LO is a little over 5 months old and for the last several weeks we have been trying to get her to learn to fall asleep on her own (as opposed to nursing or rocking to sleep--mainly because they both stopped working).

We decided to do it for both naptime and bedtime... and it has worked like a charm for naps! She'll fuss, babble, or sometimes mildly cry for maybe 5-10 minutes (often less) and then pass out. (Now she's still only taking short, typically 30 min naps... but that's another issue.)

But bedtime... she HATES it! She will cry and cry. Last night it took her 45 minutes to fall asleep... and then she woke up 45 minutes later. We're following the same sleepy cues as we do for naps, same routine (or lack thereof - we don't do much). The only thing that is different is the time of day and I guess the darkness of the room.

My husband thinks she is afraid of the dark or something... but she'll go back to bed when waking to eat usually with no problem, and will go down fine for naps in late afternoon when it's getting dark.

Thoughts? What can we be doing differently at bedtime? I feel like I've heard most people say the opposite - bedtime worked before naps.

Oh and before she turned 4 months, she would go down by rocking or nursing, and sleep nice long stretches of 6-8 hours before waking for a feed and then back down for a few more hours. Ever since, though, she has problems falling asleep and staying asleep.