Help getting DD to sleep at a reasonable hour..

[LisaL]

Hi, my cheeky DD is 7mo and has started to go down at night between 10 -11pm. She used to go down around 8.30-9pm, but since she was teething about a month ago, her routine has goen out of wack. A typical day goes something like this
8.00am - Wake up/brekky/ small play
9.30 Nap
11.00am - wake, play, eat etc

Somedays she has an afternoon nap, other days she wants to nap at 6pm.

THen she has dinner, bath etc and just refuses to sleep even though she is tired and shows the normal tired signs and starts to get delirious.

I try putting her down but she just plays in bed, and stands up now so when tired she is continuously falling over and bumping her head so then that creates more drama. She goes to sleep on her own but we cant do controlled crying as she jumps up and down in her cot, falls over, hurts herself and then becomes hysterical. I dont want her bangig her head on the cot every night just so I can get her to sleep.

Im going nuts, dont know what to do to help her get down earlier. I have tried to put her down in my bed and comfort her, tried rocking her in my arms, tried the pram, but she just cries and wants to stand up and dance. So I have to play with her until she is at the point where she just cant fight anymore, and this can take up to 2 hours.

Last night she went down at 11 and was up at 6.30 this morning, I gave her milk and we had a little cuddle and now she is having a nap.

TIA

[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