Help getting DD to sleep at a reasonable hour..

[Emma1979]

i second taking her outside and getting fresh air... it does seem to tire them out....

it works a treat with my 13month dd, we take her outside to play on the slide, sandpit, cubby, grass, whatever, all the fresh air and excitement of exploring somewhere so different from the boring loungeroom seems to really exhaust her... obviously at 8 months you can't do the same thing, but maybe a rug outside on the grass with some crawling and exploring the texture of the grass, point out the trees and different objects and she will learn the names of things and develop language and start to point at the objects when you ask her to... also, have you tried swimming - another trick to exhaust them... maybe a splash in the local heated pool and then home for an afternoon nap... who knows worth a shot!!

good luck, it gets easier!!

[LisaL]

Hi ladies,

Thanks for the advice. Well we had some luck and she was going down at around 8.30-9.30 for a few days, but the last few days have become crazy again. Yesterday she refused to sleep all day, by 4pm a very frustrated me took her for a walk. Sure enough she fell asleep in the pram and slept for 2 whole hours, but again she wouldnt go down at night. She finally fell asleep at around 10.30pm. I know she is overtired, but she just fights the sleepiness, so I feel like im back at square one.

Emma - im going to try the park thing tomorrow. I took her out for a few hours today (to mums and the shops) and she managed to fall asleep tonight without too much trouble, and she had two naps today.

She has also become very clingy these last two days, she doesnt want me out of her site, as soon as i leave the room she screams her head off. She has been a bit fluey and was vomitting tonight so maybe she is coming down with something?

Oh I dont know, I just need some rest LOL!

[mihnister]

how did you go with the bedtime routine / ritual?

my baby is younger than yours so this might not apply. he is 5 months now.

but

it used to take up to an hour of constant rocking to get him to bed at night; sometimes two hours, with a few attempts at feeding-to-sleep thrown in. (this was at 4 months)
Then,
I implemented a set bedtime and a routine of bath, pyjamas, feed, story, wrap, lights out, music on, cuddle, cot. And stuck to a target of a 6:30-7pm bedtime every night. I even woke him up for the bedtime routine! At "official bedtime", i would not give up on getting him to sleep even if it took hours. After "official bedtime", all wakings were either resettle-to-sleep or, feed then straight to bed - no playtime. I got this idea for implementing bedtime from the no-cry sleep solutions book.

After 1-2 weeks of this, the nighttime struggles stopped. No more evening crying sessions.

Maybe he grew out of it, but I think it was the routine.