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Original poster

please help - ds2 won't nap for more than 30 mins

17 replies

nickytwotimes · 15/08/2010 11:53

and he is incredibly unhappy about it.

as the day goes on, he gets more and more over-tired and by evening he is hysterical. he has gord, but even when he is comfortable, his sleep is awful.

he nods off in his swing or car seat or buggy and even if still in motion wakes and won;t go back over.

i would be more than happy for him to nod off on me (which he does at night) by nursing and i would happily let him sleep in me, but he won't.

it is dirving me demented and ruins the day for all of us.

please, any suggestions? i tired waking him after 20 mins then he went back over... for 10 mins! it is not enough - he is shattered.

OP posts:
Original poster
nickytwotimes · 15/08/2010 12:35

anyone?

OP posts:
Original poster
nickytwotimes · 15/08/2010 14:02

PLEASE

he is going through the window shortly.

OP posts:
Gargula · 15/08/2010 17:26

How old is your DS?
My DS wouldn't nap for longer than 30 mins between about 4 months to 15 months and there was NOWT I could do about it - I tried it all. Oh, apart from driving around in the car - have you tried that.
Otherwise how about a sling. My DD is just entering the "nap for 30 mins" stage now (she's 4 months) but if I'm really quick I can sometimes get her off again by shoving my boob in her mouth.

Original poster
nickytwotimes · 15/08/2010 17:34

he's not even 3 mths yet!

i have tried the above unfortunately. none work.

he is a fucking nightmare of a baby!

He is hysterical with over tiredness now.

OP posts:
Teleaddict · 15/08/2010 19:45

At this age my DD would only sleep in the day in her buggy or car seat for 45 minutes. No matter what I did she wouldn't sleep for longer so instead of having 2 or 3 long naps she had 5 short naps which was the only way I could prevent her getting to stage that you describe in your post. It wasn't ideal but I did literally nothing all day other than pram walk! Looking back now I wish I had tried to settle her in her cot earlier for naps but this didn't work until she was about 4 months when I would put her in her cot after the first yawn!
All I can recommend is to keep repeating to yourself that it will get easier (and it will) and in the meantime maybe try and cut down the amount of time between each nap. I seem to remember that at that age my DD could only manage to stay awake for about 1 to 1.5 hours before she got tired again. This prevented the hysterical stage (because I made sure she went back to sleep in her pram) and made bedtimes a lot easier (plus she's always had a very early bedtime as she gets so tired - she's in bed at 6pm even now at 18 months).
Good Luck x

montmartre · 15/08/2010 19:49

Have you had him checked for reflux at all? My dd could only sleep 10 mins at a time when hers was bad. Sorry you're suffering though.

MoragG · 15/08/2010 21:35

My DD (now 6.5 months) only naps for 30 minute periods during the day, and has been like this since she was about 3 months old. Doesn't matter what I do or where she is (pram/cot/car) - her naps are only 30 minutes long. This means that she needs 4 naps a day (if she only has 3 she is very grumpy by bed time), so I need to try and put her down after she has been awake for about 1 hour 45 minutes (used to be 1 hour 30 minutes). It's not at all ideal, and it's hard for me to get stuff done but I'm used to it now and have stopped stressing about it - it's just what she's like! She does sleep very well at night at least.

holytoast · 15/08/2010 23:01

DD, 17 weeks is like this, occasionally gets a longer stretch if I hold her, and rock her nearly for the whole time she is asleep. I know how frustrating it can be, I have got angry and had to just put her down and walk away when she has only slept for 20 mins even though I have walked around the park for 2 hrs before - and is over tired, and screaming, and so wants to sleep but isn't able to - I totally know how you feel, it can make you so obsessed and a little bit unhinged! Its certainly been wore since she was about 3 months, and the last few days it's been really bad at night too, which is new, However, there is some improvement in other ways, she occasionally now drops off on her own, without us rocking or feeding or holding and we found a 'magic' vibrating chair in a charity shop for 3 quid, which she will fall asleep and stay asleep for a while longer in.
I also try to get her to sleep before she even looks tired - just lay with her on our bed, with the curtains shut, after she has been up for an hour or so,and let her babble and wriggle until she begins to chill out a bit and eventually falls asleep - its bloody boring, and time consuming, but seems to work. taking her out for a walk at the hour or so mark, with something draped over the pram, works too.
But then some days, nothing does - you just have to write it off and hope for a better day the next day - don't beat yourself up - I just think some babies aren't good sleepers, but again, it will pass, and eventually you will hopefully be able to look back on this phase and think what was all the fuss about - good luck, and I hope things get better for you. I just hold onto the hope that my mum is right, and DD is just highly intelligent and is too busy plotting world domination to waste on time on sleep!

