getting baby to bed - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

sweetpea333 · 01-15-2005, 09:51 PM

this may sound awful but i need advice, my 5 and a half month old wont go to bed early and i mean sometimes she wont go to bed until after 1 am!!! so i tried everything, is it all right to put her in bed and let her cry for 10 minutes until she falls asleep?? I tried it and it worked, but i feel guilty, do you think maybe she feels abandoned??? please help!!

honeybeems · 01-16-2005, 05:16 PM

i wouldn't feel bad about 10 min. if she fell asleep she doesn't fell abandoned. every night she will probably cry less. if she cries histerically you may have to calm her down and them try again. it sounds to me that she felt fine and went to sleep after she knew it wasn'tplay time anymore. all three of my kids went to sleep in their cribs. sometimes they cried a little but then went to sleep.

crissieb · 01-16-2005, 06:23 PM

hi there -
i have a 6 month old but he goes to bed quite early (6-7pm)... i think babies are all programmed differently so you can't make them go to bed at any set time. but i think it's really important to make sure that she is napping during the day properly. i find that if cooper doesn't have good naps he's harder to settle at night. i've also started to leave him to settle himself as well and doing the normal stuff they tell you in the books to go and reassure and wander in and out...blabla. he doesn't get really worked up - but if he does i usually will pick him up and soothe him and then put him back down (i know, they tell you not to do that - but whatever - you have to do what your gut tells you).
she may be starting to cut teeth - or going through a growth spurt (which cooper did last week and his sleep was unsettled) - so she might be harder to put down at night.
hope this helps a little bit... i think the napping part is a big key.

chelle4 · 01-18-2005, 08:50 AM

if baby has gone to sleep after 10 min of crying that's wonderful!! mine would take much longer at some times. please don't fall pray to guilt. although we would never want our children to feel abandoned by us, i don't think it causes any harm for them to learn how to comfort themselves after all you won't be there at every moment in their life when they need comfort.
my own kids would take a little longer when we first started to make them go to sleep on their own, i just checked them every 10 min or so to make sure they hadn't dirtied their diaper or tangled in a blankie or something.

amandsu · 01-23-2005, 12:21 AM

you could try a nice bath just before bed to tire him out and also letting him cry for awhile isn't terrible at all. You need to not feel guilty honey!