Need help with bedtime

[pupsicle]

LO is a monster to get to sleep at night and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. She's sleepy when we put her down in the cot, we feed her and change her upstairs in the darker bedroom, then pop her dummy in, and go back downstairs. This worked fine until about 4 weeks ago, now as soon as we leave the room, she spits the dummy out and cries, we go back up, but she won't take the dummy. She won't sleep and takes over an hour to go to sleep with us going up and downstairs, cuddling, rocking, feeding her again (she's not hungry), changing her again (she's not wet). We don't bath her before bed as she cries because she's so tired, so we bath her in the morning, twice a week. Does anyone have any idea what's going off? Have we messed up somewhere along the way?

 

[wishingonastar]

could be teething...is she chewing hands a lot or anything near her mouth?
isabel's sleep went right up the creek when teething began at 4 months!

or maybe she needs some winding down time now she's more alert? a lot of ppl find it helps majorly to turn tv off 30-45 mins before bedtime and do lowkey play, book reading and so on

 

[Mrs IKW]

Hmmmmm... Im no expert on this but would having a small soft toy or a blankie in her cot work? Violet sometimes lies in her cot for about 30mins before falling asleep or on waking in the morning just holding/cuddling/waving her soft toys around in her cot.... It seems to soothe her.....

Another suggestion - what about a lightshow or lullaby playing? I sometimes put the lightshow on at bedtime or lullabys at nap time, but dont do it every time so she isnt totally reliant on it, but it could work? Maybe she just needs something to soothe her off to sleep or amuse her until she drops off?

 

[pupsicle]

Thanks for the ideas. I don't think she's teething, she doesnt have rosy cheeks and I dont think she has sore gums, but she is more slobbery and has learnt to reach stuff into her mouth.
We have a lightshow which plays music and has lights on the ceiling,we've also tried a mobile, she just chatters to them.
I'm going to try the wind-down time tonight and see if that helps .

 

[a_c]

I'd try putting her to bed a tad earlier and putting her down awake. So she learns to self settle. At that age we used to put poppy down asleep after a bath (she routinely screamed the house down getting dressed afterward as she was tired and hungry) fed her then she's lie awake before falling to sleep with maybe one or two quick visits from us.

We also use twinkle twinkle violet which is a toy that plays environmental sounds.

 

[wishingonastar]

Increased slobber can be teething sign so she may be...

 

[Jem88]

Could she be overtired? Our LO goes to bed between 7/7.30pm after bath & bottle, and most of the time she goes to sleep and stays asleep til anytime between 11-12.30am. But sometimes she'll go down at 7 and wake 10-20mins later and we can be up an down puttin the dummy in an settlin her until maybe 8.30pm lol.. And all i can think of is that she's overtired and can't settle herself.

 

[pupsicle]

She does get overtired and she finds it hard to nap during the day too. She goes to bed everynight between 7.30-8.00 (her routine she made herself). Tonight we tried changing her into pjs upstairs, read her a story, then bedtime bottle and popped her in the cot. She went to sleep for around an hour, we popped her dummy back in and she went straight back to sleep. Hopefully with the same tomorrow, she'll sleep just as well. Maybe we were overstimulating her before bed, and we just needed the half hour to calm her down.
Thanks for everyones help, it's great to have input from everyone and learn what works

 

[wishingonastar]

Great news, hope it stays that way