5mo will NOT nap

[Sleepdeprivedmumofone]

My 5mo little girl will NOT nap and it’s killing me. I try so, so hard and every day is such a battle.

I watch her wake windows really carefully and work to 2.5 hours. I watch for her sleepy cues and if she shows any I try to get her down immediately.

I feed her to sleep at night, so I take her up to our bedroom, blinds & curtains shut, sleep sack on, white noise on & I feed her until she drops to sleep on the breast. As soon as I unlatch her she immediately wakes and screams until I latch her again. It doesn’t matter how long I wait, the minute my nipple is out her mouth she wakes up. I try rocking her or cuddling her but nothing works.

By the time she’s so distressed with the crying, it’s over an hour past her wake window and I’ve missed the chance for sleep so she’s so overtired. But I literally cannot get her down.

the only way she naps in the day is in the pushchair, out and about. So I’m averaging 25,000 steps a day trying to get her to have the 3 hours of sleep necessary for her sge per day.

im having to go out for walks 3 times a day and it’s just killing me. I can’t carry on like this any more- I’m exhausted from the lack of sleep every night anyway and this amount of exercise just isn’t maintainable.

I found that age hard to juggle the naps, neither of them every managed the "required" amounts you read about, especially DC2 who just had to lump it!

Both of my two front loaded their sleep so they needed a nap within 90 minute /2 hours of waking but could do much longer stretches in the afternoon, if you're doing 2.5 hours maybe you're not getting that first one timed right and it's knocking the whole day out. Does she have a dummy?

Does she have a dummy ?
Forget what the books say about how much she should be sleeping, go with her routine and needs.

What about a dummy? Babies love to suck for comfort, and if she is waking when you stop feeding, she needs something else for comfort.

My 5 month old didn’t need much day sleep and would always contact nap on me often still latched as it was the only way to get a break and a sit down. At this age just go with the flo, do one nap on the go and another on the boob but if she’s not too whingey don’t worry about awake windows it also depends on how stimulated they have been too in the wake period. I also found that mine (currently 9 months) spent longer asleep on the boob if she was teething or if her teeth were bothering her at least.

Awh I really do feel for you 😖😖 I had this too at exactly the same age - even at 4 months. Could you try a 2hr sleep window? I've only gone to a 2.5hr now my DS is 8 months old.

Could you do some sleep training? The gentle method, starting at 3 mins and increasing incrementally? I found that's the only thing that worked for my son. Took around a week or so and was primarily for poor naps. Putting him down drowsy and all that...naps in his cot when possible.

I still have the issue where he freaks out when he comes off the nipple but I've learnt to walk away and he will now stop the crying fairly quickly (a few minutes).

Also (i know this is easier said than done) but don't overthink the naps and awake windows and how many hours he's clocked...I got so stressed at all the above that I was a bit restricted with leaving the house/meeting people at certain times, I realised the rubbish napping was a phase and he grew out of it. I remember days he only slept 30mins or an hour and I was like 🤯😤🤯😤

Porridge and a morning bath time routine helped too!

Hope any of that helped! The phase will pass! I promise!

Dts didn't nap in the house until they had just turned one, I had to walk or drive every nap time. I think some of them just don't.

Thank you so much for replying! Yes I think this is right. I can’t get the first one right as it takes SO long and is such a battle then our whole day is out of sync . She won’t take a dummy, I try daily but she just spits it out or gags!

Sympathy, both mine have been terrible nappers although thankfully both had dummies. My eldest I basically had to do all her naps in the pram, although sometimes she'd contact nap. Both would be after absolutely loads of screaming and crying though and both with a dummy. DC2 is 7 mo and thankfully doesn't do the screaming and doesn't cry as much in general, but he's still a terrible napper and gets very fussy from being overtired. And it's harder too in some ways as contact napping isn't practical when I've got my eldest to care for and loads of walking also isn't possible as eldest cannot walk that much and it's physically muuuuuch more taxing to push her on the buggy board too. I don't have advice unfortunately other than if they're not unhappy and not going to sleep within a short time period, say 10-15 mins, I advise give up, play or whatever a bit and try something else when they start to fuss again later. Also same if they're unhappy, if something isn't working within 10-15 mins I give up and try something else. I use wake windows as a guide - I use the Huckleberry app - but with him being such a terrible napper he often sleeps an hour later than it suggests. So if he seems happy and we are out or whatever I don't even bother trying, I will only try if the wake window suggests he will need a nap AND he's clearly tired and unhappy.

My dd gave up naps at 4 months. Was rarely drowsy during the day. She occasionally fell asleep in the buggy or car but probably once every few weeks... I breastfed too, she always went to sleep on the breast at night. Happy to have breastfeeds (very happy!) during the day but she just didn't seem to need sleep! She often didn't go to sleep until 9 or 10 pm, woke at 7 or 8. Some kids just need less sleep!

Yes, I actually feel my little girl doesn’t need as much sleep but you read online how important naps are and I just feel so bad and useless that I can’t get her down. X

Sympathy! DS 7months is like Bornsloppy
Needs a nap quickly after waking
He's attached to the boob or pram for naps too and worst thing... the postie comes round between 11:50 and 3pm. The times ds would be having a morning sleep after getting up or giving an afternoon boob nap a go. We have a border collie who doesn't want anyone venturing near the garden or door and wakes him every day when the postie comes. This has been going on for 7 months and honestly I'm sick of it. Sundays are the best if DP takes ddog to his hobby otherwise I'm running on about 2 hours a day and don't think I can go on much longer

Pp said porridge and bath tune routine helps. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow. We only just started tastes