Babies: 3 - 6 Months
HolLynn731
member
Advice on getting baby down for the night
HolLynn731
member
My son is five months old, and for the past month or so is horrible when it comes time to lay down for the night. We transitioned him out of his swaddle, so now instead of his arms being tucked in, they are out, which helped for a few days. We have a bedtime routine: bath time, play time, reading, nursing session, snuggles, rock him for a bit, bed. We try to get him down for 7:00pm every night. He will not go to sleep! He screams and screams for hours! We have tried rocking him, singing to him, feeding him more, changing him...absolutely everything! His pediatrician finally suggested that we may want to consider letting him cry. I am for the cry it out method (within reason), because it worked well with my daughter. However, with my son, we have been trying it for weeks and nothing has changed. He naps so well during the day, so I don't think he is overtired when we go to lay him down. He usually takes two to three 1.5-2 hour naps. He goes down no problem for his naps.
If anyone has anymore things they would suggest I try, please fire away! I am open to other methods besides cry-it-out if anyone has any other methods that I haven't tried.
Thank you in advance!
Holly
Re: Advice on getting baby down for the night
According to the chart below a 5 month old should be getting 4-5 hours of naps in and yours is getting up to 6. It's not really a crazy amount of sleep during the day time but maybe it's interfering a bit with his night sleep schedule? Or maybe his last nap of the day is too late or you're putting him to bed too early. Maybe try for a target bed time of 8pm and then slowly try to go back to 7?
https://www.parents.com/baby/sleep/basics/age-by-age-guide/
I also think you might need to adjust his bed time. Try it out and see if that helps.
When I transitioned my kids out of the swaddle I left it wrapped around their waist but had their arms out. I swear that is what helped with the transition. Can you try that?
And lastly, are you sure your LO isn't sick or teething right now?
OP it sounds like you're figuring it out...please don't give your 5 month old any liquids that haven't been cleared by your pedi.
@SmrBrd2012 I reported her and admin says she's not violating TOU despite this looking VERY MUCH like a vendor post...so whatever. I'll just go in after her and tell everyone to ignore this ridiculous advise repeatedly I guess.
I just checked again and she/he's now been banned, haha. Good riddance.