happygilmore · 16/08/2010 09:18

Same problem here, DD is 12 weeks and will not sleep for more than 30-45 mins during the day, no matter what we do. Even that is only achieved by rocking the pram in a certain way, she won't sleep on us or after a feed like she used to. No idea what to do to make it better, she gets ridiculously overtired and screams if we can't get her off - but it is so hard to get her to sleep sometimes we can't stop it.

Sorry not to be more help, really hoping someone else has some ideas!!

Original poster
nickytwotimes · 16/08/2010 09:48

Thank you.

Yes, he does have severe reflux, been in hospital, etc. It's just that even when he has a good day his sleep is awful.

Thanks for sharing that I am not the only one going demented! Smile

OP posts:
helenwombat · 16/08/2010 11:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
nickytwotimes · 16/08/2010 11:47

hope so, helen.

it sucks.

OP posts:
skippingturtle · 18/08/2010 08:49

Hi there, another reflux mum here. I have the same problem, although sometimes she will nap for a couple of hours, mostly it's half hours here and there.

My DD is 8 weeks, and our only routine is what time she gets up in the morning, and what time she goes to bed, the rest of the day can pass in an exhausting grind of trying anything and everything to get her to sleep.

Oddly enough she self-settles when put into her cot at night no problem but absolutely refuses to go in it during the day. Confused

Feeling your pain OP.

Original poster
nickytwotimes · 18/08/2010 11:45

It's a pain, isn;t it?

OP posts:
bippyhippy · 18/08/2010 16:26

I read this article about naps. It's called the key to success - lol! You might find some tips in there. x

Original poster
nickytwotimes · 18/08/2010 17:32

Thanks.
Thing is I already do try to settle him early and promptly.
Makes fuck all difference.

OP posts:
ningnangnoo · 18/08/2010 21:10

My dd is now 8 months and has been a bad napper (but pretty good night sleeper) since she was born - always waking after half an hour and if we were really lucky 45 mins. Even to get her to fall asleep was a nightmare, sometimes taking half an hour to an hour of walking with the pram etc to only get sometimes 20 mins of a nao was just soul destroying as you well know. Got myself so stressed out about it. Now pregnant again so made it my mission to get her to nap for longer as i really needed a nap myself but also want her to be napping better by the time new baby is here! Anyway from reading around it seemed what i had to do was blend her from one sleep cycle to the next and the only way i found i could do this was by driving over speed bumps!!! I would drive till she fell asleep then park up read a magazine and start driving again as soon as she showed signs of waking up (i have a mirror attached to the headrest so i can see her through my rear view mirror) i'd start driving round the block over the bumps until she fell asleep again. Sometimes it worked other times not and often she would fall asleep but wake again after 5 minutes so i would just have to keeo driving round and round. After a few weeks she was sleeping for an hour and sometimes more. The next phase was to try and get her to do the same in her buggy. I would push her (with a bit of a jiggle!) back and forth with the extractor fan on in the kitchen till she fell asleep and then when she started to stir start pushing again till she fell back over. After about a week i was able to leave her in the buggy with the extracor fan on and she would sleep for up to 2 hours!!! I still have to push/jiggle her in the pram for about 5 inutes before she falls asleep but that's it now. I'm actually having to wake her from her afternoon nap now as she started having problems going down at night as she wasn't tired enough after all her daytime sleep!! I can't tell you what a difference it has made as i can get stuff done and sometimes get a nap myself which is just bliss. I honestly thought we wouldn't get here and we have so really worth persevering and trying everything you can. Wishing you lots of luck, you will get there x

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