Bedtime

Bedtime has been a rollercoaster of a battle some days.  My daughter is now five (5) and a half months and she seems to be changing her patterns again.  I’m thinking another growth spurt, so her six (6) month growth spurt could be rounding the corner… 

Recently, she has been sleeping really well (usually about 12 hours throughout the night) and I count my blessings that she is such a good sleeper.  Getting her to bed is a completely different story, some days are really good and will take us no more than 15 to 30 minutes to get her to bed with minimal cuddling.  Most days take around an hour to get her to bed.  It’s not that she’s not tired, she starts getting tired around 6 P.M. and will fight her sleepiness.  I continue with a bedtime routine, every other day is bath time and in between is the same just minus the bath. 

I’ve gotten a few suggestions to get her to bed.  One being the cry-it-out method… I do agree with this method because it does help to teach themselves to self-sooth.  This does not work for us and our little one at bedtime.  Although, for the odd occasion it does work sometimes when she wakes up at 3 or so in the morning and, of course, when it doesn’t she needs a bottle. 

Another suggestion was just cuddling her to sleep, this is the only way we can get her to bed.  The cuddling method is what takes on some days more than an hour.  She will fall asleep in our arms but the second we start to lay her down in her crib she wakes up and will either start to kick and squirm or scream and cry.  I love cuddling my darling daughter but I would like her to learn to just go to sleep when she’s tired.  She has been doing the same thing with naptime but that’s another story! 

My feeling is that she is hoping that we will give into her so she can sleep in our bed every night.  This may be very well true, in my opinion, babies are really smart and know what they want and will try to do what they can to get it.  Leaving mommy and daddy frustrated, tired, exhausted and so on, will sometimes lead to us caving into her wants; to sleep in our bed. 

I have been working with her to try to settle in her own room and bed.  This bedtime ritual takes longer than I always hope it does but if the extra cuddling is what she needs to sleep, I’ll take it… the cuddles won’t last that much longer and I do want to cherish what I can now.  I’m still in hopes of finding another method that works for us.  I have read “The Baby Whisperer” and she has some ideas that I will be looking back on when I find the opportunity – if I find something that works I will update this post!

What did you do with your baby at bedtime?  Do you feel that sleep training helps?  What method works best for your family?