Trouble getting baby to sleep, won't quit crawling

Casey - posted on 12/22/2009

strapping your baby to the crib...give me a break. if american moms find an excuse for treating their kids bad i dont no who else does. like crying it out and now this. babies dont talk crying is there only way to communicate. if hes teething or sick he wants comforted not to mention how does a child even learn to soothe themselves...they cant is the answer moms just dont want bothered so they make like they can. its redicilous how inconsiderate some people can be. breastfeed your baby to sleep and rock him... cuddle and sing to him why would you not want him to be secure that your not gonna leave him and make him cry. jeeze

Casey - posted on 12/14/2009

this is most likely your sons way of saying hey mom im a bit older and dont want all these naps! my son went through this phase and i just went with it we would play and then he would come to me rubbing his eyes and wanting to nurse for comfort to sleep. i went with it and day in and day out that was out new schedule. instead of his nap in the am from 9 to ten it was 12 to 1. and pm normally from 2 to 330 it was 3 to 4 ish, and bedtime at 830! seems to be working great. good luck

Julia - posted on 10/25/2009

Safe-T-sleep!!!! That's what you need.....so you can strap them into their crib/cot!! I've used it on all my three and it is that age where they just want to crawl around the crib and get over tired and things get 'messy' They do get to a point where they do get up on their hands and knees and strong enough to twist around so that's when I put them into a sleep sack so they kept covered and warm...and it is more difficult to move around in them. Hope this helps!

Amy - posted on 10/25/2009

My daughter has fallen asleep easily for some time now but all of a sudden is doing the same... she's flipping, crawling and getting stuck in the corners of her crib. Once she gets truly frustrated, I go in, pick her up for a few minutes and put her back down. After a few tries, she is exhausted and falls asleep.

Heather - posted on 10/24/2009

We're going through it too. Mine tries turning over to crawl while he's nursing, then gets made when he loses his latch on. We have taken to swaddling him again. It's the only way he'll go to sleep. He's out in 3 minutes with the swaddle, without, he's crawling all over, pulling himself up, crying.

Tonya - posted on 10/21/2009

I think it might have to do with teething. He just got his bottom 2 and now you can see the top 4 are coming in as well. He must be in pain and then wake up to crawl. I tried baby tylenol last night and it helped some.
It is crazy that he doesn't sleep. We let him crawl around for at least an hour 3 times a day! He also play in his walker, exersaucer, and bouncer. He is insane in the bathtub with the kicking and flipping too. I think we have one of the most active babies ever!
The sleep sacks are helping but good grief! I keep telling myself it will only be a year of my life without sleep :).

Amanda - posted on 10/21/2009

my daughter went through the same thing and my husband and I found that we got her to stop by letting her be active during the day. Sure, it was a pain because I would have to follow behind her as she went through the house but I tell you what, she would go right to sleep at night once she got her crawling. My husband and I call it the "wear em out method" :)

Tonya - posted on 10/21/2009

We just remembered we had sleep sacks. We now put our son in it and he just struggles a few minutes with trying to crawl and then goes to sleep. Thankfully they prevent him from crawling as much.

Stacy - posted on 10/20/2009

My son is also too busy to stop and sleep, but the fisher price music box is the biggest help! he can sit up and turn it on himself and he likes to watch it until he gets tired and grabs his lovey'

Amanda - posted on 10/16/2009

is he getting enough sleep during the day? Not having enough naps can cause baby to sleep badly at night. Does he take a binky? Have you tried holding him and walking/rocking til he calms down. Pat his bottom and slowly put him back in the crib and continue patting his bottom so that he doesn't get distressed that you've put him down. My little man like when I'm close as possible so I'll lean over the crib and let my hair fall on him. And it may take a while, but he'll calm down. And if you keep the lights dim while you're doing all this and slowly wean your pats, he may not even notice when you stop and slip out the room. This has worked for me, I hope it helps you.

Tonya - posted on 10/16/2009

He has actually gotten worse! He now wakes up and crawls all over the crib with his eyes closed, screaming at night. He hits the sides and gets stuck in the corner. He did it 7 times last night!!!!!! He will go back to sleep if we feed him but I don't want to start that habit since we just stopped him from eating all night and he now only eats once or twice. I am hoping this won't last much longer. I'm also going to put him in one of those halo fleece like gowns to hopefully keep him still. The funny thing is that I love watching him crawl and building tunnels all day to get him going so you'd think this poor baby would be exhausted!

April - posted on 10/15/2009

My daughter does that too, but she does it when she is still hungry. As soon as I feed her, she falls asleep. She does it sometimes too when her teeth are hurting her so I will give her a little bit of baby tylenol.

