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Naps - please help

28 replies

Echocave · 30/05/2014 13:36

My dd2 is about to turn 7 months and her daytime naps are still awful. I know I should be grateful that her night time sleeping at the moment is good but the days are - and always have been - terrible.

She has 3 naps a day. Her basic problem is that after 40 minutes she wakes up and on most days she cannot get herself back to sleep. She usually has (on a good day) 40 minutes in morning (though I wish she'd have an hour), 1 hr 30 if we are lucky at lunch and 30 mins in buggy at 4pm.

I have tried everything to get her day naps right - blackout blinds, white noise, timing naps so no more than 2.5 hours between them, making sure she's properly winded before nap (I think she has mild reflux but no one else seems to care). But nothing works. And after 6 months I could cry with frustration. I now just Leave her in her cot with white noise on.

She definitely needs sleep as she is very miserable without it.

I considered dropping a nap but they are all so appalling that I daren't risk losing more sleep.

I know this is boring and I sound obsessed but I am going back to work soon and am very worried that if she doesn't get better she will never nap properly.

Does anyone have any advice?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
CuteLittleToes · 31/05/2014 15:36

Same issue here with short naps - DS is 6 months. He's done that since 3mo. It got much easier once I stopped stressing about his naps and trying to "fix" them. About a week ago he napped for 1h45mins just out of the blue. It hasn't repeated since, but I'm sure his naps will get better on their own one day.

violetlights · 01/06/2014 14:00

Also I think you need to follow your instincts as to whether your DC is having enough sleep. It used to annoy my when the HV would say he doesn't need more as he's having the minimum amount. Then what about him waking up howling, hysterical for next twenty minutes and then grumpy and tired all day???! He needs more sleep!

Echocave · 12/06/2014 16:56

Update..

After my original post, I'd like to report a recent improvement. Yes! No idea how long/if it will last but since dd2 started to sleep on her stomach her naps have really improved.

I do hope others on here are finding things a bit easier.

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