It's 7.30am and as usual my 10 month old is already down for a nap - help!

[IAteRosemaryConleyForBreakfast]

Posted here because it's a sleep thing but also has food/age/stage/teething/yada yada factors.

The thing with bad sleepers is you're always so grateful when they eventually nod off that you don't think about getting any sort of normal pattern going

His pattern at the moment is this:

5.30/6am Wakes up and kicks mummy in the head
7.30/8am Back to sleep for 1-2 hours
9ish Wakes
11ish Tired again - naps for an hour ish
12 Wakes and is in moderate humour for the afternoon
3-4pm Knackered, usually manages another kip
6pm Cranky and tired, but eked out long enough for a wash and basic bedtime routine
7-7.30pm Asleep for the night [hahahahahaha not likely]
10pm Wakes up, often crying, and refuses to go back without a feed
12/1/2am wakes again and comes into bed

What happens during the night is highly variable and fuzzy but can vary from good 4 hour stretches to unsettled nights with a couple of hours awake and groaning thrown in.

I feel like naps are a problem because although we just put him down when he seems tired, he's sleeping at such weird times in the day and is totally zapped by bedtime. I reckon a couple of decent mid-morning and mid-afternoon naps would be a million times better.

Of course there's also the trouble with having to feed or rock him to get him to sleep, still no sign of self-settling. And then I think I want to night-wean him because he surely doesn't need fed as much as he makes out he does, but then I work full time and so if he has a bad day teething and doesn't eat much he doesn't have the opportunity to get milk during the day and maybe he makes up for it at night?

Approaching a 'need to do something' stage, I think, but we're all very tired and we're not very into anything which includes much crying. Not helped by the fact that I have zero baby experience pre this one and therefore haven't a clue what's normal at this age. Which is where I was hoping you lot could help, I guess!

Sorry you're not getting much sleep atm

Maybe try moving one nap at a time? First thing, do you get up and have breakfast or is he in bed with you? If you could move thefirst nao through to about 10ish, he might go through till lunch, then another one early afternoon?

OTOH he is getting a fair amount of sleep during the day - can't remember what DS was doing at that age but prob something horrendous like sleeping fora bout an hour in the day and waking all night.

oh and is he getting out for Fresh Air during the day? DS is awful if we don't manage at least one run in the park.

Am waffling on here, but would add that he's a)napping during the day and b) (sometimes) sleeping for longer at night, so I think you have the fundamentals there (we certainly didn't at 10 months). So maybe a few changes would make a big difference?

Hiya Effie!

Things are so much better, on the whole, I feel a bit guilty for complaining

He sleeps for ages some days (provided he's not teething/just Having One Of Those Days). I also think he wakes up tired (at 5.30am, wouldn't we all !), so I'm thinking he'd be better off actually sleeping longer at night (ha) and having a shorter, later nap in the morning. How to achieve this I hav no idea.

I am under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that at 10 months he should be sleeping less in the day and he should be able to go much longer before needing a nap. Maybe this is just his way. Actually, I wonder what we're thinking - we've so far had to do everything his way

DP is quite good at making sure he gets out and about each day. We're also lucky to have a wee garden so he gets a trundle round the lawn for some grass-eating if the weather's nice.

How are things with you? I hope good

We had this type of problem at around the same time. We started taking dd out for a walk in the sunshine before her first morning nap and that helped space it out a bit, also made sure we got out between morning nap and next nap. It sorted itself out in time. We also brought forward bedtime to 6:30 - 7 and crazy as that sounds, it worked because she was less wound up then. Hope it gets better soon for you!

Oh, good idea. Normally when he wakes we hide under the covers for a bit while he tries to eat the headboard/leap off the bed/see how many fingers he can fit in my ear/rip the curtains down etc. After 20 minutes of this we have to give in and get up, we have breakfast together and then he has a wee play before bed again. A walk had escaped my imagination previously. That's what sleep-deprivation does to you.

I'm good thanks . DS is sleeping 7pm to about 5am, which is great cos I'm in teh early stages of pg and knackered! I'm trying my best to forget about the first year with DS

It will be fine, wonderful, and perfect, Effie! I'm hoping you get one of those sleepy ones, for a change . Glad you're getting some rest, the early bit was the toughest, I found.

My ds is 9 months and still has 3 naps a day. He also gets up at 5- 5:30 and has his breakfast. Due to the early start he is therefore rubbing his eyes and ready for a nap at around 7- 7:30. Unfortunately he only usually naps for 30 mins (sometimes an hour in the mornings but this is rare!)

He is ready for another nap around 12 ish, then has dinner at 1. By 3:30- 4 is shatteted again. Has another 30 min nap which he usually wakes cranky and whingey from. He stays this way til 6:30 when he has his bath and goes to bed. Usually sleeps from 7pm- 5:30am if I'm lucky!

I've tried all ways to extend his naps and move things around to make him less tired and crabby but seem to be failing. I'm very of my friend who also has 9 month ds that wakes at 6am, has a two hour nap at 8 and then another 2 hour nap from 2-4pm. He is a lot happier and more placid and she gets 4 hours respite in the day!

Be watching this thread for any other advice!

Last month or so has been waking at 3am and crying til we pick him up but then won't go back down in his cot. Hoping this is just a phase but we are very tired too so lots of sympathy!

ds1 used to be ready for his first nap at about 8am. we went to bed together cos, 1.he slept longer with me there and 2. i got some sleep too. he always had a big long nap in the morning that way - up to 3 hours. that set him up for the day and just a little power nap later on was needed.

have you read the baby whisperer?

that's really balanced re: naps and routines (rather than schedules)

we found it worked with our LO.

he sleeps 8pm- 8am and has a 2-hr nap at 10am and then again at 2pm, witha half hour cat nap about 5:30pm.