We got night waking sorted, but...

[vvviola]

Now we're stuck with nap time and bedtime issues

We ended up going cold turkey on night feeds, just offering water and cuddles, rocking etc. Gentle methods just hadnt worked and I needed sleep. It took about a week - we're now down to one wake up a night, no breastfeed after bedtime. Great

But. She's getting harder and harder to settle for naps and bedtime. I used to be able to feed until drowsy and then she'd wriggle around a bit and drop off. Now I'm having to feed her to sleep again & transferring her into the cot is almost impossible.

She started looking for a nap at 11:30 today. It's now 1pm & she's still not asleep although she's fallen asleep a couple of times while feeding. Getting to her to sleep at bedtime is as bad.

I'm not good at CC/CIO options (although she's crying in her cot at the moment as I just had to leave the room), and the only reason the cold turkey on the night feeds worked for me was that I was able to hold her and cuddle her. At nap time/bedtime she just thinks that means playtime. And yet the gentle methods really don't seem to work.

I really need to get her off breastfeeding (even though it's only 2 feeds a day), DH isn't reliably around to take over for any length of time to try to break the habit. He's not here at nap time at all anyway.

Any ideas that are gentle enough for me and strict enough to work for DD?

(She's 20 months)

[minipie]

ok, my dd is only 6 mo so I'm not the best to advise, but is it possible she isn't tired enough when you are trying to settle her? maybe she needs to just have one nap?

[vvviola]

She only has the one nap - usually around 12/12:30. I'd tried 11:30 yesterday because she was definitely tired and because we'd had a few days were the 12:30 nap time didn't work either, so I wondered if I was missing the window...

[PoppyWearer]

My DC2 is 20mo and the past few weeks bedtime has turned into a battlefield (we also thought we were getting somewhere with the night-sleeping!).

No advice really but what we're trying is cutting his one nap a day to 45mins maximum (yes, you have to wake them).

We're on day three of this and (so far) we're still having some struggles but it's been much easier as he is more tired.

I tend to not let him cry because I have a DC1 at school and my priority is to get her to sleep and keep her asleep!

Also he is out of his cot already, as he's a climber and was going to hurt himself!

I've seen some threads on here suggesting using a duvet, do you do that?

[PoppyWearer]

Oh and also my DC2 has been napping later in the day, he seems to just be able to keep going until 2-3pm then pretty much zonks out for a nap.

[vvviola]

Hmm, might try a duvet - we've just been using a sheet up to now (was summer here), and added a blanket in the last couple of weeks (not that she allows me put them on her til she's asleep). Maybe duvet might be enough of a novelty to get her into bed and can try to settle her then.