Daytime naps

[wendynolan]

I'm looking for some advice please... My 5 month baby is refusing to nap in the daytime u less in the car or being pushed in her buggy.

I've been trying to get her to nap in her cot for 3 weeks now with various crying it out, shh pat, pick up put down tactics. It was improving and last week she was crying for 2-3 mins then settling but this week we have had screaming episodes that reduce me to tear myself!! They last anywhere up to and hour and she doesn't seem to settle at all so I end up picking her up

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated :-)

Don't leave your baby to cry for an hour.

Is it a massive problem if she sleeps in the buggy? Just put her in and rock her back and forth for a while if you don't want to go out.

Some babies like 'white noise', you could try that.

Try rocking her and putting her down once she's asleep.

Does she sleep ok in her cot at night time?

DD was like this. Total movement junkie. I gave up trying and used the pram, a sling or the car.

We managed to get her to nap in her cot for this first time this month! At 21 months, I'm afraid.

This isn't what you want to hear, but I know so many mums (myself included!) with the same story, that said it is just a phase, all of the mums with DCs around 9-10ish months agree that it improved around 7 months. My DS was a complete and utter nap refuser like you say, even after swimming before I could get him out of the car his eyes would open as I turned the engine off! But now he will gladly nap for 2.5 hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon!

I'm afraid you just have to ride it out, this too shall pass!

As I'm writing this I'm getting a sense of déjà vu, May have started a thread about this myself a few months back!

Thanks for all the advice

Perhaps I need to revert back to the buggy pushing as you say.

The funny thing is she sleeps no problem at night even if put down wide awake she will go off on her own without a squeak.

How did the improvement happen at 7 months? Did you still put LO down in cot or should I take a break from that for a while?

White noise and rocking no longer work for her unfortunately :-(

She has now fallen asleep on her play mat. I am now in 2 minds whether to move her up to her cot or just let her nap there?

Have the same issue after swimming she conks out in the car but as soon as I take the key out she is wide awake!

Thanks again

It'll pass. Just do what you need to do now to get her to take decent naps - be that long walks in the pram (at least the weather is good!) or letting her sleep on her play mat, etc. Btw - that's pretty amazing that she'll just fall asleep on her mat! My DD took endless rocking, sshh'ing, patting, white noise, etc, to even drop off to nap at that age.

With DD we used to rock her to sleep in arms (in darkened room with white noise on) and transfer to cot (from about 5 months on, before that she just napped in sling or pram or on us) Eventually, at about 8 or 9 months, she started wriggling out of our arms towards the cot when we were trying to rock her, i.e. giving a clear indication that she just wanted to be in her cot. So, at that point we started putting her down awake for naps and she falls asleep after babbling from anything between 1 and 20 minutes.

DD was the most god awful napper, but now she can nap for England. So take heart that it will get better.

I think the reason babies often go off better at night is due to night time hormones so don't expect the same in the day as at night.

My first DS would only nap in the pram at first. A turning point for me was at around 9 months or so when I started to put him in his gro bag for his daytime nap. It may well have been coincidence but he had I problem with going to sleep then!

It will pass. DS only napped in the cot/car/sling til about 6-7 months. I tried him in his cot a couple of times a week just to see if he was ready, and eventually it just worked.
I know it can get tiring, but your DD will get there in her own time and it's far more stressful trying to push it before she's ready. X

Thanks so much everyone. This is all very reassuring for us and we feel much happier

Will just keep going with getting her down any way I can for now and hope for the best when she gets a bit older