Hi,
We have been having problems for the last 4 weeks or so with our baby being unable settle at bedtime - planned bedtime is around 7pm but she screams and thrashes and fights sleep even though she is tired (which sounds like over tiredness, from what I have read). Last night I didn't get her to sleep until around midnight (by which point she was DEFINITELY over tired as she had been awake for 6.5 hours and fussiness has deteriorated into rage and hysteria). Once she is asleep at night she does ok and generally goes 4-5 hours before she wakes up asking for a feed (ie it's not like she continually wakes and fusses).
Prior to this evening fussiness she had a pretty standard bedtime routine and it was working well with her asleep around 7pm each night with minimal fuss. Her daytime naps were sporadic and short though - random 45 minute snoozes here and there and only on me after a breastfeed - so I then decided to see if I could "fix" them and started a pretty standard EASY routine (day starting at ~7am, ~4 hour eating schedule) and implemented a naptime routine using 4s.
And that's when we started having problems in the evening.
Within the last few weeks we have now gotten to the point where her naptimes are now actually great - it's all quite serene and happy and she is asleep within 10 minutes of taking her upstairs and starting it. No breastfeeding required, just a cuddle and she goes down drowsy and puts herself to sleep. However, the bedtime settling has badly deteriorated. I have tried small tweaks to her nap durations and timings to make sure she isn't over (or under) tired. The last couple of nights I even shelved her bedtime routine and just started using a naptime routine instead as it is much shorter than her bedtime routine was and I thought if I could get her to bed straight away as soon as she started looking tired (which works so well during the day) we might have some success in getting her down. It hasn't worked.
It just seems that from 6pm there's almost like a switch that goes off and she is completely unable to relax and go to sleep, which is in stark contrast to how she is during the day, even if I replicate her daytime sleep routine. It must surely be connected with her new napping habits as it is too much of a coincidence that the improved napping happened at the same time as the increased fussiness in the evenings?
I don't really want to implement PU/PD as I know she is capable of settling quite happily just using 4s, and also my back isn't great (and she's pretty heavy) so the thought of lifting her up and down repeatedly is something I'd rather avoid.
I was just wondering whether anyone else has had similar issues and whether there is any advice out there for our situation.
Thanks in advance,
A tired & confused mother.
