Some sleep questions for a 7m old

[swamitjanet]

7m old dd doesn't sleep great, on a good night it's two wakeups, on an average night it's 3 and on a bad night it god knows how many.
I'm trying to sort her naps out in the hope it makes night time sleep better, she generally only naps for 45 minutes but every now and again will surprise me and sleep longer.

I generally put her down about 2 hours after she wakes up for the day and she goes off pretty well, the rest of the day I'm clueless about, any ideas on what I should aim for? It's no good looking for tired signs cos she seems like she's tired all the time
Is two hours initially too long if she's had a bad night?

THANKS IN ADVANCE I'M DYING OF TIREDESS HERE

[Diddlydokey]

7 months is when they have generally drop to two naps. Some people use the 2-3-4 routine and others go for 3 hours. Routine examples would be

7 am wake
9-10.30 nap
1.30-3 nap
bed at 7

Or

7am wake
10-11.30 nap
2.30-4 nap
7pm sleep

It is quite a good time to change to a by the clock routine so despite what time she wakes up, always aim for naps at the same time in the day. It is then good for structuring with the minefield of solid and milk feeds.

HTH

[Hopelass]

I did the 2-3-4 thing as suggested above with DS at around 7 months and it worked brilliantly So as above he woke at 7, up for 2 hours, napped, up for 3 hours, napped, up for 4 hours, bed. This worked for months!
Unfortunately he's now 2.7 and wakes up at 5am and won't go to sleep until gone 8pm but that's a whole other thread.........

[swamitjanet]

The thing is the first nap is rarely longer than 45 mins so I don't think she's ready for the 2-3-4 yet..every day I pray it's the day she'll extend naps but I'm still waiting!

[Hopelass]

I remember that phase well. One day she'll surprise you! Is there a way you could try it but slightly adapted? I sure my son only had 1/2 an hour first nap so it went:

Wake at 7
Nap 9.30-10
Nap 1-3
Bed 7

Not exactly 2-3-4 then but the same principle and it got us into a nice routine. For the second nap I think I tended to try and resettle him if he woke too early and eventually it clicked and he'd go for 2 hours. It's to do with their natural sleep cycle pattern. So they need to learn to self settle when they stir at the end of a cycle. You have my sympathies I was fraught at this stage but it does get easier!

[Diddlydokey]

It's a bit chicken and egg. Do the routine for 5 days by the clock and she'll start to nap for longer.

You can't judge a change by one day, it can take a week to slot into place

[CobsAhoy]

The 234 worked well for me too, I started at about 6.5 months I think, at that point it was about 50/50 if she had a decent (60mins+) or crap (45mins-) nap but I stuck to the times (ish), it just meant bed time was a bit earlier on the crappy nap days, over a couple a weeks the crap naps gradually became the exception rather than the rule and now my 8mo DDs naps are fairly consistently 90mins.

[swamitjanet]

Ok great thanks everyone I'll aim for the 2-3-4 then and really focus on trying to resettle her for the 2nd nap, I've got no plans this week so mission nap extension is on.

[Diddlydokey]

If she's really consistent about waking up g in 5 minutes before scheduled waking up time and try to help her through it before she fully wakes up

[swamitjanet]

So she slept for an hour at 8.30 which was great for her, but when I put her down at 12.30 she's woken up after half a sodding hour AGH i just want to rest for an hour I'm so fed up. Any attempt to resettle her is just pissing her off.

Ughhuuhdkdkdjjddj

[Diddlydokey]

Bugger. I'd leave it now and just try to have a chilled out afternoon. Is 6.30 her usual wake up time?

If it is I'd aim for naps at 8.30 and and 1pm

[swamitjanet]

Thanks yeah she normally wakes up sometimes between 6.15-7, I'll have to try and get her to have another nano nap before bedtime otherwise she'll have a meltdown. Will try again tomorrow!

[Diddlydokey]

I think it is always a bit painful going through transitions from 3-2, 2-1 and 1-0 naps.

We're now at no naps though and it was me that struggled without it rather than DS!

Good luck tomorrow. If she can push through without the nap i'd try to stick to 2

[RiverTam]

At this age DD was in 3 naps, 9 - 10.30, 2-2.30 and 4-4.30. I think, it's a while ago, but definitely the long nap was in the morning and two short ones in the afternoon.

She was a good nighttime sleeper though.

[swamitjanet]

So this mornings nap was 45 mins and this afternoon's was 40 mins..ugh not sure whether to keep going with it..when I go in there she is literally beaming at me and if I try and put the dummy back in she gets furious

I got her through to bedtime without an extra nap yesterday and she actually slept much better so not sure if this an indication that she definitely is ready for 2 naps.

Why are babies so confusing.

[Diddlydokey]

If she's happy enough then I'd carry on. Good job on getting her through to bedtime on the two naps.

What time did she wake up and when did you put her down?

[Diddlydokey]

Glad you had a better night too.

[Diddlydokey]

Ooh, the dummy is interesting. Can she find the dummy and put it back in herself? I dropped the dummy for sleep at around this age as with it DS napped for 45 minutes but without it he slept for longer.

[swamitjanet]

So she woke up about 6.15 and she napped 8.15-9 then we went out and came back for about 11.30 and she went down for the second nap at just after 12 and woke up at ten to 1. Do you think I should've kept her awake a bit longer before the 2nd nap? She was getting pretty grumpy.

I know she can put the dummy back in but it still requires quite a lot of effort from her, I only have it in the cot so she doesn't really play around with it at other times. I could try her without it but she normally sleepily opens her mouth for it once she's finished feeding!

Thanks for coaching me through this diddly

[Diddlydokey]

I would give her a go without it. It could be the key.

I would stick with just the routine for now. I would have tried to eek her out a little bit longer so make a mental note of when she woke for the day and then say that nap times are 2 hours after she woke and then treat it as though she did sleep for 90 minutes so you don't have a mega long afternoon. Does that make sense?

6.15 - 8.15 awake
8.15-10.45 nap
10.45 - 1.45 awake
12.45 - 2.15 nap
2.15 - 6.30 bed (stretch that as far as you can!)

There's possible a feed to sleep association going on too if you always feed her before a naptime but not necessarily... cross that bridge at another time if you have to.

[swamitjanet]

Ok that does make sense! I'll do that tomorrow. Yes this afternoon has been long, thank god it wasn't raining again so we could have some garden time!

Yes she can self settle but it takes a while but I just find it quicker to feed to sleep . I never know whether to factor the settling time into the nap time?

Anyway Thanks again, I'll report back soon

[Diddlydokey]

I try to get them sleeping by nap time so start the pre nap routine before that.

My order for any sleeps was always clean nappy, sleeping bag, book, cuddle, bed. If milk is needed I did it before any of that but I tended to feed on waking

[Diddlydokey]

Hope it goes well today

[swamitjanet]

Ok so today went as follows:

6.10 wake up
8.10 sleep till 9
12.40 sleep till TEN PAST BLOODY ONE

tried to resettle but once again she was having none of it.

Luckily she's pretty content during the day even though I know she must be knackered..she's quite happy just sitting and playing with her toys, she's bloody bionic!

HOWEVER the nights have been better.

One more day of it just to round off the week??

[swamitjanet]

I didn't feed her to sleep for the 2nd nap either however I did use the dummy.

[Diddlydokey]

Duracell bunny baby! I'd stick with it if it is at least improving the nights...

Next step would be to lose the dummy I think.