Nightmare naps again!

[Loobylou2929]

So up until 1 week ago my DD was napping twice a day, I followed FATEdestiny’s advice which was nap 2-3-4 so 2 hours after awake then 3 etc and 4 hours until bed time. This worked beautifully as I would just put her in her cot and she would self settle to sleep pretty quickly.

she has just turned 1 years of age, and she won’t settle for love or money. She screams blue murder until I rock her to sleep!

she has a snuggle and a dummy, also white noise. The room is dark and cool.

I cannot make any noise or let her see me as it makes it soooooo much worse, so ssshhhing patting etc is out of the question.

Im exhausted as she is heavy! When I have given in and rocked her to sleep, she will sleep anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours! So I know she’s tired.

is it a phase? Also I have kept the 2-3-4 hour routine the same. Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks 😅

How long does she take to fall asleep when you rock her? Mine dropped to 1 nap at 1 on the dot (and wish we’d tried sooner!) so she may need longer awake now.

Thanks for your response Alexahelp! She falls asleep within 10 minutes of rocking her. I did wonder if she needed longer awake time, she’s quite grumpy in the morning though?! She wakes around 6ish and goes to bed at 6:30 asleep by 7-7:30. Wakes once or twice for dummy. Should I try 3 hours before first nap? At abit of a loss.

I had a total nightmare with dd1 sleep so was much more focused and structured with dd2.

I also then had a toddler in tow.

I like 2,3 4 but probably not at one.

So by then, for me, I concentrate on one big nap. Hers is after lunch, a good couple of hours.

Morning nap is very much up to her and on the go, no structure. So that's when we are out and about, car, walks, whatever.

Home, lunch, nap.

I wake her back of 3, then that's her till bed 7.

I find that gives that one big chunk of sleep but doesn't result in me taking the entire day trying to sort naps.

Thanks sheepandcaravan, maybe it’s time to try the one long nap then?! Just confusing as she does sleep in the morning 😅

I'd drop to 1 nap. I also liked 2,3,4 but once they start kicking up a fuss it's a time to drop to one in my experience.

Yep, DD dropped to one nap at 13 months. I worried as it felt too early but we suddenly went from 2 x 45 min naps which we had to fight for to 1 x 1.5h nap which she went down for happily and woke up from happy, and that made such a difference. She’s still happily doing her one long nap a day at 21 months.

My baby is 1. Wake windows are much longer now. Use the Huckleberry app. Baby wakes at 6.30, naps 1hr at 10am and then 1.5hr at 2.30 pm. We've always bounced to sleep on birthing ball.

Its too early on average to drop to 1 nap, you just need longer wake windows. It's 3, 4, 5 now.

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. It’s really helpful. I’m a first time mum so all your advice is great. I do think she gets tired in the morning still so I’ll try 3-4-5 then if no luck…1 nap it will be 😄

What were her naps like before this started? I found my daughter stuck to 2.5/3/4 right until dropped to one nap just before 17 months, though could tolerate Ionger wake windows better as got older, we generally chose not to stretch her too much as made bed time late.

Instead we just capped the naps when started fighting them or started with split nights and confident not overtiredness or ill/teething.

If we purposely woke her from a nap we tended to not go over the wake window as could get overtired that way and could need to even cap the wake window by 30 mins or so in that case.

I think maybe she's sleeping too much?

At one my DS just had the one nap usually about 2 hours.

My DS is almost 2 but dropped to 1 nap at around 1yo. He's a morning napper, he'd never settle for bed if he napped in the afternoon. My first was an afternoon napper and it seems to be the most common time for others, so it threw me a bit. He's up 7/7.30, naps around 10.30/11 until 12 (used to be 1, but cut it down when it started to affect bed time) then he goes off to bed at 7, usually asleep by 7.30.

Give 1 nap a try and just see how it goes? Try morning for a few days and afternoon for a few days and see which works best.

