Am I stressing too much over naps for 9mo?

[Sprite21]

My 9mo dd used to sleep like clockwork during the day at 9:30, 12:30 and 4. I usually fed her to sleep in bed or pushed her in the buggy and she would sleep between 40 minutes and 1 1/2 hours each time.

But over the past month or so she has been impossible to get to sleep during the day and I feel like I spend half my day trying to get her to nap, often with just an hour total. I have lowered my expectations from 3 naps a day to 2 or even 1 but it is still such a struggle. Then sometimes she'll pull out a big 2 hour
long nap, totally unpredictable.
DP thinks I should just relax about it and if she's tired she'll sleep (last time he babysat she fell asleep mid-play, completely exhausted).

So I'm wondering two things. Should I just relax about it and she'll sleep if she has to.
And also, how much sleep should a 9mo be getting during the day?
HV says some babies don't need naps at this age, but I don't believe him

My 11 month old has two maps - one am and one pm of about an hour each. They definately need at least one nap I would have thought. My DD2 would not be pleasant without her naps

I don't really have a structure for my 9 month old ds' naps - I watch him for when he's getting tired, normally about 3 hours after waking but can be anything between 2-4 hours, and try and get him down for a nap then. He normally has 2 naps a day of 1-2 hours, but has been known to only have 1 depending on what time he got up.

I try not to stress about it (my main worry is that he still doesn't really nap in his cot!) as I do feel that as long as I keep on eye on when he is tired and give him the opportunity to sleep then all should be good.......

There is no way he would get through the day without a nap, I would think that was virtually impossible at their age!

That's really helpful. I think I took it for granted that she would nap at those times and stopped looking for cues. She would definitely melt down without a nap. I found the newborn phase really stressful and I just have this fear that we will return to chaos if I don't stick to our routine. But of course she's outgrown it now and I need to adjust.

I also look for cues given by my 10 mo DD rather than a rigid routine. She normally does stick to similar times but some days its completely out.

Just relax and follow your lo's cues

My DD is almost 6 months and is the queen of cat naps, and only naps in sling or buggy. I've been working myself into a real state about it but just today I really thought about it, and
a) she's healthy (has doubled her birth weight etc); and
b) she's a very happy little girl.
So she must be getting what she needs. I'm really going to try to stop stressing so much about it. Don't know if the way I'm looking at my situation helps at all??!

Ps I'm still going to keep trying for proper naps, but just stress less if they don't happen

My DD is 8mo and she's having 1.5hrs at 8:30am (wakes up at 5:30am), 1 hour after lunch circa 1pm and 1 hour at 4pm.

My HV said a lot of babies usually grow out of feeding to sleep at around 8mo. We stopped feeding to sleep when she was 4mo so can't comment really. But you might have to work on a wind down routine for naps and look out for sleep cues so you catch them at the right time. Difficult if you've been feeding to sleep for so long. Just try to find the logical times and get into a nice routine.

IME, the better DD naps during the day the better she sleeps at night. But soon she'll move to just 2 naps. Just hope the good night sleeping continues!!

Not sure how you try and get her to nap now. Maybe you don't feed her to sleep anymore? Next time she seems tired you could try putting her in her cot just like you do at night and shut the door. Don't go in immediately if she cries, perhaps leave her 5-10 mins and see if she drops off. She might just need you to establish a new routine that fits e age she is now. If she responded well to a routine before chances are she will again, just a different one. I don't think it's ideal to be feeding her to sleep still if you are.

My DD dropped from 3 to 2 naps at that age, first and second got later and third disappeared. I just had to work out how to fit in meals and milk feeds into the new routine.

Then, pretty much as soon as we got used to that - she went from 2 naps to 1