Feel a bit defeated

[problembottom]

I have a four month old who is gorgeous but I’m really struggling with her naps. Current situation is she will only sleep in the day if I walk her in the pram. Will not sleep in her crib in the day, gets very upset very quickly if I try this. Screams very loudly (she does everything loudly from laughing to talking to crying bless her) if she gets overtired which happened when I tried to have coffee with some new mum friends today. Their babies just seem to drop off nicely and I’m wondering if I’ve done something wrong. She’s a good sleeper at night, self settling and sleeping through most nights. Guess I need to can the social meets, she does like her morning baby classes thankfully, but where to go from here I don’t know...

[problembottom]

I should add I’m exhausted from the constant walking multiple times a day!

[surreygirl1987]

You have done NOTHING wrong!! My boy was exactly like this. Even the loud thing. He does everything loudly and is just more intense and energetic than other babies. He's 6.5 months old now. Some babies nap easily. Some do NOT!! He is also a good night sleeper. His naps are great now but wow we had trouble with them. By the time he was 2 months old he was so miserable he was having meltdowns all the time. So over Christmas (while my husband around) we worked on training him to accept napping in his crib. I am NOT talking about sleep training /cry it out by the way. His sleep cycles in the daytime seemed to be 45 mins so we ended up trying to give him 4 45 min naps, one every 2 hours (I read a bunch of sleep books 🙄). The first one was the easiest in the crib.... The others we had to pram walk him for a while. It did mean my social life was really tricky as it seemed he always needed a nap! However he slowly got the hang of napping in his crib. By 4.5 months he was great and doing a beautiful 2 hour lunchtime nap which I swear saved my sanity. Then we could get a routine going and actually plan social stuff. Now he's an amazing napper. But I do remember how hard it was and those endless walks... I remember doing a bunch in the rain/dark as it was over winter :( Not all babies are like that but for the few who are, it is really tough!! I used a sleep programme called Little Ones.

[problembottom]

Thank you so much. So good to hear from someone who was in the same situation and got through it. Walked miles today and I’m shattered!

[SophiaLarsen]

Same. She dropped naps during the day when I went back to work unless I induced them at weekends with driving or going for a walk with the pram.

At the same age as yours we woke at 6 ish, breakfast, ie feeding in bed and if I was lucky, nap til 9. Some time awake then After that dog walk with pram, sleep if lucky, back, lunchtime, afternoon dog walk sleeping if lucky. I wanted to actually kill people if they woke her in the day.

At the 7 month point I got a cleaner as I could get nothing done in the home. But she did sleep well at night!

No advice, just hand holding!

[problembottom]

I wanted to actually kill people if they woke her in the day Oh my god this. Even the birds in the park are noisy buggars!

[wheresmarybloodypoppins]

Another hand hold. My DS has always been a crap napper and would only nap on me, pram or in the car. I spent a lot of hours trying to get him to sleep in a cot but he flat blankly refused! Around 6 months I just gave up and used the napping on me as an excuse to watch some rubbish tv. All my friends told me I needed to sleep train and it would be awful when he went to nursery.
He's 13 months now and started at nursery where somehow they manage to get him to sleep in a cot or on a mat (no crying it out) but still naps on me at home.
On the plus side, having no real routine means we don't have to be at home for a set nap time.
Really wanted to say don't panic, they grow up so fast and all comes right in the end

[threekidshelp]

Do you drive and does she sleep in the car? The only thing that kept me managing a bit with my second and third was driving them to sleep and then hopefully stopping the car getting a bit of a break before they woke up. A white noise app (with my first it was and old radio between stations because apps weren't invented!) often helped keep them asleep a bit longer.