8 months-old refusing to nap during the day

[Froggy81]

My DD is now 8 months-old and seems to have suddenly become a little madam. She used to go to sleep twice in the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Now, she plays for a little while in her cot until she gets bored and starts screaming. Or just starts screaming when I put her in her cot... I've tried leaving her to cry for a bit but can't last more than 5 mins as it breaks my heart.

We pretty much have the same routine everyday. I'm at my wits' end, as she is quite grumpy as a result and it seems to affect her sleep in the evening. She used to get a good 12 or 13 hour sleep before (7.30 till 8-8.30) but she now wakes up several times before she finally nods off until about 5 or 6 in the morning.

Any advice from other Mums out there?

Will she nap in the car? Pram? Sling?

Maybe introduce these at naptime to get her back in the habit of sleeping at her nap times.

She will fall asleep in the car after a while but she doesn't fall asleep in the pushchair or sling anymore... Too many interesting things to look at and too many people to try and engage with (she's very sociable)!

Assuming you have been putting her down at the same time each day she may just be changing the time she needs her nap. If that is the case, try perhaps moving to half an hour earlier or later?

Also, and it did take a while - if the small child got grumpy, we used to say - 'you need five minute lie down' and would then pop small child into cot until they called out. If there was massive kicking and screaming on the first attempt, we would retreat from the cot and try again ten minutes later and so on.
It was a bit wearing for the first week, but did seem to work to get the routine kick-started (and is also good practice for later on when you move from real naps to 'quiet time').

OP, I have a 9 month old DD who is exactly the same! It's nice to hear that I'm not alone.

I will watch this thread with interest and see what gems of advice are offered. As much as my DD is beautiful & lovely, she is hard work at the moment!

maybe she needs a later nap time. Try to have 20 minutes or so winding don time before you put her down, close the curtains and sit with her talking quietly or looking at a book, cuddling her and stroking her head. Try to put her for a nap after a feed or meal so her tummy is full and she's sleepy. Is she teething? I found that would always mess up DS's routine... How dark is her room? Maybe she is associating darkness with sleeping so put a heavy blanket - I used a black fleecy throw from Primark over her curtain rail so the room is darker at night.

My first never really did daytime naps at all - it used to drive me mad. She always slept well at night though, so I didn't worry too much.

She disliked her pram, the car, and her cot!

Thank you very much for all the replies and it's good Popoozle to know we are not alone! Actually, today, DH was at home and dealt with the nap time and managed to get her to sleep! As you have probably guessed, he was very smug about it, although it did take him a while before she went to sleep. She went down a lot later than normal, at 12 and slept until 3! She then had lunch at 3, we might as well pretend we're in Spain! Having said that, I have tried moving the nap time to a bit later (11 instead of 10.30), which seemed to work for a few days but we are back to square one now...

Thank you for the advice, FuckerSnailInYourHedgerow (by the way, that's a great username, it made me laugh!), I will try this. And, yes, she is teething so that might be part of the reason why she's so unsettled during the day.

xx

My 8mo dS has been like this on and off since birth! He's never been a good consistent napper! We might have a week where he will go down no probs and sleep for an hour or so but then without warning he will suddenly revert back to his normal self! We joke that sleeping is cheating in our house! He does sleep pretty well at night and usually til at least 7:30 so I tend to just put up with his habits. If he gets too whiny I usually just take him out, sometimes he sleepsin the car or pushchair and sometimes he doesn't but the change of scene usually helps either way.

When he really won't go down but I know he's tired I will sit quietly with him for a while until he starts to get sleepy and then put him in his cot, works about 60-70% of the time but he may only sleep for about 20-30 mins!

It's a constant struggle in our house so I can sympathise!

Why thank you Froggy! Have you had any success?