Feel trapped by our routine

[Cocolocos]

DD is 7 months, and seems to have finally settled into some sort of routine (at least for now). The thing is that now she will no longer nap if we are on the go, and so I feel tied to the house. She has started having 2 longish naps (1.5h each) and once you account for those plus feeding it is hard to do much else. If we do break the routine, like today where we went out after lunch, she gets so overtired that she won't nap, then bedtime is a disaster. Anyone else? Any tips?

Sorry I don't really as I was the same! All I can say is that mine dropped to one nap at about 12 months so that gave us the morning.

The other thing you can try is waking her after say 45 mins in the morning to give you a little more time. I think at that age DS was sleeping something like 8.30-9.15 then 1-3.30.

I tried to make sure I was at home for both of the naps at least half the days of the week if that makes sense? So accept that you're tied to the house for a few days of the week but then mix it up a bit the other days.

Also she may be more flexible than you think - for example at that age I used to wake my baby up aftern45-60 mins into his morning nap if I wanted to take him swimming or to a baby group that started at 10am or whatever. He might be a bit groggy and grumpy at first but he soon got over it. And then I would go out to an activity and make sure I was homne in time for lunch and the afternoon nap which would often stretch itself out to 2 hours after an exciting morning. Then I watched Netflix. Bliss! Try to enjoy this time if you can - soon she will be a three year old bundle of energy who doesn't nap at all and you have to plan 2 high octane activities every day just to wear her out for bed glares at ds1

Also I would say: her routine will change soon enough and by the time she is 1 or just over she is likely to only need one sleep, probably late morning or just after lunch. Then you'll be faced with a whole other heap of issues (my ds1 had a 2 hour nap straight after lunc for the whole year from the age of 1 to 2. But it meant we could never eat lunch out anywhere for the whole year cos by lunchtime he was exhausted and just needed to go in his cot straight away).

Know how you feel! We did the 2 3 4 routine for a while until DS dropped to one nap about 12 months. Day to day I liked having the structure and the 2 breaks from him and was home for naps the majority of the time as he wouldn't sleep well on the go. Most of my friends are also sahms with similar aged babies so it wasn't a huge problem to fit into the wake times and at weekends we'd be a bit more flexible as I knew he'd make up the lost sleep during the week. I had a friend visit for a week though and found it a nightmare as you can't really do anything as you never have more than about 2 hours to go anywhere!

One nap isn't that much better in my opinion, but at least we have the morning I suppose.

We just embraced it. Good naps in the day meant good sleep at night for us and that is sacrosanct.

We would sucks it up for stuff like weddings etc but it's such a short period in their life that I felt there would be many years in which to have to fill whole days with the kids that I can deal with missing that for a good few months.

Have you tried using a sling or baby carrier? She may nap in that.

Yes I think the key is to have a mix of quiet/good routine days, and some busier days. She did used to sleep well in the sling but now she takes at least 30min to fall asleep and usually wakes up after 30min, so it's not great any more either. Same with the car. Buggy is a total disaster, far too much to look at!

Have you tried a snooze shade for the buggy? Or (old school) peg a dark scarf over it so she cannot see out and lie her as flat as possible in it? Ds is far too nosey but if we put the Snooze Shade on the buggy at nap time and walk around he will have a good 45 mins which is enough to see him through the afternoon if he had a good nap in the morning.

Do what you need to do for you. If you need to get out of the house some days, do it.

My poor dd gets her 2 naps a day on the way in the car on the school run. Only first borne have the luxury of a perfect tailored routine. After that, babies have to for in with your life, and guess what? They do!

Oh, look at all those typos. Sorry!

When they just have one lunchtime one it's easier I think. Just plan something for the morning and something for late afternoon. I loved the peace and quiet during the nap and just worked around it.

So out for breakfast/meet family/shopping and then back for 12 ish, then at 2:30ish free to run errands, see people etc.

Or what about a snooze shade would that work for the nap out and about?

Will look into the snooze shade idea, thanks!

We had a structured routine when we had 2 under 2 and at times it felt more like a straight jacket.
Dd would only nap at home and was a bugger with her milk (ff and had reflux). Ds was (and still is) the most easy-going child I've ever met, thankfully, but used to meal for around 1.5-2 hrs every day and would be over tired of he missed it.
By the time dd was one, she was down to just the one nap a day and they'd nap together just after lunch. Day to day this was fine: it meant I got a break and chance to either eat, drink or nap myself but ur meant I couldn't go anywhere during the afternoon because by the time they'd woken up if have to start getting dinner sorted and once that was out of the way it wasn't far off super and bedtime.
When they stopped napping and could go longer between meals I felt liberated because we could actually do something with our day they didn't result in dd having an overtired, hungry screaming fit before bedtime. It took until she was about 2.5 yrs before we were free of the routine though.

Meal for around 2.5 hrs every day? sleep