Day naps fine, crying before night sleep.

Hi All

DS has just started going to sleep in the daytime fairly easily and staying asleep for 1-1.5 hours for 2 naps per day. He generally has a nap at about 8:30/9am and then another one at about 12:30/1pm.

My problem is at night - we have a routine of dinner, bath, cuddle, bed but lately he's been screaming for around 45 mins before he goes to sleep (during this time I'm doing what I can to settle him). I think he may be overtired because of the big gap between his afternoon nap and bed time at night.

Any ideas for dealing with this? He won't have a 3rd nap later in the day and he doesn't sleep in the pram or car so they're both out of the question.

:help:

I assume you're giving him a milk feed at dinner time? I ask because there wasn't a mention of boob/bottle in your bedtime routine - maybe he's a bit hungry and might want a bit more milk at bedtime? If you're breastfeeding, breastmilk is designed to put babies to sleep so that can be an effective way to help facilitate sleep. Bottle-feeding can also induce sleep, with warm milk, sucking, cuddles in mummys arms.

The other thing I was thinking that maybe he's getting overtired - so I think you've answered your own question :) Perhaps bring the bedtime routine forward by half an hour or more, just see how he goes? Some babies are contented and will just fall asleep when tired, others need to be actively "put to sleep" before they get too tired, or else they are too tired to sleep, if that makes sense!

Sounds like a stressful situation for all involved, hope you can find a solution very soon *hugs*

Sorry - forgot to say that he has a bf before dinner. Tried to put him to bed last night about half an hour earlier but we still had 45 mins of crying *sigh*. He was rubbing his eyes during dinner but I can't think of what else to do unless I put him to bed at 5:30pm. I wouldn't mind that except that he sleeps for 12 hours at night (almost exactly) so he'd be up at 5:30am :wall:.

I'm sure things will change in time...they always do.

Thanks for the advice :)

what a rude little boy!! haha joking hun, its very frustrating when u try all u can to settle them and they flat our refuse it!
perhaps one night put him down at 530pm when he's tired and deal with the early start and keep him up and put him down at his regular nap time in the morning, wake him up after an hour and a half(whatever his normal nap length is) then by the time his afternoon nap comes along, he'll either sleep for longer and then be awake longer of a night or u could wake him up again after his usual nap length and attempt a later afternoon nap. i dont know worth a shot anyway!!
good luck

My DD has been doing this (getting progressivly worse) for almost a year now. I've had no luck!

Def. try an earlier bed time or making the naps a little later in the day if you can and see how that goes.

I'm off to a parenting session on sleeping tonight! Hopefully it will give me some answers!

Goodluck Hun!

Would he go back to sleep after his first BF in the morning? This would stretch out his day sleeps. DD usually falls asleep after her 7am feed until 8-8.30am, then naps at 11am-ish and 3pm-ish. This is all fairly variable, but bedtime is 7pm and if all is going well she's easy to put down then. When she's over tired I just put her to bed at 6pm and she still sleeps until 7am, this isn't a solution for everyday though..

Otherwise when DD is unsettled at bedtime I just sit on the chair in her room (so it's quiet) and feed her until she falls asleep, it can take a while but eventually it works...

Good luck :D

BM - I also used to find that afternoon gap was too big as well, so most days I took DS for a walk in his pram - even if it was only 15 minutes. He would either have a bit of a power nap or just happy to lay there. Otherwise he would be too overtired by bedtime.

I do take him for a walk in the pram in the afternoon which does help keep him happy until bed time.

Will try getting him back to sleep after his first wake up at 6:30am.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions :p