Should I just give up on naps....

[Miggs28]

my 7.5 month old DS has gone on a complete nap strike and it's driving me up the wall!!

Before Christmas he used to nap for an hour at 9am and then an hour and a half at 1pm. Now I'm lucky to get him to sleep at all and if I do its such a battle and usually for only half hr. It's really starting to get me down as I miss my happy go lucky little boy who has been replaced with a grizzly monster

I really don't know what to do about it. Do I persevere with trying to get him down at regular times or just let him sleep when he gets totally exhausted?

I'd go with the flow and work on the premise that it's a phase that will pass. My little boy is the same age as yours and he's just starting having longer naps again after a few weeks of short naps. I think at this age they're starting to learn lots of physical stuff (sitting up, standing, etc) and I think it does affect their sleep as they're doing so much developmentally.

My current baby (unlike DS1) is quite motion resistant, so while I could usually 'force' DS1 to take a nap in the pram (even if I had to push it all the time) DS2 has no interest in sleeping in the pram and just shouts at me, so on days where he's reluctant to nap, I just leave him until the exhaustion sets in and I know he'll nap (I have a 4 year old to entertain in the afternoons so can't spend a long time tryign to get him to sleep, if it doesn't work in 5 minutes, I just abandon it and try again 30 mins later).

Everything is a phase in babies (all good things and bad things will pass) it's good to remind yourself of this when it's all going pear-shaped :-D

Hang on in there.

As has been said above I imagine it is a phase, my DD was a terrible napper and it took me until she was 10 months old to nap for longer than 30 mins at a time. It was awful, I knew she was over tired but for some reason she just wouldn't nap, I remember spending an hour settling her only for her to sleep for 30 mins, was not fun. Nothing worked but it did eventually improve, I was told to try the buggy, the car, white noise, total quiet, I tried it all and nothing worked, she just got there in the end.

Just keep giving him the chance to nap, that's all you can do, it is hard work though, I feel your pain, hope it's better soon!!

Could he be teething? Mine cut their first teeth around then and it really affected their ability to settle properly for naps. You could try a bit of teething gel on his gums before you put him down it might help?

Also, around that age they can suddenly stay awake longer, I found. So it might be that you've been trying to out him down for his naps too early, if you've been trying to stick to his old 'routine', iyswim?

So around that time my DS changed from napping at roughly 0900, 1245 and 1600 (45 mins ish each time), to having just 2 naps per day at 0945 ish and 1300 ish.

Sounds like ur LO was already on a 2 nap pattern, but have you tried pushing them both back a bit later, so one is mid morning, say 1030 and then one mid afternoon, around 1430. Even if they are both just 40 mins long each, you might find that's enough to tide your LO over till bedtime. Don't believe all those baby books which say all babies need 3 hours sleep per day...my son sleeps 12 hours through at night but I am lucky if he has 2 x 40 min naps each day.

(Maybe sack off any kind of routine for a day or two an watch your LO like a hawk for signs that he is tired...eye rubbing, yawning etc, and put him down for naps when HE wants them, rather than when you think he should need them, if that makes sense? I did this with my LO recently and i wa surprised that he seemed to quite consistently want a 30min nap at 11am and a 30 min nap at 3pm....now that's not in any baby routine book! But that's when he was tired and he still went to sleep by 1930 and slept through till 0630)

Thanks everyone, I'm really hoping it's a phase because since my DH has been back to work I've been finding things really tough going!

I've been trying really hard not to get frustrated and angry about it but not having a break during the day is exhausting and maintaining my DS's mood as he gets increasingly tired is not fun. Also quite a few of my other mum friends have gone back to work this week so I have not been able to keep as busy as I would like and I'm finding it pretty lonely. My DH was home for 2 weeks over christmas and really shared the load so need to adjust to being on my own again for the majority of the day.

It could well be teething but I think I might well do as Botticelli suggests and firstly try pushing the naps abit later - I think 10.30 might be good as I tried 9.30 today with no success and use some teething gel before I try just in case.

My LO's bedtime is 7.30 also so if 10.30 & 2.30 doesn't work I will try 11 & 3.

Thanks again everyone - here's hoping all goes well tomorrow!!

Don't give up on naps - it will be a phase / teething or sleep regression or growth spurt / finding the world too interesting

Agree in shifting times of nap find what works and he will get back into a routine - my son has gone through phases where routine is out the window but then settled down again

They usually nap twice a day until past a year - mine only droppe properly to one good nap at about 15 months - .... So he won't be giving up on daytime sleep at 7 months I think ...

quick update...yesterday was horrendous - worst day yet.

Drove DS to a coffee morning and he fell asleep in the car at 9.30 (he must have been tired as otherwise he won't sleep in the car) get to the coffee morning (30min drive) park up and he stays asleep. He slept for another 40 mins!!

Me being an idiot sat in the car and waited for him to wake up (in hindsight a big mistake!). I should have woken him up after 40 mins but everyone tells you never to wake a sleeping baby!

Afternoon rocks around and he started looking tired at 2 pm so thought I would try and settle him. 2 hours I was at it trying to get him to sleep, after lots of tears from both him (massively overtired) and me (sheer frustration) he crashed out on me at 4pm and slept for 15 mins. I was totally frazzled by bedtime and after a long chat with DH about it we've agreed to stop his routine completely and see what he wants to do.

My gut feeling is he will want 1 sleep in the middle of the day just enough to keep him going but really don't know if that's going to be good for him or not.

I have a toddler and a 6 month old and I've never had set napping times - if the baby seems a bit tired I put him in the buggy and push it around in house...he'll generally fall asleep. If I was out and about I would often do a quick transfer from car seat to buggy and he'll stay asleep a lot of the time.
My 2.9 year old is only now beginning to drop her daytime nap and she had two long naps up to around 13/14 months.

Thanks amber . how do you handle it if your 6 month old wants to nap during the late afternoon? I find if I let him sleep he'll then be awake late into the evening but it's a real struggle to keep him awake and happy.

I found te months of transitioning from 2 naps to 1 horrendous - exactly as you describe - mornjng wasted while they have a long nap at random time - then knackered by teatime

Are you sure this is the case though - its very young to go to only one nap

But you are mum trust your instinct - I went with the flow really of letting ds nap late in the day but on reflection wish I had perhaps done the thing of only letting him have cat nap in morning and keeping emphasis on afternoon nap

Alternatively you push him through in morning until 11? I found that would mean a 2 hour nap then ds would survive until bedtime

It's just such a rubbish time to nap as the afternoon is then so long and most baby groups are in the morning

They grow out of it as they get older and can make it to midday which is more civilised !

It's so good to know I am not alone in going through this! It really has been pretty shit this week and is making me dread monday (DH back to work) and it's only saturday night!

I'm going to try and keep his morning nap to half an hour (if he sleeps at all!!) and then hope that his afternoon nap is decentish, more than half an hour would be nice!!

I am really hoping its just a phase and we will be out of the other side of it soon!! I don't think DS is ready to drop the morning nap yet and I will keep plugging away at trying to get 2 naps a day but I think I may have to accept that some days this just won't happen.

It's all just very confusing and most days at the moment I feel that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing!!

I'm sure you're doing your best!

I'm no expert but I really do let my 6 month old sleep whenever he wants - be that in the late afternoon or even in the evening. For example, today he slept 10pm to 6am this morning. Took a bottle and then went back to sleep for 2 hours til 9ish. Then he fell asleep in buggy when we were out in the morning for about an hour. Another hour long sleep in the afternoon - again in the buggy. My dh wanted toddler to sleep so he took them both out in the double buggy.

Then this evening he slept for about another hour between 7 and 8 (in buggy - he seemed tired so I put him in). He woke, took a bottle, played on his mat a bit, etc. And then I put him to bed at 9 - he is in our bed which I'm not happy about...if you have tips on how to get him out of the bed and into his cot I'd love to hear it!
Tomorrow's a different day. Like adults I think babies are more tired some days than others and every day is a bit different.

Hmm, my 17wk old has days where he doesnt really nap then once tired and cranky he fights it! Was visiting dm y,day and around 4pm he was getting cranky and rubbing his eyes, unfortunately i cant just put him in his basket to settle, so its either breastfeed or walk in buggy. Sent dm out with the buggy so i could drink my tea while hot! :)
Ive found he will generally nap mid morning and in afternoon but no set time, only when he wants to.

Yeh I think that is really the key, I just need to accept that my DS is his own little person and I can't make him sleep unless he wants to go to sleep!

My DH has just managed to get him to take a nap in the middle of our bed which is fab, so fingers crossed he'll have a half hour top up.

Amber - we sometimes have DS in our bed at night but it has gotten less and less over the weeks. We found when we moved him into his own room that really made a difference especially with his self settling. I think because he could see us he wanted us me to resettle him rather than doing it himself.

He has become really attached to his cot bumper too, which is a bonus I suppose as he is using it as a comforter. Have you tried sleeping with a blanket for a few nights so it smells like you and then placing it in the cot?

Does he ever sleep on your bed on his own? My DS did that for a few weeks (7.30pm bedtime) before we transitioned him to going straight into his cot. I think our bed smelt of us which was comforting and was a reassuring way to learn to sleep on his own.