What am I doing wrong?

Every night around 7 pm or 7:30 pm, DD gets extremely cranky and tired. Before that time, I feed her bathe her and then when she starts to cry and close her eyes, I put her into her crib. Sometimes i swaddle her, sometimes I don't. She'll usually sleep for about 30-45 minutes berfore she's up again crying. I go in, put her pacifier back in, rub her tummy, put her mobile on again, and she'll go down for about 10-15 minutes, and this continues on and on until her next feeding around 10 pm. What am I doing wrong? Is she not ready for sleep? She seems so tired though. Should I take her out and play quietly with her when she is crying? what do i do?

Should I not swaddle her because she always breaks out of it, but if I don't - she flails her arms and wakes herself up anyway!

xxxxxxx

Message edited 2/9/2007 9:19:32 PM.

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Well, a lot of babies need to cry to let out built up tension, and they usually do it around the same time you just stated. Did this just start, or has she been doing it?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

She's 11 weeks old. She doesn't have to burp and she just pooped before she went down.

How long do I let her cry? I feel like if I let her cry, she just gets hysterical and that makes it worse. But when I go on there, she looks at me and sometimes stops crying. So I know that she knows what she's doing!

Re: What am I doing wrong?

She might just need some extra mommy time. Is it possible she's still hungry?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I think around 11 weeks babies have a growth spurt. I would try to feed her, if nothing else the bottle might sooth her.

eta: found this on the net.

Common times for growth spurts are during the first few days at home and around 7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months (more or less). Babies don't read calendars, however, so your baby may do things differently.


I remember Talias growth spurt at this age -I was still nursing and I think I literally nursed her ALL day for 2 days.

Message edited 1/9/2007 9:13:54 PM.

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I think your waiting too long to put her to sleep, and then she is overtired and can't fall asleep. Once she starts crying, she is probably overtired. If you try to put her to sleep before she starts crying she may go to sleep better. Good luck!

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I don't think she's hungry. If I feed her more often she doesn't eat that much. I will feed her by 10 pm though and see if that works. I just picked her up and rocked her for a few minutes and put her back down. She's so squirmy though and moves her arms and legs so much, which is why I try to swaddle her. But unless shes in a deep sleep she gets her arms out of it.

What time do babies go to sleep at this age (11 weeks)? She's crying agian. Unless shes held, she'll cry!

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I do put her down before she cries usually at this time, and she just wakes up 30-45 minutes later. So do you think she's just not ready for bed yet?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Maybe she's overtired and fighting it?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I would feed her the bottle at 7-7:30...ya never know she may just stay asleep then

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I would love to do this but with her schedule she is eating every 4 hours so it winds up that she eats around 6 pm.

Re: What am I doing wrong?

First, your not doing anything wrong! Both my kids never went down for the night earlier than 9 p.m. But when they did, they were down for the night. When is she napping during the day and for how long? Maybe the timing of things just need to be moved back a little.

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Could she be overtired? Post her nap/eat schedule for the day

Also you're not doing anything wrong - you're winging it just like the rest of us.

Re: What am I doing wrong?

So far, here is her schedule...
Eats between 6am - 7 am. After that around 8 am or 8:30 am, she is washed around and dressed, then goes down for a nap in her crib. She'll usually sleep about 15-20 minutes before waking up again, give her the paci, sleeps for 10 more minutes,wakes up, etc... does this for about 30 minutes before I bring her downstairs and put her inthe swing, where she'll sleep for about another 30 minutes. Then she'll be up, she eats around 10/10:30 am, plays for a bit, takes a cat nap in her swing.

We usually go out so she'll sleep again until her next feeding around 2 or 2:30 pm. After that she's up, we play for a while, she'll usually cap nap in between that and her next feeding around 6:15 or 6:30 pm. After that I'll play with her a bit, then bathe her. And then she gets so cranky and closing her eyes so I put her down. She sleeps for 30-45 minutes and it all goes downhill from there....

For a few weeks, I was feeding her around 10;30, she was going down by 11:30 and sleep till 5 or 5:3am.... but that's stopped now too!

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Try bathing her at 6 then giving her a bottle by 6:45 and put her in her crib for bed

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Also I would move her morning nap to 9:30-ish if you can.

Good luck!

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Maybe she is just not ready to go to bed yet and just needs that cat nap. DD just started going to bed around 8:30 at that age. Before that, she was up until 10 ish. That is also around the time I realized she was a belly sleeper. I would never recommend that to anyone with all of the risks but Hailey slept 11 hours straight on her belly.

Re: What am I doing wrong?

I think that would be too early for her to go to sleep if I put her down before 7:30 pm. Even now, she doesn't sleep that long. I can try that tomorrow night though and see what happens.

We uysed to keep her up longer but since she screams around 7:30 pm, that's why I figured she should be going down then. Am I missing her cue and it should be earlier?

Also, I can't move her nap any later since she is practically falling alseep before she hits the crib.

I think I just have a kid who doesn;t like to sleep! of course all of this when DH is on a business trip for a week AND when I go back to work next week! How am I going to handle it then?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

Re: What am I doing wrong?

How do you know if they are ready to belly sleep? She can lift her head nicey during tummy time but I am terrified to put her on her tummy and her not being able to lift her head during the night. I know we all slept on our tummies but I guess since they drill it into your head "back to sleep".... it makes me nervous.