Baby awake ALL day and we're both miserable

[Farmerinthoseclothes]

LO is 7.5 months and has just started sleeping 12 hours at night which is amazing, however at the same time he has dropped his daytime napping so that if I'm lucky he sleeps for one hour during the day (between 7am and 7pm). As a result he is miserable and whiny and cries constantly as the day wears on but it seems like he just cannot switch off and nap during the day.

I've tried the pram, car (he hates the car anyway) sling, cuddles, cot, singing, rocking, leaving him, dark room, everything... I'm totally stuck. I also feel like we have to live our lives - I can't spend the whole day trying to get him to sleep! But where he used to nod off on walk or in the car, he now fights it all day regardless of the activity.

Any suggestions? Should I be getting him to sleep less at night? That seems crazy, but at the moment I'll try anything.

I miss my lovely smiley happy little boy!

[MoMandaS]

No, don't get him to sleep less at night. Did he start sleeping more on his own or did you sleep train him? (Not asking to judge either way, just if you did train him you could try nap training him and if you didn't, you probably won't want to do that.) How long has it been since the improved nighttime sleep? When my last two started sleeping through at night, they didn't want to sleep in the day until they were absolutely exhausted and then only for 40 minutes. But that only lasted a couple of weeks. Are you resisting putting him down after a certain time for fear it will stop him going to sleep at bedtime?

[Farmerinthoseclothes]

Thank you for replying!

Didn't sleep train him, we recently moved him to his own room and a proper cot and he started to sleep through after 2 nights in there. We put him in about a fortnight ago so 2 bad nights/normal days and then 12 nights sleeping through but terrible days of crying all afternoon.

He used to nap amazingly in the pram, I would pop him in at the first sign of tiredness and he would close his eyes after a few pushes. He will still do that once a day (late morning) but the whole afternoon he's awake and will fight any attempt to sleep.

We do try to keep him awake from about 5pm (he has dinner then anyway) because it's close to bedtime. Is that wrong?

Do you think he might go back to a good nap routine once he is more used to the nights?