8/9mo. old crawls and stands instead of falling asleep

[Elsa50501]

So my (almost) 9 month old, since learning to crawl has decided that if it's time for a nap, or time for bed, it is actually time to crawl and stand up.

At daycare she is put in a pack-n-play playpen for naps. They put her in and she goes to sleep without tears. Sometimes she needs to be rocked a little first.

At home, she is nursed to sleep (by me), or is rocked to sleep by my DH.

She doesn't use a bottle or pacifier. Our bed is adjacent to her crib, and the crib is actually open on one side and the bed pushed against it (like a daybed style crib set up like a co-sleeper) This is because I still night nurse her (because she won't eat from her bottle while I'm at work). She doesn't nurse often at night, usually just once or twice.

Her bedtime is 7pm. She used to have her bath, story, quiet music, nurse and then bed.

Then she started crawling, and all hell broke loose. She will be asleep, then roll over once put down and wake up, start crawling, smiling standing up, etc.

OR I will put her in her crib awake but tired and she will just smile and crawl around in there, stand up, babble happily.

I have even left the room and watched the monitor for like 30 minutes while she plays in her crib and crawls around it babbling.

She doesn't cry when put in the crib. She just never goes to sleep on her own.

I don't believe in cry-it-out for our situation, but there isn't even any crying to cry out anyway. There is just a happy playful babble baby. I have tried to wait her out and it resulted in her 7 pm bedtime becoming 8:40 PM and I still ended up rocking her to sleep.

Is this normal? I don't even know.

 

[Linnypops]

Yes it's normal. Dd went through that phase and tbh I just left her to it. Some nights she'd be falling asleep around 9:30 - this is a child who's always gone down no later than 8. If you didn't rock her would she be happy enough? If so I think personally I'd just keep checking in in her but let her figure it out. I originally was going in and laying dd down and trying to get her lying the right way etc but she wasn't learning how to sit down and lie down herself - hence eventually left her to her own devices. It took a couple of weeks before the novelty wore off hehe

 

[Elsa50501]

I m pretty sure she is becoming over tired and that's what is keeping her up. If she wasnt getting up at 6 am everyday I wouldn't be so strict about the bedtime, but she gets up when I get up for work. Once school is out for me it will be less of an issue, but I just feel bad making her sit in the dark. I know she was working on new skill development this week, so that could be part of it. She just stood steadily without holding onto anything for the first time today. That was after going to bed at 5:30 pm last night she woke at 5 am.

If left to her own devices I should put the side back on the crib. So I can leave her alone in there to play safely. I was hoping to wait one more week until schools out for me though so I can face the nighttime battle for bedtime in case it causes a disruption, without having to worry about work in the morning.

 

[Linnypops]

Skill development causes it mostly for us. It's a few weeks and then over though so it's probably best to just wait it out. 6pm is a pretty early bed time - how are her naps?

 

[Elsa50501]

Skill development causes it mostly for us. It's a few weeks and then over though so it's probably best to just wait it out. 6pm is a pretty early bed time - how are her naps?

Her bedtime is 7 pm which is pretty typical for her age. That one day she wore herself out by not napping all day and then when we put her down finally for a nap at 5 she went to bed for the night on that one day.

She normally would take two good naps during the day and one cat nap on our way home from work/daycare.

We do the a version of 2-3-4 nap schedule (wake 2 hrs later nap) three hours later nap 4 hour later bedtime. But when she is rubbing her eyes I put her down for her nap regardless. It just usually falls into that category for me.

 

[Linnypops]

If she's awake and happy in the crib I wouldn't assume over tiredness tbh. Kids tend to be hot messes when overtired rather than happily playing. In fact it might be under tiredness. The 3->2 nap transition happens around your daughters age (7-10 months) so she might be ready for you to extend her wake times and try to drop one...You could try it anyway and see if it helps improve her night sleep. If not, no biggie you can switch back again

 

[Elsa50501]

If she's awake and happy in the crib I wouldn't assume over tiredness tbh. Kids tend to be hot messes when overtired rather than happily playing. In fact it might be under tiredness. The 3->2 nap transition happens around your daughters age (7-10 months) so she might be ready for you to extend her wake times and try to drop one...You could try it anyway and see if it helps improve her night sleep. If not, no biggie you can switch back again

The problem is, that when she comes out of the crib she starts to fuss, yawn, rub eyes, snuggle me, etc. so I know that she is in fact over tired. If my husband wraps her tight and rocks her she fights it HARD but then mostly falls alseep. I'm just trying to get her to go down without having to aid her with reverting to swaddling again, (he unwraps her while asleep before putting her down). If we go for a drive in the car it's also the same, she falls asleep. I think it's just the new skill development also. She'll fall asleep in my arms nursing and the once put down wake enough to get into crawling, then wake the rest of the way and stand up.

Dh and I feel bad leaving her to play in her crib in the dark alone. But she is unhappy once tired if we take her out. Basically she used to be consistent about falling asleep for her 7 pm bedtime and now she just gets all ramped up anytime we lay her down,lol.

I just wasn't sure how people do the drowsy but awake put down if she gets up to crawl and play instead of laying down. Let's just hope she gets settled again soon.

 

[Zeri]

Do you have a night-light that you can put on for her? So that she's not completely in the dark when you leave her....? If so, I would just put on the night-light and let her play/stand happily till she gets tired enough to fall asleep.

A mobile that plays soothing music might help her lie down and get drowsy too.

 

[Elsa50501]

So right now the camera has a little light. Also we use soft music as settle down music as part of her bedtime routine each night.

The night before last I just payed down next to her and held her facing me while she layer on the bed so that she couldn't flip over and crawl. She got really mad for like 1 minute, then her eyes started to close and she calmed down. Then I was able to let go she babbled and fell asleep like usual.

So last night I did the same, only at her actual bedtime (without the waiting game and all the playtime in The dark). Same thing, one minute of struggling to get free and some yelling at me then called down and eyes got droopy and she babbled until I was able to let go. And then she rolled herself over and fell asleep. She was fully asleep for the night at 7:30.

I think she just wants to crawl and stand so much that it was keeping her from settling herself like usually. Thanks for the advice. I knew. The back of my head that it should pass, but I just didn't want this bedtime problem to snowball (it was messing with her naps).
Hopefully once novelty wears off from this new mobility she will learn a how to self settle again. But for now, I think we athink least have some strategies again!