Should I try to get my 5 month old to nap at the first signs of tiredness?

[Siesta]

My Ds is 5 months old. He wakes up 4 or 5 times a night and I usually end up feeding him to sleep. He also hates napping. It can take 1.5 hours to get him to nap and usually he doesn't nap for more than 40 minutes. He often shows signs of tiredness less than an hour after waking up.

We are both so tired! Can anyone offer any advice? Should I be trying to get him to nap at the first signs of tiredness even if it's only half an hour after he has woken up?

[CityDweller]

Yes, I'd try that as sounds like he's chronically overtired. What do you do to get him to nap?

[Siesta]

Thanks for replying CityDweller. At the moment I try a dummy but he doesn't really like it. He usually spits it out. I hold him and rock him a bit. We used to walk him to sleep but it would take a long time and my partner has a bad back, so we try to avoid that. I also try to avoid feeding him to sleep during the day. I've also tried picking him up to settle him and then putting him back down. And also shushing and patting.

To be honest I'm not at all consistent, which is probably part of the problem! This is my first and I don't really know what I'm doing, so I don't know what to persist with.

[Jesabel]

I'd try to get him into a good nap routine, 3 times a day, any way you can - feeding, rocking etc. Maybe try a swing if he needs movement?

[luckiestgirlintheworld]

I'd give him a feed when he acts tired and hopefully he'll feed to sleep. 40 mins for a nap seems fine. 3 or 4 of those a day should be just fine.

[Siesta]

Thanks for the replies. He's asleep now. I'll see what tomorrow brings!

[Bumpingalong84]

Hi, I am also a first time mum and have a 4month old baby! She was so grumpy last month and after reading up about sleep figured she wasn't napping enoughas it said they need 4-5hours sleep a day!! So my method now is as soon as she starts looking sleepy I snuggle her into my chest with a dummy and a nice soft muslin, I think I've made this muslin her comforter now it's soft and I put it across her cheek(always use the same one) and now 3weeks later she naps into me and then I put her down and she's fine, it's helped her night sleep too. She loves the Muslim near her now when she sleeps which should hopefully help her resettle herself when she's in her own room.

Hope your little sleeps better, it's so tough with lack of sleep

[Siesta]

That sounds like a great tip bumping I'll definitely give that a try.

[frangipani13]

Could you try taking your LO out for a walk in the pram to get a nap in? If my LO doesn't nap easily I do this...

[clevername]

I struggled to get my dd to sleep in the day at all for the first few months... It was doing my head in (she was often really grumpy) so I did some googling and came across this idea of following a pattern in the day, rather than a time-based 'routine'. The pattern was something like 'sleep, eat, play, repeat' (that fat boy slim song 'eat sleep rave repeat' was around at the time so that's how I remembered it!). It was a revelation for us - I ignored the clock, followed the pattern and she settled for naps so much more easily.

I've since passed the advice on to a new mum I know and she's had similar success.

I'm afraid I can't find the website/blog I got this from so I'm sorry this is a bit vague!

[ACatCalledFang]

The routine clevername refers to is the EASY routine - we don't use it as I'd never get mine to nap at home without feeding to sleep, but I've seen it referred to on here a lot. Stands for Eat (on waking), Awake time, Sleep, You time (while baby sleeps).