trying to wind down extremely active 4 month old

[jojojo]

Any suggestions on how to wind down a very very active  4 month old at bedtime? He's very hyper and everything makes him giggle and wiggle. Ive tried dark room, stories, walking around, breastfeeding......as he gets older it just seems to be getting more difficult to settle him. Massages and baths also wind him up not down. He used to put himself to sleep after swaddle/soother in a matter of minutes but now its taking quite a while because I can't seem to calmhim down enough before bed.

Any suggestiond would be appreciated.....

[mom2myMMS]

I'm quite new to this too, but my LO did the same thing.  Do you make eye contact with him when you're trying to wind him down?  I know with my DS if I avoid eye contact (as hard as it is) that he settles down a bit.  Also, perhaps he's not tired?  How long is he awake before you're trying to put him down?  I know the activity time is supposed to increase around 4 months, so maybe that's the problem?  But then, one would think you'd be having problems with naps too. 

Just a few thoughts...I hope they help!

[brenda2]

i had the same thought as pp.  maybe he's not tired.  have you moved him onto a 4 hour EASY yet?  A time should be about 2 hours now...do you want to post your routine?  maybe it's related to the routine.

ideas for windown: walking, swaying with baby are good, sitting in a dark room and humming/rocking. spend a bit of time just away from loud noises, tv, lights etc before you start the winddown.  is he under a baby gym or other noisy and bright toys much?  this can be too stimulating too. bath can wind some kids up so if the is the spirited type i'm not surprised at this.  have you taken the personality quiz?  what's his type?

[jojojo]

his a time is usually between 1.5-2hr now depending on nap time beforehand. Some naps are better than others. I find if I wait too long to try and puthim down at night to make sure he's good and tired he goes from happy active hyper baby to extremely grumpy baby very quickly.....no real in-between stage...and then grumpy is much more difficult to settle......

[brenda2]

is he spirited or touchy then?  you probably want to keep his whole A time calm then, avoid stimulating activities and it doesn't take very much to overstimulate a baby.

2 hours is right A time and if he does a short nap then 1.5 hours is probably about right too...

[malenka]

I also have a very active 4 mo LO. We used to fight with him at night to get him down and he would scream as soon as he realized we were trying to get him to sleep. What we do now is lay him in his crib and let him play for a bit, then we turn off the lights and put on his lprojection mobile. He can be hyper as heck when we do this and after 10-20 minutes, he's completely out. Here's some info on the mobile if you're interested (it's the lullaby teddy projector) http://www.vtechkids.com.au/vtechbaby.asp

What we find is that we're too stimulating for him and he just wants to be on his own. Could this be the case with your LO?

[jojojo]

he's definately spirited not touchy.......hard to have calm A time....he's only happy when busy doing stuff....i do tryv and limit activity before bed but its tough and hasn't helped much.....