Baby screaming when dad does bedtime

What happens if you are still in the room while daddy does bedtime? That way she can still see you but once she's used to that can wean yourself away. Could it be he's doing something slightly differently?

I’ve tried being in the room and she still cries until I physically touch her. He’s doing literally everything I’m doing.

Ours has just started doing exactly the same also just turned 5 months and I think for the same scenario you describe, very much hoping it's just a phase!

Here for the comments because that’s what’s happening with my 4 month old too. Perfectly fine with him all day but once it’s nighttime and I shower it’s all over. She’ll cry and scream until I’m able to put her to bed. Even tried laying her down in the bed and screamed until I got her. It’s weird because she won’t even take a bottle from him when it’s bedtime. She’ll wait for me.

Omg I am literally reading this while hearing my 5 month old scream while dad does bedtime! It’s so hard because I always rush up there and take over because I can’t listen to her scream like that it’s awful but he gets really disappointed because he only gets a couple of hours with her after work so bedtime is a nice bonding time for him. So I’m trying my best to stay away😢

I posted exactly the same thing a few weeks back, she still would cry time to time but we worked out that little ones wake window is 3 hours between last nap and bed time so when dad was trying to put her down she didn’t want it and would scream. Now when it is actually her time to go to sleep and been around 3 hours she’s much more settled with my partner.

Have you tried maybe giving dad something that smells like you? Might not work, but may be worth a go!

Sounds like leap 5 is underway - at this age they become aware of distance not only of objects etc but also between you and them. You may even find they start being clingy and/or cry when you move across the room. It will pass, but for now, I would try bedtimes together with dad xx

@Natalia We think that tonight was particularly rough because she got overtired. She got put into bed at the exact wake window time but because she took longer to settle with dad she ended up past her window and therefore got super stressed and overtired. Were you finding that if dad put her down too early she’d cry?

@Charlotte one day he basically let her just lie next do him on the bed and he read the book to her and she was much happier, she then got a little bit more tired and dad would be able to settle her. We usually tried to put her to sleep 2 hours after last nap, now we moved to 3, sometimes 3.5, she is just not tired before then. We also don’t have any tv on or any loud noises after her last nap. We go for a walk and only do gentle play before bed. Bath is more playful as she loves it and then lotion, pjs and bottle. I believe this helped as well. It could be that it was a phase as well that started early for us and is passing now but deffo not having tv on and letting her chill next to us or just chill in the crib for an extra hour helped her a lot.

@Charlotte maybe just try seeing if she wants to chill for extra half hour before trying to settle her ? We found that sometimes even extra 15 mins would make a difference. I can deffo see that our daughter is showing us when she doesn’t want something by crying, she would do the same when I offer her breast and she isn’t hungry, she would just cry to let me know she doesn’t want it😂 and exactly the same, I would wait half hour to an hour and offer again and she would take it fine.

We are the exact same with my 4.5 month old. Everyone keeps telling me it's just a phase and alot of babies do this. On the bright side, it's nice that our babies are so comfortable with us and have such a bond ❤️ but equally I get it's so hard to see dad's frustrated with it and feel let down that LOs only settle with us. I'm sticking with it's just a phase! Xx