Can you get your LO to go to bed?

[kateqpr]

Poppy's still only tiny, but ive been trying to get some sort of night routine going this week around 8ish, so have been feeding her, then massaging her, then putting her upstairs in her moses basket. Trouble is I leave her asleep, then ten mins later she wakes up crying, only settling if i hug her for ages and she drops off again.

Anyone have the same problem? She cries but doesn't seem to be anything wrong - she's been fed, seem tired, winded, clean nappy etc....just won't allow herself to settle properly

Any tips? Or anyone else have this problem with a little one??

Funnily enough it's just the evening is the problem. When we put her in her moses basket through the night after feeds she's absolutely fine and drops off no problem.

 

[princess_bump]

sounds pretty normally for her age honey, we found not taking maddi out of the basket worked, just stroking her/popping her dummy in, and after a few nights of popping back in if she stirred, she went fine x

 

[AppleBlossom]

As she is still so young I would carry on cuddling her and reassuring her when she cries in her basket. But when she gets to about 3 months as long as she is fed, changed etc then you know she can only really be crying for attention. What I did with Grace when she got to 5 months-ish was I wouldn't pick her up when she cried I would just show my face inher room every so often. She realised crying wasn't getting her anywhere and know she goes down awake in her cot and gets herself to sleep no problem and doesn't wake up till morning. But like I said, my MW said to me cuddles and letting them fall asleep on you is fine but should be cut down at 3 months x

 

[princessellie]

leyla falls asleep no problem, i have to go in a few times and put her dummy back in but thats much preferable to her being stuck to me all night imo

does she have a dummy?

x

 

[kateqpr]

i have tried a dummy but she tends to let it drop out after a few minutes and then it starts her off again!
If this is normal then fair enough! It's hard to know what's normal and what isn't, especially when it's crying. It's just hard to listen to and not know if you should be doing something else!

 

[Vickie]

sounds completely normal to me for her age I'd do what the others said and keep comforting her, she's still really little and babies can't learn self soothing techniques until 4+ months. Hannah's just now learned how to settle herself to sleep

 

[danni2609]

My daughters the same so we let her sleep on the sofa in the evening and then after her last bottle take her up once shes asleep and she will then sleep right through

 

[Jemima]

I know it's frustrating but it sounds normal for her age. It wasn't until Poppy was around 3 months that we were able to get her to bed when WE wanted and not when she was ready.

I also think that if they are crying at your Poppy's age, and they are fed, dry, etc. then they probably just want cuddles with their mummy.

I know it's hard but give it a few more weeks and she will soon start to fall into a routine of her own.

 

[MoonMuffin]

At that age it's normal (I know, not what you want to hear). A consistent bedtime routine is good to start now though even if they have trouble sleeping, that way they start to learn what's coming next and know that after a certain thing its sleep time.
Kathryn has had the same bedtime routine for a while and it helps in getting her to sleep quickly. Anytime we don't do the routine it takes at least an hour to put Kathryn down!

 

[rach321]

Sometimes they appear to be asleep but they are only in a light sleep and can jolt themselves awake after about 10-15mins ( I only know this from watch my LO very carefully when he was much smaller and he would visibly jolt so hard that he used to wake himself up - we swaddled him in the end - made a huge difference) so hang around and watch her - see if she jolts herself awake. Thing is they see you there when they fall asleep and then after they jolt themselves awake you've disappeared and they start crying. They grow out of jolting eventually - its linked to the Moro reflex - swaddling helps or just hang around for 10 mins and shh them back to sleep when they wake - it usually doesn't take much settling! HTH

 

[JennTheMomma]

Thats normal for her age. Babies cry for a reason, it may be more than not being hungry.

 

[ryder]

Its normal... At that age Jasmine wasn't in bed until after 10... if she cried I would try just rubbing her tummy etc first. It worked, but she has always been easy to get to bed.

 

[ladyV84]

We just got fraser into his routine this week and (touch wood!) it has worked like a dream, but he is nearly 7 weeks now. The first 5 weeks we just kept him downstairs with us and took him up when we went. Now we feed around 7.30pm, bath at 8pm, and bed 8.30pm and all last week he has gone down perfectly and sleeps till about 1.30am when he wakes for another feed. Im sure poppy will get into a wee routine in the next couple of weeks

 

[vanessa]

Its only for the last month or so that May would go to bed early. I read somewhere that newborns - 3 months-ish have a weird thing where they are wide-awake in the evenings. Still makes sense to start the routine early though. At that age, I had to rock the moses basket for about 30 mins before May would go to sleep!