I’m so grateful for all your advice. She sleeps from say 7-7:30pm til around 6am and mostly wakes once or twice in the night for her dummy. So she’s getting around 10.5 hours sleep at night. Then she usually gets 2 hours nap time in the day, say 30-1hr in the morning and 1-1.30 in the afternoon.

so roughly 12-13 hours a day plus night, which I thought was right for this age?! But I know all babies are really different with their sleep needs.

Ihatewinding (sorry don’t know how to properly tag people yet) she napped on me up until 11 months old, then decided she didn’t want to anymore, so I put her in her cot and she slept beautifully there ever since! I was doing the 2-3-4 routine like I said which worked a treat. But not anymore! I also don’t want her bed time being late, it’s a tricky one for sure.

Mambo Mambo if I only did a morning nap I think she would be too overtired by bed time, so could be an after lunch nap? I will try possibly in a couple more months? It seems to change this quickly.

I think I will try the 3-4-5 first and then if that doesn’t work, it will be the 1 nap. Just when you crack it, it changes again. I will be delighted when naps are a thing of the past! 😅

How are you getting on?

We contact napped until 6 months, resolved some health issues then did gradual retreat, cot naps saved my sanity honestly... You did amazing to make it to 11 with contact naps!

I note you say your daughter wakes for dummy, does that mean you have to replace the dummy? We pretty much stopped getting the dummy wakes when put 10-12 dummies in our daughter's cot - we do half glow in dark, half normal (so not too bright!) with more glow in dark at the end she normally ends up at. We use MAM dummies so is expensive but we consider the sleep through nights worth the price!

Hey Ihatewinding,
Sorry I haven’t updated. We’ve been finishing off DD bedroom and she’s finally in her own room! Hooray 😃 woke once for dummy and slept through.

so the first day I did the 3-4-5 and she settled easily on her own for the first nap 45 mins, then I had to rock her for second. Got an hour.

The next day she just had one nap after an early lunch, 11:30 for 1.5 hours but still seemed teasy in the afternoon.

Today…she woke at 5:50am she’s beequite teary and grumpy and I was going to wait until 8:30 to nap her, but DH has just taken her upstairs to nap now as she seems like she’s gone past it already?!

It feels different everyday atm so I’m trying to judge how she is as to how many naps and when iyswim?!

I had no choice but to contact nap for 11 months as she wouldn’t nap anywhere else lol. But I did enjoy the cuddles, didn’t get much else done though lol. I was relieved when she started napping in her cot! Well done for doiit for 6 months aswell. It’s definitely not easy but goes by so quickly.

DD ends up with her dummy under her head some nights waking her up, which is why I haven’t put loads in her cot, but if it works for you that’s brilliant 🤩

Did anyone else’s baby go through a phase of different naps around this age until they settled into 1 or 2 naps? How long did it last? Thanks all.

She’s just gone out like a light all by herself again after 2:30 hours of awake!

FATEdestiny offers lots of great advice but her expectations are at the very upper end of sleep needs. So if your baby is a big sleeper her routines will work really well.

It’s true that a lot of babies transition to one big nap at 12-16 months. However you cannot just go straight from two naps to one. There is a bit of a messy phase to get through first.

Here’s a typical transition routine:
6-7am wake and milk feed
8am breakfast
9.30-10am nap (wake baby at 10 regardless of how much sleep they have had)
10.30am small snack
12 noon protein based lunch and Greek yoghurt
12.30-2.30pm nap
2.30pm milk feed
5pm carby dinner
6pm bath
6.45pm milk feed
7pm bed
Over the course of a few weeks or possibly months your baby will sleep less and less at the 9.30am nap until it is gone all together. At that point you need to move the lunchtime nap to 11.45 then gradually stretch it out until she can go down at 12.30.

This is a phase where people resort back to sleep crutches like feeding, rocking or driving to sleep. Try and avoid that. Just be super consistent with the self settling.

good luck!

Thanks LapinROse she woke after 30 mins on her own! So makes massive sense. That’s a really good plan 🤩

V welcome Hope the rest of the day goes well for you