Won't settle at night Sleep

[Bruebag]

Hi All,

I have a beautiful happy 4 month old daughter who sleeps great for naps during the day in her cot but at night she falls asleep in her bouncer or in my arms but the second I put her in her cot she screams the house down??? Any suggestions??

[Lottie_nz]

Hi there,

I have a DS#1 whose 9 months old, we had this problem, we found putting him down into his cot for night time sleep, while he's semi-awake helped. The problem is that they fall asleep but when the wake up for the natural wake and sleep patterns of the human brain, they recognise that a) hey are no longer being rocked they aren't in your arms anymore and get frightened as to not knowing where they are now.

Good luck
Lottie

[chicko-e-e ding dong]

Start routines early I know it sounds cruel but she needs to learn to settle herself. Try and do the same things leading up to bed - bath bottle/breast. Then take her to bed when shes half settled or half awake so she will know her environment around her when she falls asleep instead of seeing the last picture in her mind of you holding her or when she was in a different bed as this would be unsettling for anybody when you think about it. Give her time to settle again, we all have times during a night where we awake then we go back to sleep its just that she needs the time to learn this. Also I would recomend at night time to put her in the same bedding everynight around same time so she recognises this is night time, don't be in a hurry to pick her up at night they will start to expect this all the time instead of learning to settle themselves, instead go in to reasure that you are near. Say something soothing to her like "It time to go to sleep" She will expect this, but also know that you are always there. She will gradually wean of you.This routine has help me and my bub I also tryed to get him to feed more during the day and to see what day is compared to night where he would be placed in cot. Good luck hope this was helpfull It is to me cuz by 5 months my boy was in bed sleeping by 6 -6.30pm and me and my partner could have our time, It makes sense to do routine so you can have time for yourself and it won't be as hard when hes older to put him to bed, hopefully it helps. bye

[MrsBishi]

we had that issue from about 4 mths onwards and fixed it at 6 mths by buying a routine book and following that. LIFESAVER. Essentially the premise of the book is that you need to communicate with your child. So we fixed the issue by starting a SOLID routine for bed. So at five he has dinner, then we have a really solid play session, getting a little ruckus (at 4 mths this would mean lots of rolling baby over and cuddles, and being held up high in the air) then start to settle with a bath. Lots of splashes and laughs talking and singing the whole time. Then while dressing I would give a baby massage while saying things like time to dress ready for nigh nighs. Nearly nigh nigh time. Then give bottle kisses and cuddles from mum and dad saying time for nigh nighs. walk to the bedroom, give more cuddles and kisses then give DS his dummy and sleep toy then lay him down saying shhhh nigh nigh time as i leave the room. Anytime I go into his room through the night I say NOTHING to him except shhh nigh nigh as I leave the room. Do that for 3 nights and they learn that its ok to go to bed. Also, during the day anytime i left the room i would say mummy be back so he got used to being aware of me leaving the room and coming back so he learnt to trust that when I put him in the cot he would be ok. SAD TO SAY THAT IT WAS THE BEST BOOK IVE EVER PURCHASED. We only had to make a few changes for 3 nights straight and then problem fixed.

[Trelilo]

Bruebag, on 10 March 2010 - 11:48 PM, said:

Hi All,

I have a beautiful happy 4 month old daughter who sleeps great for naps during the day in her cot but at night she falls asleep in her bouncer or in my arms but the second I put her in her cot she screams the house down??? Any suggestions??

[Trelilo]

hello there have u tried putting cushioning around bubs from her armpits down and they like 2 feel snugly wrapped keeping sure around her face is kept clear

[EmilyMigdale]

Iv had the same problem. I simply role my little girls cot back and forth to settle her and leave her once she starts to fall asleep. and if she starts up again go back in and repeat this process over and over till she passes out. i was told to try not to let her actually fall asleep to the cott being roled around, but i think even if you do its a step closer. I think in the long run the best thing is not to pick them up unless they are really distressed and try and settle them in their cott. Also just over the last week my little girl has taken to sucking her dummy to settle herself in her cott.. which i found strange because she has refused to suck on them till now. hope this helps.

Bruebag, on 10 March 2010 - 01:48 PM, said:

Hi All,

I have a beautiful happy 4 month old daughter who sleeps great for naps during the day in her cot but at night she falls asleep in her bouncer or in my arms but the second I put her in her cot she screams the house down??? Any suggestions??

[bump23]

Bruebag, on 10 March 2010 - 01:48 PM, said:

Hi All,

I have a beautiful happy 4 month old daughter who sleeps great for naps during the day in her cot but at night she falls asleep in her bouncer or in my arms but the second I put her in her cot she screams the house down??? Any suggestions??

Hi There,
All I can say is what worked for me, which was getting bub into a routine. We used the book 'Save Our Sleep' to give us some assistance in understanding how to get our daughter to self-settle and found it invaluable. We didn't follow the book verbatim but found that in particular the information it contained about how often/how long babys at different ages should be asleep gave us the confidence to get our daughter to self-settle. That said, I know it is about finding something that works for you and there are some other great comments here too - I hope you find something that works for you. Best of luck.
Emma