Gap between last nap and bedtime?

Ok I've jinxed myself!!! (hollye - you'll know what I'm talking about..)

DD for the last 3 nights has been a shocker to put to bed..
Her day sleeps are still wonderful. She makes it look easy to put her to sleep and I get the "ahh she is too easy, I don't believe she screams at night", kinda comments.. But let me tell you!!!

The night before NYE she was up till almost 11pm and just wouldn't go to sleep!! I eventually gave her a quick 60ml (only drunk half) and she finally nodded off.. But that was almost an hour of screaming..

NYE we went to a friends place and she had a sleep about 7pm (I know I shouldn't have let her go down as it was too late) but she slept till about 8pm and then got up. I figured that she'd then go down about 10pm, maybe 10.30pm latest..

WELL.......

She fought and fought and just wouldn't. I tried a bottle again, twice!! And eventually I got her off to sleep just before 11pm. But I spoke too soon, about 11.50pm she woke and managed to watch the NY fireworks on TV with us all!!

When we got home about 1am she went straight into bed, no problems, went to sleep. Woke about 20 minutes later and cried out even though she had her dummy. I left her. She repeated about 20 minutes later again and by 2am she was finally asleep..

Now tonight I tried a new approach. We were at my parents place for a BBQ so she went for a nap about 5.30pm. She got up at 6.30pm so I said that she would have to stay awake till about 9pm when it would be bed time. (9pm would suit best if I was to get her into a set bedtime).. 8:50pm arrived and she'd had a little bit of another bottle, she was showing tired signs at 8pm but we kept up the entertainment and got her through. We jumped in the car, 10 mins ride home she fell asleep in the car. Got her out at home, wrapped her up, gave her medicine (she has an ear infection) and then into bed. NO GO.. Needless to say, screaming, rocking and another bottle later, it's now 10.30pm and she is finally asleep. I resorted to sitting on a chair in her room and rocking her then I put her into the bed right as she was still just awake but the eyes were closing..

I do not understand why she does this at her bedtime. She is such a good settler during the day. I don't have to do anything, no rocking, no patting, no nothing.. I don't think this is related to her current ear infection as she has done this before she started sleeping through and then it stopped when she got her new sleep routine worked out.

I thought 3-3.5 hours awake between her last nap and bedtime would help her to go to sleep.. We had this happen about a month ago and she just all of a sudden stopped it but now it's back.

How long does everyone elses' bubba's go between their last nap and bedtime???

Does anyone have ANY suggestions???? If she was playing up like this during her day sleeps then I'd understand but I can't see what is so different about bedtime that she plays up. Baring in mind that when she is screaming, if I pick her up then she stops straight away.. Put her back down, cries again.

I think it's pretty normal to have a particular time of day that is harder. DS goes to sleep much easier in the morning than the afternoon.

I wouldn't worry too much about what happened with her sleeping on NYE/at a BBQ - because she was up late & out of routine. Also, if she is sick at the moment, her sleeping is likely to be affected.

But, I would say that 3.5 hours is a long time for a 4 month old to be up. Is it possible that she is getting overtired? At that age, I don't think DS went much more than 2-2.5 hours between sleeps. How many day sleeps does she have? How long between sleeps?

Ashton goes to bed at 5 and wakes at 8/9ish for booby then straight back to bed. He then sleeps until 12ish when I get him from his cot and bring him to bed with me for a dream feed then he sleeps again. So really from 5pm he is asleep with the exception of that feed at 8/9ish.

At your childs age we never used to let them sleep past 4pm....in bed for 7-730pm.Even now, when the younger two go down for a nap, i make sure they are up by 330pm, so as ready for sleep by the tme 7pm comes around.

I know when our girls are disrubted with their sleeping patterns, like they have been over Xmas and NY, it takes a few nights to get back in the rhythm of things again...

Good luck.

If she's sick, its very likely that is the cause...

Jazz has been fighting sleep since midday (been up since 10am). She's not even asleep right now, but she's in bed and not screaming so I got out of there before she saw me and started up again!

She started a bit ealier today (normally this sleep is a breeze) but its fairly typical behaviour for our afternoons (mornings and nights are easiest, afternoons are a nightmare!). She usually goes about 4-5 hours between her lunchtime sleep to bedtime (7pm) but is up at least 3 times at night (well we co-sleep so not UP but wakes and needs to be resettled... which i'm told by these lovely mums is very normal).

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when she is screaming, if I pick her up then she stops straight away.. Put her back down, cries again.

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Unfortunately thats very normal too... instinctual actually... and could be more frequent right now because of her ear infection.

DD has her afternoon sleep at about 12ish and wakes about 2/2.30pm at the mo, but wont last till bed time at 6pm so we normaly have a lie down feed and we both snooze for half an hour at about 4pm. she sleeps fine when i put her down. If we miss the snooze she is beside her self come 5/5.30 so ends up in bed early and awake too early in the morning...4am! I couldnt imagine her being awake for longer than 2 1/2 hours in one go at the mo...3 hours is the longest she has stayed awake for and she isnt happy about it! Harder to get her to sleep when she is over tired.

Like the other ladies said, if she is ill that wont help...hope she is feeling better soon! And with the disruption of xmas/NY will probably take a while to get back to normal! We went out xmas day night and she had a sleep at 5pm for an hour and didnt go to home and into bed till 9.30pm...screamed when i put her down and woke up about 4 times! but has settled back in to her normal pettern again now!

Ok well i've taken the "over tired" advice on board and when I think about it, her bedtime is the ONLY time during the day that I don't really take her queue as to when she wants to sleep.

So..... Tonight she went down about 6pm after a bath and bottle and she slept till 7pm. She got up and was in a terrible mood so I gave her a bottle. She started carrying on with it and fussing so I snuggled her in close (she normally feeds on a pillow as I have a bad back/neck) and she ended up finishing the entire bottle (I normally cannot get her to have 2 x 120ml bottles within an hour of each other, she normally cluster feeds somewhat at this time of night). She was half asleep by the end of the bottle so I wrapped her up and she is now asleep and it's 7:35pm!!!!!!!!! Normally I would have tried to keep her up now till bedtime but I'll see what she does instead.

If she has another 1 sleep cycle and wakes around 8.30pm then I'll get her up and give her another feed and try the same thing again, e.g. not keep her up if she seems tired. Hopefully this might be the answer!!! I'd love it if she'd go to sleep at this time instead of 9-10pm!!!

Fingers & toes crossed!!

P.S. I might have to try to dream feed her around 10pm as I need to give her antibiotics (3 times a day) and last one was 3pm so should be around 9-10pm that she has the last lot for today. OR, if she wakes again in 1 sleep cycle I'll sneak it in with that feed.

Yay! I hope tonight is better for you :)

We have a winner!!!
Last night was wonderful!!! She woke after about an hour and a half. Got up and had another bottle, little play on her mat and within 35 minutes was back in bed ALL WITHOUT even a cry.. It was EXACTLY like her day time sleeps and she didn't protest at all.

Tonight has been the same although we have been down the coast all day but I just timed the drive home so that after her dinner when she was ready to go straight back to bed we got in the car and she went to sleep. Now we are home, she had a little play again and now back in bed. Without screaming!!!

I'm kicking myself that i didn't think of this earlier and have no idea WHY i was treating her bedtime any different to the rest of the day. Between 6pm and 9.30pm she is now having 2 x 1 cycle naps..

Aaahhhhh such a change..