13 weeks and problem with daytime naps

[Weekipper]

Hi All,

I've tried googling and searching MN but can't seem to get anywhere.

Night-time routine is pretty good albeit baby is fed to sleep. She'll sleep from 7.30 through till 2/3am for a feed and then continue sleeping till 6.30/7am. If she stirs she can self settle as long as she doesn't wake totally.

Problem is that since 3 weeks ago she's started fighting daytime naps. She used to just drop off and I could transfer her to carrycot. She'd have a nap in morning, mid-day ish and later in afternoon. Now the only way to get her to nap is to go out in the car or buggy and even then the nap might be 30mins if I'm lucky. So now I have an overtired grumpy baby by late afternoon.

I'm trying to spot signs of tiredness and put her down but then what? She might gurgle and blether to herself for a bit but then starts grizzling and I've tried rubbing her chest and singing to her in a repetitive way. Usually after 15 mins I give up as it seems she's not going to sleep. Jiggling her in my arms might work but she often wakes up upset after 10 mins. If you're in a routine how does it work? Do you just put baby down and continue to reassure for as long as it takes till they fall asleep?

Thanks for your thought.

[nm123]

My DD is now 11 months and was just like yours at that age... Everyone else seemed to have babies that had 3 x 1-2 hours naps a day indoors, when I had to pound the pavement with DD in the buggy to get her to sleep... Plus side was that I lost all my babyweight (and more) pretty quickly as we were out walking a LOT. Either that or she'd fall asleep bf-ing.

There are some great nap tips on the Baby Whisperer forum website so perhaps try there, but I know the BW isn't for everyone and whilst I didn't follow it, I found some of the guidance on A (activity) times really useful. I could never fathom out DD's tired signs and drove myself bonkers reading about undertired and overtired naps and if I'm honest, I wished I'd relaxed a bit more and not been so het up about whether she was falling asleep at the boob or only for 25 mins.......

We still sometimes struggle with naps now... What I have learnt though is to put DD down before she's tired. I always think "She's never going to go down" but lo and behold she sleeps so much better and goes down easier if it's just before she's got tired.

Another thing is your DD is still quite little and I'd say "do what works" at the moment. People used to say to me "just enjoy the cuddles" which yes, of course I did, but you still have to go about your day and getting dressed before 2pm can be a mission if you've got a baby who won't let you put her down.

Good luck, naps drove me up the wall and made me feel like a complete failure but we're kind of there now. It will change, your DD will get the hang of it, honest!

[nm123]

Oh and also, some people disagree with clock-watching or set nap times, but this definitely helps with my DD. For the past couple of months, she has to have her first nap 2 hours after waking , her second nap 3 hours after waking and bedtime approx 4 hours after that.

And between about 5-9 months (and occasionally now if the above 'routine' goes out the window) I found a book called somethig like The 90 Minute Nap programme quite applicable to DD... Basically, it says babies have 90 minute awake cycles meaning they get tired every 90 minutes give or take so that the best time to start winding down would be at about 75 mins after last waking up and be asleep by 90 mintues. As they get older they can do 2 x 90 minute cycles so can be awake for 3hrs max.

People also said I was bonkers for reading books on these things and should go with the flow more... Actually I found it really useful to get some ideas on different techniques and lots of suggestions from these books, so no harm in doing a bit of research in my view... And also the people saying this were those who had babies that were good nappers so I don't think really understood how disheartening it would be to try for 45-60 mins to get a baby to sleep then for it to wake up grumpy and overtired 25 minutes later.....................

[Weekipper]

So today I started trying to settle her earlier rather than waiting for yawns. It did involve swaying her and I tried putting her down 3 times but 3rd time lucky she's asleep in her cot.

She has a cold so I hope I can encourage her to nap better so she'll feel better.

Thanks for your replies. I'm the same I like to gather information to help me decide what's best. My friend who had the same problem months ago ended up doing Gina Ford and after having a look I decided the strict routine wouldn't work for us.

[nm123]

Ahh bless her. The other thing i find helps is trying to remember that they are just confused about the "change" ie they are used to being rocked/cuddled/fed to sleep and get confused when you then try to get them to fall asleep a different way... One thing all the books agree on is that babies like consistency so keep doing the same thing and they will understand the change and be less confused.