Help getting DD to sleep at a reasonable hour..

[aussienic]

the only suggestion I have is to go for a walk after dinner and a bath.. Maybe being outside in the open air will help her sleep.. downside is she may fall asleep in her pram..

Another option I guess is to sit by her bed and lay her down each time she stands up. and rub her back or just sit and read a book or something

good Luck.

[Ozziehoffy]

I can't offer much advice.... I know that there are times when Oskar is soooo tired as well, but won't sleep and just cries louder and louder if I dare put him down (either on my bed or in his cot)... so then as you said, that makes it even worse and harder to settle them. If Oskar is like this after about 5/10 mins I bring him back out to the lounge room and sometimes reading a book with dad helps - I allow 5/10 mins then try again. I find that the less worked up he is the better it is to put him down - so he's not associating sleep with something bad IYKWIM?

[Olive]

she certainly sounds overtired, i would be trying to get her to have an afternoon sleep much earlier than 6pm! she should be getting ready for bed at that time, i think you;ll find if she has an earlier sleep it may help at bedtime.
otherwise give her tea earlier and put her down for the night at 6pm

[bubbaloo]

Hi LisaL,

To reduce the problem of bubs falling and hitting her head, have you thought of letting her sleep in a portacot for a month or so until she is a bit more coordinated in getting back down? The sides are much softer on the head than wood!

My DS sleeps in a portacot beside my bed (with a proper mattress... There's not enough room for his real cot - expensive darn thing that still hasn't been used as I quite like having DS sleep nearby! ) and it was wonderful when he was going through that stage. Every time I put him down for a nap he would stand straight back up and fall, and back up and fall, and back up and fall (well you get the idea!) until he eventually wore himself out and fell asleep. At least with the soft sides of the portacot he wasn't hurting himself each time he fell.

Of course, changing to a different cot might just create a whole other set of problems for you...

Cheers,

[Olive]

how did you go over the course of the day today?

my DD had only one nap today (she normally has 2x 45 mins) and has just gone to bed for the night at 6.30, she's 17 months old

do you have the same bedtime routine?

[LisaL]

Hi - she went down for her afternoon nap at 3 and got up at 4.30 so that helped with bedtime. I took her to mums where she played for a while and we went for a walk, so by the time we got home, she was very tired and fell asleep while having her bottle in bed.

I find that when she has two good naps during the day, she settles at night very easily, but its the days where she doesnt nap well that she is up at all hours! I will try reading books, and feeding her tea earlier in the hope that might start to establish a new routine.

AJP - no I dont have the same bedtime routine..could that be my problem? We tend to do something different everyday - depending on what mood the little Miss is in. Hmmmm..now you have me thinking. I think I might try to keep a bedtime routine for a few days and see how that goes.

Thanks ladies

[Janie]

Hi Lis!

I agree that the routine can help. We used to be VERY hit and miss with DS's bedtime, and routine. Things are better now though, more settled.

I would think your DD is way too young to only be having one sleep, she's probably not going to sleep at night because she's overtired. Not blaming you hun, BTDT myself many a time! We recently went to sleep school (no cc) because he was so overtired and we just couldn't break the cycle. Fortunately things are looking much better now.

I would suggest that you start a night time routine, say dinner, bath, milk, book, bed. When she stands up in her cot, lie her down again - over and over. It gets very tiring, but she will eventually go to sleep. Don't stress if it's not as early as you would like - DS doesn't go to bed until somewhere between 7 and 8, which is later than alot of bubs. But it works for him, if I put him down much before 7 we just have a shocking night.

I HTHs in some way hun, I know how hard it is! Please PM me if you want any of my sleep school tips (I promise it's easy ).

[Olive]

lisa glas she had another sleep yesterday!
remember sleep creats sleep, and been overtired makes it very hard for them to settle off to sleep, they simply cant do it!
i agree that 1 sleep at 7 months isnt enough i think sophie was still having 4 at that age!! which was a little extreme i know! but she needs at least two!

like janie said id try a bedtime routine, if sophie is going to go down at 7pm we do dinner at around 5pm, bath at 6.30, boob, which now is around 30 secs then bed

we've always done the same routine, even if we miss the bath some nights, she still knows when its bedtime

goodluck with the routine and let us know how you go