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Please help me with 6 mo naps!

3 replies

theoldlocket · 28/03/2017 10:44

My 6 mo is so hard to settle for a nap. He used to just fall asleep while bf when he was very little but that hasn't worked for about the past 2-3 months, since then I've tried everything... putting him down awake and shushing/patting/lying beside him, rocking, pushing in the pram, taking him out for a drive in the car seat, white noise, pink noise, complete silence, dummy, comfort blanket .. he will literally fight it until he conks out with one or a combination of the above methods! I look for the first signs of tiredness then try to put him to sleep but he just fights it for as long as he can!

he has now been awake for 4 hours this morning and he's exhausted he's rubbing his eyes and tugging at his face and his little eyes are red but still he won't just go to sleep, even though I've been trying for almost 2 hours, what am I doing wrong? He also will only nap for around 30-40 minutes at a time so needs around 3 naps a day still, I am literally spending hours and hours every day encouraging him to take a nap and I feel like I'm going to go crazy if I dont crack this soon Sad I won't leave him to cry but surely there are other ways to encourage him to get the daytime sleep that he needs?

I Should add that he goes out like a light at bedtime although still doesn't sttn but only wakes for a few minutes at a time and settles again easily with a quick feed, it's really the daytime sleep that's an issue at the moment

Thanks!

OP posts:
FATEdestiny · 28/03/2017 21:43

I would suggest you try and get him to sleep a lot sooner than you currently are.

30-40 minute naps is perfectly normal and ok.

Only having 3 of these is not enough sleep. Baby needs much less awake time than that.

Stop counting nap length and start counting awake time. Try to limit awake time to 60-90 minutes.

So whatever time Baby wakes in the morning, say 7am, start getting him back to sleep 45 minutes later so that some time between 8-8.30am baby is asleep.

Then let baby sleep for a long as he does, 30-40 minutes is ok. Note the time he wakes up though. Say he wakes at 9.15, start getting baby back to sleep after 45 minutes awake so that he's asleep 60-90 minutes after waking from first nap

And so on, repeated all day long.

theoldlocket · 28/03/2017 22:49

Thanks fate! I had thought around 2 hours awake time was about normal for a little one at this age but perhaps I am leaving it too long... will try this tomorrow Smile

OP posts:
FATEdestiny · 29/03/2017 09:04

If he's ok on 2 hours awake time, that's fine too. Fighting going to sleep would be a sign he's past the tired stage, into over tired, so could have done with being asleep earlier.

Certainly no harm in trying more frequent and seeing what happens. Good luck!

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