Anyone else have a super wriggly baby at bedtime?

[kdescalzi]

Hi mamas

All of a sudden my 5 mo old is taking up to 2 hours to fall asleep at bedtime. She is not necessarily unhappy but very squirmy and restless. Her eyes are mostly closed as she is kicking me and pulling at everything she can reach. We already do a warm bath with essential oils and nurse to sleep. I can't figure out what she wants. If I just give up on the nursing for a few minutes to give my back a break she is clearly fussy and wants to go to sleep. Any advice on how to calm her little body down? Anyone else have their lo start something like this at this age?

[Sheryl1678]

In my experience, the squirming while essentially asleep can also be a discomfort issue like teething or ear infection but most often it is a potty issue. We have practiced EC since birth and I am still shocked at how long she will "hold it" while squirming in her sleep and finally rest once she goes.

[Amber Lion]

My DD was learning to crawl at that age and it had a HUGE impact on her sleep habits. She would literally try to get up and crawl *while* she was nursing and would frequently do so in her sleep and it would wake her up. So I'm wondering if there's a milestone she's working on that's keeping her too wound up to settle in? It was a tough time, but like everything, has passed. There wasn't much I could do at the time except grit my teeth and wrestle her to sleep, which is unhelpful, sorry!

[Amber Lion]

Oh! I just remembered something that helped! We did a sort of compression type massage; I would cup my hand and just squeeze her, up and down her back and legs and arms and neck, over and over as much as I could while she'd squirm all over me and nurse. Sometimes it'd calm her right down, others not so much, but you could give it a try!

[metafisica]

hahaha, thought i was the only one...DS did that while he was learning to crawl and he'd be crawling while nursing and falling aslee, he would also crawl-sleep in the night, LOL...I stopped nursing him in bed, and started putting him asleep with him in my lap, cradle-hold, my arms rested on my knees which i was constantly moving up and down....then id transfer him to bed...it's a stage that lasted about 2 months for us..hold in there!!!