Naps. What naps?

[clurina32]

OK so am at end of my tether....again! My 8 month old will not nap. At best we manage 1 hr per day but its normally about 20/30 mins?! Surely this isn't normal??

We did some sleep training and got rid of dummy which has worked well for us at night despite some early wake ups. She is teething and has just cut her first two teeth.

I seem to get such conflicting advice from everyone. HV said 'well maybe she doesn't need to nap much?' which I found very helpful :/ Then I read everywhere that babies her age should be getting at least 2.5hrs per day in order for them to sleep well at night. The thing is she shows all signs of tiredness and is irritable and yawning, rubbing eyes etc. I time it to two hours after she has woken to try and get the timing right. I dont know what i'm doing wrong.

I know all babies are different blah blah, but she used to nap so well and now its a gone horribly wrong. I feel like I dont have time to do anything!! My 3 yr old is reacting to it as I dont have special time with him, its hard. Please someone tell me they went through same thing and it got better!!!!

[tinymeteor]

In my experience 8 months was a shit age for sleep, naps and nighttime. Teeth plus massive developmental leaps sends it all to pit for a while.

Routine helped for us - I didn't do a strict routine generally as not my style, but around 9 months I did a couple of weeks of doing everything exactly to schedule. Involved waking her up at set times as well as putting her down for naps at the same time every day, fixed meal times etc. Activities and social stuff came second for a fortnight while we focused on the routine. Naps were much better when they became predictable for her, and once that was established we could ease off the routine again.

[tinymeteor]

All to pot, that is!

[clurina32]

thanks tinymeteor, that is something that has crossed my mind to do. We dont have a set routine, purely because when my son isn't at pre school we have to do lots of activity to keep him entertained and happy! My daughter's naps kind of fit in with that. Also she tends to wake up at differen ttimes in the morning at the moment so the naps are always at different times everyday.

Flippin growth spurts!!! Surely we grow everyday until we are adults!! I dont get it, but I guess if must be something like that....and the teeth. I only really remember my son's nap routine from 1yr onwards so everything before that must have been terrible too! I have just chosen to forget.... ;)

[clurina32]

bump....does anyone else have experience of this at 8 months? Did the lunchtime nap gradually sort itself out? I really don't know what to do! At the moment its 40 mins nap in the morning which is fine, but the lunchtime nap is averaging 30mins. I've tried everything and every checklist has been checked! She refuses to go down for a later nap too, tried that one.

[JuxtapositionRecords]

Agree 8/9 months is shit for sleep. My advice is pick 2 nap times that will work for your family everyday and stick to them religiously for a couple of weeks. Even if she wakes earlier than normal, just keep at those times.

[Murphyslaw21]

Mine is 9 months. Just changed naps. She was struggling too much in evening. So now up at 7 naps at 12 till 1.30 sometimes 2.

Cat naps (15 mins) around 4. Then bed at 7.

She was previously having an hour in afternoon but I've stopped that and she is tired at 7 and goes through now. Dropped 10pm dream feed for around three weeks

[waitingforsomething]

My almost 8mo is up at 6. Naps 9-10.30 then the rest of the day is anyone's guess! He usually ends up having half an hour in the car or pushchair because he fights so hard in the afternoon that it makes everyone Miserable. He goes to bed at 6.30pm. I have made peace with this and accept that by about 1 he will probably be on 1 midday- ish nap. When I just had dd I fretted about naps all the time but with him I am just doing whatever I can so we can all get on with the day! I know he should probably have a bit more but he won't so not much I can do!

[Louise43210]

Mine were all bad for this except 1 of them (I have 4). In the end I used to close the curtains in lounge at 2 o clock and make little beds on the settee / floor. They rested for 1/2 hour with quiet TV on. (I cat napped - think it was for me really).

[angelicjen]

Bloody sleep books! They may tell us babies will nap for that long but I know very few who do.
Mine is 7 months and also a 30 minuter. I've had to learn to go with it. I have to put him in his pushchair and rock him to sleep every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. We get 3 naps of half an hour. He seems ok.

[Sparrowlegs248]

Ugh. My boy is 7.5months and a bad napper. I am trying to instill asap routine by bf to sleep and bloody staying with him. Wakes if I move/put him down. Won't sleep if I put him down awake. This was working well. Two naps a day for between 30 and 90 minutes. Last two days he has totally refused his second nap. Just as I was hoping he'd developed a habit and I could start on cot napping

[trixymalixy]

My DD never seemed to need to nap which was a it of a shock as DS could nap for hours then go down at night no bother. She still doesn't need much sleep aged 6.