Mumsnet Talk

...we were doing so well.

DS, 9 months was regularly having 1.5 hour naps in his cots morning and afternoon. I'd lay him down, put his little scout dog thing on, lay on the bed next to him and he would play for a few minutes, then nod off. Hooray me, it took me a while to get to that point btw!

Since he's been able to pull himself up all he wants to do when I put him down is stand up! cruises round the rails, licks the walls, falls about and generally does anything except sleep.

So, I let him do this while I potter about, then lay him down, he gets up and so we go on....this morning it took an hour and 15 minutes of will battling and furious screeching until he finally gave in. Yesterday I gave up after an hour and a half.

Does anyone have any advice or do I just have to get on with it until he gets his head back around the fact that cots are for sleeps?!

It might be that he is starting to need a little less sleep. Try putting him down for his nap half and hour later. With mine I have to be honest and say that I let them to it after putting on the mobile and they would move around and then lay down on their own eventually if they were tired enough. They do resist a bit more as they can now get around but it is probably a novelty at the mo

It's developmental. If he's just started to stand up then it will interfere with sleep. All children do it. Usually 8/9 months ish so bang on time too! It's because his brain's finally mastered how to stand up and it's telling him to practise it. Once he's mastered it, he'll stop standing up the second you lie him down. Until he's ready to walk unaided (you've got about 2 months on average before this developmental leap) and then he'll start doing the same thing again.

It's like learning to drive. At first you have to 'think' how to do it. You have to remember where each gear is, how to stop, sequences of pulling off, rules of the road etc. It takes massive, massive brain space. You dream about it, lie in bed going over it etc. It's consuming. Then suddenly one day you get in the car and drive to the shop without thinking about it once.

Give his brain chance to catch up, store the info and he'll sleep better again. Promise. You just do what you need to in order to help him sleep. If that's cuddling or pushing him in a pushchair or whatever it takes then rely on it and it will pass.

Thank you, thank you. All makes perfect sense and always good to know that he's developmentally on track. I did think about getting his buggy in but worried it would bigger up the lovely little routine I'd managed to eke out. He's also teething and the second he's awake in the night he's up on his feet, takes an hour or so to settle again. Tough going but I'll grit my teeth and haul the buggy out of the car.

I had similar thing once ds started standing in his cot. I would put him down and he'd jump right up again grinning in that 'aren't I so clever' kind of way! I think he eventually did settle down a bit, but also about this time I introduced a blankie. He hadn't been interested before but about ~9mo he started being interested, so after a while I'd give him that and he'd immediately start sucking his thumb and know it was nap time. Now he totally has the association that blankie = nap (we don't give it to him any other time). Not to say he still doesn't dance around in his cot when he's supposed to be sleeping, but I guess it's just another cue that helps give the signal.