Screaming/ Crying before sleep in 5 month old

[yuukalim0404]

Baby is now 5months. I since last posted she needs to be carried before sleep. These days she simply fights sleep! I have a few problems and hope someone can offer some advice...
1) She yawns, rubs her eyes, basically is very tired but when I put her in the sleep position and tries to rock her, she crys volently, kicks, struggles and scream, after rocking her fast and hard and basically I need to talk/yell?? really loudly to cover her voice, then she will fall asleep, this whole process usualy takes 5-15mins.
Then she wakes up at any slightest sound and sometimes just patting her or talking to her, she falls back asleep, sometimes it doesnt work and I have to carry her again, but usually she falls asleep quite quickly say 5mins. after these, usually she will fall to a deep sleep through the night from 12am till 7am.

2) As of above, if she wakes and my hubby or anyone else for that matter tries to comfort/carry her, she just continues to cry and it just gets even louder and harder. Then when i carry her, she stops! but when my hubby plays with her and change her nappys she is usually a very happy baby.
Why is my baby reacting like this and is this quite common for a 5months old or should i take some action?

I have tired CIO once, it does not work beacause the minute i put her down wide awake, she crys and does not stop even if i talk to her or pat her and she can go on and on for a full 30mins without even looking the least bit of sleepy, and the last time round, she cried so bad that she got a really hoarse voice the next day.

The last 3 days I tired to have some sleep rountine, eg wipe her hands, read a book, listen to some music and then try to rock her to sleep, but she still struggles and crys...
sorry for the really long post but this sleep problem is really disrupting my schedule that i now take leave away from work trying to work out a schedule of some sort for my girl first so any advice will be very much appreciated!!

 

[MLBW]

Based on what you said in point number one, I think she may be over-tired by the time that you get to the point of putting her to bed. My son reaches "the point of no return" when he gets overtired--then he does exactly what your baby is doing (he has done this his whole life--now he is 14-months-old)--he "fights" sleep--it's like he is screaming and fussing to try to shut out the rest of the world--it appears to us moms that he/she doesn't want to sleep but the opposite is true. It's like he/she is saying, "I am so tired that I am having trouble letting myself relax to go to sleep." I assume it similar to how I, myself feel, when I am super exhausted. Have you ever gone to bed after a super exhausting day, only to find that you have trouble sleeping--maybe too many things still stimulating your mind or your body is running on only adrenaline because you have used up all your energy already? I think it might be the same for babies.

So, I think maybe it would be good to really keep track of some things over a few day period. If your daughter has never had a sleep routine and you are starting one at 5 months it probably will take at least 2 weeks for her to start to adjust to that. You have to be faithful to the routine as it takes time to establish a habit--if you show consistency, your baby will learn the new schedule but if you change it only after a few days because "it's not working" then you will never get anywhere with a new routine. You'll need consistency in the actual routine (what you do) as well as the time (when you do it) and the place (where you do it).

I recommend giving her a bath in the evening--warm water is soothing for everyone--take your time to play with her but don't keep her up too late--if she's waking up at 7 am, it is likely that she needs to be asleep by 7 or 8 pm at the latest. Our son gets up at a similar time and if we push him too much further past 8 pm we have trouble helping him get to sleep. You mentioned that you work so maybe you get home later in the evening and want to spend that extra time with your daughter so you keep her up later than she should be up? I know this is the case with some HK people. You really do have to respect that she needs to sleep earlier than is usually convenient.

After the bath it's a good idea to do the book reading or game playing in a quiet way--but if she is already ready to sleep, don't make her do that stuff--just go straight to giving her her bottle (if she still takes one before sleep--our son does and it helps him sleep through the night).

When I feed my son, I already have turned off the lights in the room (making it completely dark) so when he is finished, I pray with him and put him directly into his bed. While I am feeding him, I sing to him--if I were to play music on a stereo for him, it would be too distracting as he is especially fond of music and it makes him curious and wakes him up--even slow, soothing music is not suitable for my son's personality if I am trying to get him to sleep.

I would spend the next few days watching for little signs so that when your daughter shows the first signs of tiredness--even little ones you can slowly begin preparing her for sleep...it shouldn't be a rushed process if it is meant to be relaxing. Especially watch for little "tired signs" that you may be missing. With our son, when he starts to "space out", yawn, throw his head from side to side or play with his ears, we know he is starting to get tired...also, we notice that before he gets to the "point of no return" he usually gets really silly--laughing easily at anything...what we call rummy. By the time our son is actually rubbing his eyes he is nearly exhausted--it is individual for every baby--but we know that is one of his signs.

I don't know if any of this is suitable for your particular situation. Do you have a domestic helper? If so, she needs to be in on this--she needs to be trained to do everything on a schedule and that will help your daughter. Also ask about naptimes--is she sleeping enough during the day--if she doesn't get any nap at all she may be super exhausted by nighttime.

I think it's the details that count.

Hope you find a solution that works.

 

[RiRa]

Thank you !

Dear MLBW and the rest !

I am based in India, and one fine day, I was really upset in the middle of the night and was desperate to know what is the solution for not letting my 5 month old cry before sleeing.At 12.00 in the mid night, I switched on my latop and started googling, to see if anyone has gone thru , what I am going thru.And I landed on geobaby.com. I read the post written by yuukalim0404 She has the same patter than yuukalim0404 defined in her post. ABSOLUTELY SAME. After reading all the posts in this matter at geobaby.com, I finally decided to try it out.

To my MIRACLE and Gods mercy...it worked . My daughter did not cry and iota, once i tried the techniques suggested. Now, I very religiously do put her to bed on time, switch off all the lights, soothe her, sing some soft songs ( basically hum) , keep lots of soft pillows around her( she just loves them). and Puff!! there is is snoring away to glory.

This method is working fine for the last 3 weeks. No more holding her, and rocking her and running around to make her stop cry. No more late nights. I hope this continues for good and she learns the art of 'going on to sleep on her own'.

Thanks to Geobaby and all the members in the forum !

RiRa