Fighting sleep at bedtime

[JJF]

I am sure there have been a million posts about this through the years but like all babies, my little Allie is fussy in the evenings. She is nearly 9 weeks old and when she naps during the day, I typically put her in her crib when she is drowsy and she goes right off to sleep on her own. When its her bedtime (between 8-10pm) she fights sleep. I have allowed her to cry it out on several occasions (although my hubby wont!) but I don't like to think that needs to be the norm to get her to sleep. Lastly, I've noticed that she doesn't really want to go to bed for the night until about 10 so I've been trying to give her a late evening nap (7pmish) just to give me some time to either cook/eat/bath my older kids ect but that doesn't seem to be very easy either, she tends to cry then too.

So here is my question-I feel like I've tried many options but my other two were NEVER this fussy in the evening and I can't get dinner cooked, or eaten, or to bed at a decent hour, how come she is perfect during day but not at bedtime.

Any suggestions-I give her bath, try to make a routine, try to let her play while I cook, try to give her nap during that time, feed her PLENTY (she seems to want to cluster feed in evening, lucky me, ugh, haha), hold her, ect.

HELP!

 

[charlie07]

Can't really help, sorry. Gabbi still fights her sleep now, in fact, she's worse!!! I've let her cry it out a few times ........ well very little actually, can't help myself! OH tells me to leave her but he's gone in after a couple mins on a few occasions!!!! Daddy's girl! lol Gabbi won't go in her cot for the night unless she's already asleep!! If she's awake, she fights it and fights it!!! Even during the day, my Maybe song doesn't even help!!!!

I hope it gets better. I'd say try and stick it out, maybe she will just settle on her own soon. Fingers crossed

 

[sublime_ivy]

dex didn't go to bed until about 10 or 11 and then one day it just changed to 7. I think you just have to go by why your Lo wants. All babies are different, she cant be forced to sleep if she isn't ready. I realized that after a lot of trying to force dex to sleep imagine if someone tried to make you sleep when you were not tired. She's probably getting enough sleep in the day to have a late bedtime. Dex barely naps now so he wants to sleep earlier.

 

[Arcanegirl]

Ive always let Alex dictate what time he wants to go to bed. At that age it was around 10pm then went to 9pm, 8pm and now at 4 months he goes to bed at 7pm.
If she isnt ready to go to sleep then thats maybe why she is crying? Is she showing signs of being tired when you put her to bed?

 

[Hope22]

I've been dealing with sleep issues for eight months and only JUST got it figured out - for me this is the hardest part of being a mom, hands down.

When he was really little Darwin didn't have a routine; it was useless trying to establish one as he was a snacker and super fast grower, so he ate every 1.5 hours or even more frequently, around the clock. Now that he's older he's actually set his own routine, I've just learned to recognize when he needs to rest, and fine-tuned things by altering meal/nap times a bit when needed.

What I've learned is that it's way easier to get him to bed before he's tired - if I wait to see many signs of tiredness (yawning, blinking, fussing) it can be too late and he gets overtired. When that happens he fights and usually wins, and won't sleep until (at least) after his next feed.

When is her last nap? You mentioned trying to get her to nap around 7pm but she's fighting then as well - it could be that she's tired before that, and might actually want a very early bedtime. That's what happened with Darwin, and it took me AGES to figure it out. I thought he wanted a late nap at supper time and a 10:30ish bedtime, which was too late for me, but it's turned out that what he needed was a 6:30 bedtime! Now he's consistently going to sleep between 6:15-7:00 every night (6:15 tonight) and waking at 7:30am.

If she's napping well any time after 6pm and the family gets up early, it might work to try making her last 'nap' her bedtime - I learned this lesson the tough way, but if this is the case with your LO maybe we can use the experience to save you some frustration!