be happy to go in her cot after the feed and will go to sleep if i just have my hand on her tummy.
I think its a good idea to change this around a little, they grow so fast and what worked for them when they were 4 months suddenly doesnt work at 6 months. Thats what i found anyway. Good luck!