Aideen - posted on 10/15/2009

My little fella is co-sleeping with us and crawls all over the bed too! He's sleeping much less than before now that he's so interested in exploring the world. I find if I keep him active all day playing and cuddling...he's tireder by bedtime and can get to sleep much easier.
I really don't think they are trying to annoy us/get control/drive us insane...babies are 'programmed' to do what is healthy for them and if this includes crawling when we want them to sleep or waking in the middle of the night we have to compromise a little at least. Babies are hard work, if they could appologise or explain im sure they would. As much love, patience and understanding as possible will ensure a secure realationship with you and a child who feels secure and sure that their needs will be met...making parenting easier in the longterm.

Jennifer - posted on 10/15/2009

my son does this too but i just keep laying with him and he eventually just passes out

Katie - posted on 10/14/2009

side note - we don't let him cry for 1 hour straight. if he is crying for more than 10 min we will settle him down, but we try not to rock him to sleep...just something we haven't done much with him. since day 1 home from the hospital he has slep in his crib without much trouble. just until he started crawling have we been having a bit more trouble...but tonight was very easy. he's back to going down quickly! we have also found that if he's fussing a bit more than usual we make sure he's had enough to eat. sometimes he doesn't want to sleep because he's still hungry!

Dawn - posted on 10/13/2009

I keep wondering if I am wrong for this, but I don't see the big importance at this time for self soothing to sleep. If my infant is not ready to sleep I will let him play a few minutes longer and then rock him in my arms and sing him to sleep. It is a little extra work, but honestly I have tried the cry method and he is always up longer that way. I can remember my mother tucking me in and rubbing my back to soothe me to sleep, I hate thinking about him falling asleep upset! I do however agree with the bedtime routine. We have ours down and I get very little complaints from him about going to sleep. I get most of the fits when he awakes at night (not often anymore, but we had a serious fit last night) and doesn't want to go back to sleep.

Katie - posted on 10/13/2009

Your not alone! We are going thru that right now! Carson just wants to sit up, crawl all over his crib. We just keep going in and laying him back down. Try not to talk to him when you go in. Just go in lay him down give him a lovey/binkey/music/etc. and walk away. It's so hard to listen to they cry and not want to sleep. But eventually they will give in. Keep going in don't give in (even when your at your wits end) because he's getting his way. He'll learn again how to sooth himself to sleep...he's just really interested in crawling moving right now! I feel your pain...we've been battling sleeping and naps since last week..when he learned to crawl! Last night it took almost 1 hour to get Carson to sleep which used to be about a 5 min routine!

Amanda - posted on 10/13/2009

If you habe not tried getting one of the items that plays music and projects a light show on the ceiling or wall, you may want to try that. Also, do you have a bed time routine (like reading a book, rocking, giving a bath), as routine for bed time is VERY important.

Joy - posted on 10/09/2009

I let Donovan play or crawl around/ stand until he's ready to lay down and go to sleep. I just keep the lights dim and soft music playing in the background, sometimes he's falls over and snoozes to the sound on rain. I put him to the bed, leave the room and that's pretty much it for me.

Brooke - posted on 10/09/2009

My son had this problem. When he started rolling over is when it started. He'd roll to his stomach and get mad, cause he couldn't roll back over yet. So, i'd put him in his swing, until he learned how to roll all the way over (about 2 days after that). Then he started crawling...He wouldn't stop. He was like the energizer bunny. I'd lay in bed watching him on the baby monitor wishing he'd eventually fall asleep, but he'd just get up crawl around and cry. I asked the pediatrician what to do and he said "let him cry." That night, i swear he cried for an hour, but he eventually fell asleep on his own. (making it clear, that i've always put him to sleep, he needed to learn how to fall asleep himself (point taken)) He now is walking around the crib. It takes him about 20min to even lay down in his crib, but he doesn't cry himself to sleep anymore. You do what you think is best! :0) Good luck!

Mickey - posted on 10/07/2009

its the age, the crawling thing is new to him and he might be excited that he is able to get to places (and into things) without mommy around. My kiddo is only taking 1-2 naps a day, if I try to put him down for one more he is all over the place, so you may want him to stay awake longer and have less naps.

Jolene - posted on 10/07/2009

My son has been acting similar. He likes to crawl around and pull up on his crib and stand. I will go into his room after he cries and lay him down on his back and cover him with his blanket and say it's sleep time. Sometimes I have to do this several times and sometimes only once. This works for me- Wish you luck.