little miss no-naps

[enzed]

My dd is 8 1/2 months old and refuses to sleep during the day. I wouldn't mind her not napping, but she spends most of the day, from the time she first starts to get tired (between 9am and 10am) whinging and crying because she's tired. I've tried everything to try and get her to nap

• rocking her to sleep on me
• pushing her in the pram
• putting her in her cot and singing to her
• putting her in her cot and leaving her to settle herself with and without lullabies playing.

I'm reluctant to let her cry in her cot for too long as she tends to get frantic very quickly and end up vomitting or getting to the point that she's difficult to console (even within 2 or 3 minutes of being put in her cot).

I'm at the end of my tether. I wouldn't mind if she just didn't sleep, but the constant crying is doing my head in, and i'm not sure how much more I can take of that. Also she's going to end up hurting herself because she can sit herself up and then falls over because she's so tired she can't manage to hold herself up.

How can I get her to nap?

I sympathise. I have a no napper. I borrowed an amby's nest baby hammock from a friend and its a godsend. 20mins bouncing or swaying in that and she is out for the count. (though I think you need to buy a heavy duty spring if you want to use it past 1year).

I also blow the hairdryer or have white noise on LOUD to help her sleep.

Darn it. Madam just woke up! Sigh!

At least she napped!

You might have to spend a week focussing on getting her doing two naps a day (although perhaps settle for one!). If you do it at home then her body will get used to it, then when you go out, she'll be more likely to sleep.

Set up a quick nap routine (e.g put in sleep bag to lullabies) and set up her room for sleep. For my 9.5 month DS, I put some white noise on and have blackout blinds.

I'd suggest working on the morning nap first - try starting the routine at 8.45am and soothe to sleep by any means necessary. How do you do it for bedtime?

Try again for the next nap after lunch.

With my DS, it takes about 20/30 mins to get him to sleep if he's overtired and really really whiny. So keep going! I hold him and pat his back then put down once asleep.

However, now I know his routine, it takes very little as he's used to going to sleep at certain times. It will get easier!

Hi Enzed
My DD is 6 months old and since the age of about 8 weeks refused to sleep during the day. At around 4/5 months she did start to get naps but ONLY for 30 mins at a time and this was preceeded by 15 mins of hard crying - either in her bouncy chair, on me being rocked or in a pram.
The only two things I found to help was to try to go with the flow and not get stressed each morning you wake thinking is she going to sleep today - there is so much pressure to try to ensure they have the obligatory naps during the say. Secondly I found that a muslin cloth tucked in between my chest and her face when I rocked her, seemed to make her sleepy and she would snug into it. I then sort of covered her face with it (no not smothered her!!!) and up until recently this really worked. The reason I say recently is because she is now at nursery and for some unknown miracle reason, since she started 3 weeks ago she will actually allow me to rock her breifly (whilst singing and ONLY this song, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands - how sick of that am I) and then put her down into her cot. Amazing. However she still won't go for longer than 30 mins. I think at Nursery they do the same as I and rock her until she simply gives in. She is held with her head against my left boob (not feeding of course!) with her right arm tucked under my armpit. I then pat her nappy hard and steady whilst rocking from side to side. She tried to stiffen up in protest but I just grip on in there and eventually she will go. It is important though you do this at the sleep window which I understand is less hours awake in the AM than PM so if she wakes at 7am then she may very well be ready at 8.30 or 9am for a nap.
I hope this helps sorry to have waffled. Best of luck

Hmmm - after posting this yesterday at the end of my tether, baby enzed is now on her 2nd nap of the morning, after me doing NOTHING different from usual. Maybe the answer is to post on mumsnet, and she'll just sleep to prove me wrong!

Either that, or several weeks of no daytime sleep has finally caught up with her or she's getting a bug (hopefully not!).

Long may it continue...

Iwould recommend you buy Tracey Hogg, The Baby Whisperer's book, in it she will teach you how to really get to know your baby, the do's and don't of sleep and most importantly how to recognise your LO's first signs of tiredness so you can act on it straight away. My DS has never napped during the day and he's 6 months now, I bought this book this week and after 3 days of following her baby friendly advice he is already having 2 long naps in the day and I'm getting him down at 7. Good luck.x.

Thanks for the suggestions - I have the baby whisperer and it worked a treat for getting her to sleep through the night, but has never worked for her naps.

I give my 5 mo DD a bath mid-morning, she has a good kick and splash about, then I dry her, get her dressed and blow her hair dry with the hairdryer. More aften than not, she's asleep within minutes, usually for about an hour.

I had/have a no-napper, or rather she'd only nap in her pram, rocked to sleep.

Last week I made it my goal to get her to nap in her cot. I followed the Baby Whisperer- not PU/PD, which I find a bit stressful! But I set up a nap routine, put her in her sleep sack, drew curtains, cuddled then laid her down and talked gently to her with a hand on her tummy. Believe me, I thought it would not work as I'd kind of sort of tried it before, but this time I stuck with it instead of getting frustrated and putting her in pram.

First time took 40 mins and was not fun, next time 30 minutes. Now a week later it takes about 2 minutes! And she even settled herself yesterday.

The key for me was to persevere and think I was going to sit there with her even if it took an hour.

However, she still only naps for 40 mins and I don't have the energy to tackle that one at the moment! Am just happy she's napping in her cot.

Thanks for all your suggestions. After a good-nap weekend, and a hellish monday, I decided to try timed naps, rather than following her sleep signs (because she yawns the whole day!) And wouldn't you know - today we managed a 1hr 45 min nap after lunch!!! WOOHOO!! touch wood, this is going to work for her - she's so much less grumpy when she's slept!