Bedtime has become a battle

Knottie59802221

so my LO is 13 weeks and all of a sudden, the past two weeks, bedtime has become a bloody battle! She used to go down so peacefully! She has always slept in a swing and she gets changed, swaddled, nursed, burped, set down, white noise, and a lullaby until she falls asleep. It always went very smoothly. Now, as soon as I set her down, the crying and screaming start. If I pick her up, it stops immediately and starts again as soon as I lay her back down. If I leave her crying (sitting right next to her, trying to soothe her, holding her hand and singing) then the crying just goes on
and on and on. Eventually she
will stop and just stare at me until she falls asleep, but it is brutal until then. Sometimes it last more then an hour. This happens every single nap and every nightime. Nothing has changed in our routine! Can anyone offer suggestions or even a reason why this is happening?! 

annawestt

Do you think it could have something to do with the 3 month growth spurt? My little one is always so cranky during hers. I don't know! It's such a guessing game with these little people. Hang in there!

Poppy0419

We're having the same problem over here so you're not alone! And now our ped told us to transition out of an arms down swaddle because of her head flattening so much so I'm sure it'll just be even more fun in the coming days. 

FutureMrsCaesar

I don't have any magic solutions unfortunately but I think it has something to do with them becoming more aware of their surroundings. She knows she is comforted by you and is sad when you aren't holding her. We've gone through periods like this to some extent with all of our kids. I would highly suggest that you use this already difficult time to ditch some of her bad sleeping habits like the swaddle and swing. Might as well get it all over with now, like a bandaid!

nicolepelar

My daughter is the same way. She'll be 13 weeks on Tuesday and for the past few weeks she's be more fussy than usual. Before she would just cat nap all day and she would be a happy baby all day long. And she's been sleeping 6-9 hours since she was about 9 weeks old. Now she has to have at least three 2 hour naps or she is a complete terror. She also has been waking up more at night, not to feed but just awake...and cranky. I have heard that the 3rd month is infamous for babies becoming social. They're more interested in their surroundings and don't want to sleep and miss out on anything. I know it won't last forever but it drives me batty that my once "easy" baby is now a cranky crab. I'm glad I'm not alone here. But I guess we all have to strap in and ride it out. I agree with pp. Like a bandaid, let's try and get rid of any bad habits since they're already cranky.

irenewslee

Let me join the club! My LO is 11 weeks old and needs his sleep. He gets super cranky when he is sleepy. He fights sleep so much that he is often overtired and the crankiness is uncontrollable. Like this morning, he napped for about an hr and woke up by his giant fart. Then he proceeded to play for about 30 mins and started the screaming party for about 3 hours until i finally put him down for a nap. Then he woke himself up by a sneeze 30 mins later and continued the screaming party. 2 hrs later i am finally able to put him down while wearing him. I want to sit but every time i shift my weight, he wakes up. If he doesnt get at least one long nap in, he is miserable at night and wakes up my daughter too, which means i will just remain standing up for this 2-3 hr nap. 

Knottie59802221

Ugh, the battle actually died down for a while and we had our happy baby again! But, we decided to try the bandaid method and switched her from swaddled in the swing to sleep sack in the bassinet. SO AWFUL!! Tonight, I started to put her to bed at 6 PM, and she is now (1:30 AM) finally sound asleep. Every nap today in the bassinet is awful, we'd battle it out for an hour or more but only get a 20 minute nap every time. 

=caenis=

I finally had to let my boy cry it out for daytime naps. His bad napping was starting to control our lives. He was visibly tired but I was spending hours on nursing, rocking, wearing cycles that just weren't getting him enough sleep anymore. And I was feeling like a slave. Because all his naps were terrible, we literally weren't going anywhere. I wasn't getting any rest or breaks. All day long it was all about trying to get the poor kid to sleep. Every day. For maybe 3 or 4 weeks.

I initially felt I needed to respond to his crying and comfort him, but started realizing he was pissed off because he wasn't asleep. Not because he was lonely or uncomfortable or anything like that. Just tired and frustrated. And obviously my efforts to soothe him were not working.  

Left him crying in his crib for 20 min and he was out!! I go in every 10 min and touch his shoulder/ rock his bed so he knows he isn't alone, and given a little time, he manages to get himself to sleep! He has often done so without any help since then. If super tired, he might still cry 5 to 20 min. I tried staying in the room with him once and that did not help at all. I seemed to just frustrate him more. It's better if he can focus by himself. The crying is rough for me, but after getting to know the little guy I really believe he's expressing frustration but he has reached the point where the only one who can solve the problem...is him.

It's so much faster than the hours we were spending before. My little man wakes up refreshed and has a lot more time each day for playing and doing fun things.

smushi

Spurt or leap, if it's a sudden change there must be a reason.  Have patience with LO and yourself and stay kind.  If she's crying she needs you.  Give her a week and it will pass.  Hopefully knowing it's completely normal will ease your mind.

amyid

I'm so sorry Mommas - this doesn't sound like fun. My little girl doesn't really nap during the day time which is killing me but goes down fine at night for 5-7 hours. I give her a bath and use tubby Todd products - then she gets the TT cream with the lavender in it that is supposed to soothe, maybe worth giving it a try ? I've noticed on the days that we do the bath and cream then a bottle that I have longer night sleeps, some nights I've had almost 8 hours !!! We haven't swaddled since probably week 2 or 3? She has a light sleep sack and prefers arms out and that seemed to be much better for us, she wouldn't wake up frustrated about having her arms pinned down. I'd def recommend trying those products, they really seem to put my daughter in a happy sleepy mood