It seems a very long time ago that Charlotte was managing to settle herself straight to sleep - or with just 10 minutes' coaxing. The past three nights have seen a return to the screaming ab-dabs for up to 40 minutes as she fights going down to sleep. I don't think it's connected to the fact that we've started putting her in her own room, as she was the same on Thursday night when she was still in our room. And I don't think it's connected to her apparent growth spurt either.
Part of the problem is that she's so overtired after not having had enough sleep during the day, which is well documented in this blog. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's in her Moses basket, pram or harness these days - she just won't stay down for more than half an hour. We seem to be putting her down at the right time as it's not taking too much effort to get her to sleep, but after that it's up to her and she's just not staying asleep. She doesn't wake up especially grouchy or crying - usually she's quite playful - which makes me think the catnaps are all she needs. But then when she's barely had two hours in total all day, it's resulting in a nightmare evening.
She also seems to react to the moment we start to wind-down and make it 'nighttime' by making the flat darker and quieter. While we're told it's really important to have a bedtime routine so she knows what's coming next and helps her to sleep, it seems to have the opposite effect on Charlotte - she knows what's coming... bedtime... and she doesn't like it. Her baths have been great, but after that she'll scream the place down until her feed, and then again until we've resorted to white noise, rocking and/or cuddles to calm her.
We know this is just another phase that will pass, but it feels like we're taking another few steps backwards in her sleeping at the moment. And it upsets me that the image that I have of Charlotte before I go to bed is of an upset and unhappy child.
But it is nice to have our bedroom back!
Hey, it's me again. Have you tried changing her bath time to the morning? I know everybody says a bath should be part of the bedtime routine but I found that when my little girl wasn't sleeping well in the day, she was soooo tired by the evening and her bath made her even more exhausted, getting her to sleep after that was a real battle! I changed her bath to morning and then rather than insisting she went to bed at exactly the same time every day I started watching for signs of tiredness in the evening and putting her down soon after...I found that she usually became tired at around the same time every day.
ReplyDeleteHi Naveed. We made a bit of a breakthrough with getting her down at night this week, by making sure she has one of her catnaps pretty close to bedtime (around 7pm) - usually between 5pm-5.30 - so she's not overtired for her bath, feed, story and bed. She's still rather 'aggro' when we start to wind-down - not because she's tired or hungry, but because I genuinely believe she now knows it's bedtime and gets upset as soon as we dim the lights!
ReplyDeleteMan, your story sounds so much like my story with baby 1, it really takes me back - seriously I think the adjustment to having 1 baby was worse than the reality of have 3 in 3 years!!!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a late afternoon nap is needed - we do ours at 4:15-5pm for our 6 month old. And you're right they cant go more than 1h30 or 2hr before needing another nap. Our rule was "the first yawn is your warning, the second means bed time and if you miss those 2 then you've hit overtired and you.ve got a fight on your hands"!!!
It is frustrating but you're trying the right things keep going!