# 8 month old won't wind down



## navetdi (Oct 24, 2005)

Until recently, my co-sleeping 8 month old dd has pretty easily nursed to sleep at night (although not until dh and I are ready to go to bed). But, in the last week, she has starting fighting sleep in the evening and gets totally wound up before bed and getting her to go to sleep, even at the same time as us around 10 or 10:30, has been really painful for all of us. She has recently learned to crawl, so she'll pull off, want to go grab the alarm clock or whatever, she kicks, twists around, and is basically totally hyper. I can rock her to sleep in a dark room but this involves her crying alot and that seems like a bad way to routinely put her to bed. We've tried establishing a bedtime routine when she starts acting tired around 9 or 9:30, but we can't make it stick. For example, we try jammies, book and guitar-playing with dad, quiet playing in the bed and then nursing to sleep, but she won't go to sleep and I end up getting her up again because it's too early for me to go to bed and it just isn't working. I feel bad because we are being very inconsistent, but I also feel like I've suddenly forgotten how to put her to sleep. I'm very frustrated! Also, she has pushed her usual late afternoon nap into an early evening nap -so she'll slepp from 6 to 7:30 or so - an I know that this is interferring in getting her to bed at an ideal time (which for me would be around 9 or 9:30). I guess what I'm wondering is - how hard do I try to get her to sleep when, even though she's giving signs that she's tired, she doesn't want to sleep? Do I rock her to sleep crying every time? Or do I nurse her and HOPE she'll fall asleep when lately, more often than not, she doesn't?

I know this is a long post - thanks for reading. Any suggestions would be welcome.


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## seamama11 (Jan 5, 2007)

I think if there is any way to discourage that late evening nap...that would be best. Also my ds is 7 months and sometimes we have to rock him for 10-15 minutes while he is on and off crying until he falls alseep. My dh can put him to sleep in our bed, but when I try he plays and resists sleep for hours. I have to rock him, but also his last nap ends between 3-4 so by 7 he is ready for sleep.
Good luck,
Sarah


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## runes (Aug 5, 2004)

is she teething? dd always had a hard time winding down for sleep at night when teeth were coming through. we had good results with the hylands homeopathic teething remedy, we would give it to her and she would be out in 2-3 minutes.

she's 15 months now and she just started doing this again, btw. i've also noticed that this happens right before a big developmental leap. dd just started saying a lot more words, and she's also climbing all over the place.


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## D_McG (Jun 12, 2006)

DS is the same way. We follow our usual routine (as soon as he looks tired.. around 6:30/7) then we put him in bed with one of those crib soother things (that projects on the ceiling). we just let him roll around and do his thing and when he gets upset we go in and lie with him. Sometimes he just rejuvenates again in which case we just let him do his own thing (while lying there) or we leave him again. If he's very active and we're afraid he'll climb the pillow barrier (we have rails on both sides) we put him in his crib for him to do his thing and then as soon as he gets upset/tired go lie with him.

Perhaps not the approach everyone on here would take but it's working well for us now. If I thought he simply wasn't tired I'd let him stay up. But he's very tired he just can't wind down and us being with him for 2 hours doesn't really help. He needs his own little wind down time.


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