Apologies for the long thread but I feel I need to explain the whole situation.
My DD has never napped well since being 3 months old. She gets very tired but literally fights sleep (shaking her head, screaming). We have tried everything we can think of and it's making our lives miserable. When she naps well she is a lovely, happy, smiley baby and sleeps well at night. When she's tired, she screams all day long (not crying at first just screaming, she's not ill) and I can't do anything or go anywhere. Some info:
Sleeping in car - will do sometimes but wakes as soon as we stop driving. Sometimes drive for over an hour and she won't sleep
Sleeping in pram - does very occasionally, have walked up to 2.5 hours with no sleep
Sleeping in cot - completely random. Sometimes goes to sleep first time, sometimes takes 1.5 hours for a 45 minute nap. This is the method we mainly use. We don't pick her up once she's in the cot (unless it takes 1.5 hours at which point I give up).
Things we've tried:
Routine - does not suit her at all. Some days she's more tired than others (especially if we've been swimming etc)
Putting her down when she looks tired (rubbing eyes, yawns) - works sometimes, others times fails miserably
Putting her on her tummy and rubbing her back in case she has wind - this worked for a couple of days, then she worked out what we were doing and screamed every time we tried to turn her over
Using a mobile - she ignores it
Very mild controlled crying (going to see her every 2 mins, getting gradually longer). It seems the more we go in to 'settle' her, the worse she becomes and screams the place down. I'm not prepared to let her cry it out.
PUPD - just winds her up unbelievably
We have been consistent with what we've done and sometimes it works, then it all goes pear shaped and we're back to square one.
She's not fed to sleep and can settle herself to sleep during the night (if she's slept well in the day she only wakes once for a quick feed).
She sometimes falls asleep lying on her playmat but again it's completely random.
She only ever sleeps for 45 minutes at a time (tried to get her to sleep longer but that ended in tears). She seems to need a lot of sleep, 12-13 hours overnight and 3-4 hours during the day.
Any help would be really appreciated. My days are a nightmare. I can't go out for the day as she won't sleep and screams all day. If I stay home I spend all day walking up and down stairs trying to get her to sleep.
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Behaviour/development
6 month old won't nap, days are a nightmare, please help!!!!
8 replies
tinybaba · 20/06/2009 10:02
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