Advice on getting baby back on track

mdaniels4813

We had to take Alestor to the ER on Wednesday night because, long story short, my husband fell and dropped him in a parking lot and he hit his head, then throughout the evening he was showing signs that something might have been wrong. He had to be kept up quite a bit because there were doctors and nurses checking on him, then he had a CT scan, which all resulted in him not going to bed until about midnight. He's okay, but every night since then he'll go to bed around 8, wake up about 8:30  and then he is awake until midnight. How can I get him back to going to bed before 10 pm? What do I do to transition bed time to be earlier because at this point it's a lot of playing until midnight and days cannot afford for us to be staying up that late. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Big+Lil

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but maybe going to bed earlier will help. Sorry about what happened, glad all is well.

Nichole8787

Reading this made me panic! So glad everyone is ok!

abundancenow

Sorry you had to deal with this. I am glad your LO is ok, but it must have been a scare. 

When my LO wakes after going to bed for the night, I try to keep the setting for sleep and as calm as possible. I leave the lights out and if she's not crying I keep her in her crib. We have music that is soft sleepy music that we play for naps and bedtime. If she is fussing a lot and crying, I will carry her and bring her in the bathroom with the lights out and run the sink or shower and put the fan on for white noise. Usually she will fall back to sleep and then I will put her back in her crib. I try not to talk to her much or loudly when she wakes after bedtime. I just suggest following the same bedtime routines and keep the setting for sleep time. I hope your LO falls back to the routine. I know a night of baby being awake can ruin the next day. It is more natural for your baby to be sleeping at night then to be awake, so trust that he will fall back in to the pattern. Good luck!

ADC1979

Poor little guy, sorry you all had a scare! Glad to hear he is okay.  Do you have any sort of bedtime routine you follow?   I usually get my LO in his jammies, nurse him, burp him and snuggle with him for a few minutes before laying him down to sleep.  We have white noise machines on and a musical mobile.  I turn the lights totally out in the room while he's trying to drift off, and that seems to help him a lot.  Good luck!

mdaniels4813

Thank you all. I will try some of the things here. Especially try sticking more to the bedtime routine. On bath nights he gets a bath and then we read him a story and if he is drowsy or asleep we lay him in his crib and try CIO for a while. If that isn't working one of us will go in and rock him until he is calmed and pretty much asleep and lay him back down. We have a soother in his room that projects stars and plays music and if he isn't all the way asleep we'll put the stars on because he enjoys them and usually he falls asleep with them on, so it seems calming. If he's pretty much asleep or if he fell asleep around noise, I'll turn the music on so that there's just a little bit of calming music to help him sleep. He doesn't typically eat right before bedtime, it's often a half hour to an hour before. I might try feeding him some during our routine to get him a little more sleepy before we lay him down.

I really appreciate the replies!