8mo- naps- WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

[TheLadyIsNotForNapping]

My dd has never been a big napper, but for months now she's followed the same routine: morning nap of 40 mins in cot, lunchtime nap of 40 mins in cot, late afternoon catnap of 25 mins or so in pram.

In terms of feeds I've loosely followed the Baby Whisperer's EASY routine, and as a result she doesn't feed to sleep for naps, and settles herself.

I know it's apparently not enough daytime sleep, but all my efforts to extend the naps have been fruitless. And she has always been bright, alert, fed well on milk and solids, and recently has been sleeping through as well.

So I'd sort of got used to this. But in the last week or so her naps have gone MAD. She had a cold which may have had something to do with it, but things have got pretty bad, worse, even, now she is better.

Today she cried for an hour and a half when I put her down for her morning nap. Eventually her next breastfeed rolled round and I fed her then she slept for 30 mins.

Then at her lunchtime nap she cried for 45 minutes before konking out and sleeping for 30 minutes again.

She did not fall asleep during our late afternoon walk.

I never leave her to cry, but go in every 1-2 mins and soothe her instead. PUPD has worked for me in the past, but now she stops crying and wants to play when I am anywhere in sight, then screams when I leave the room, so this won't work at the moment, and that's why I have to go in and comfort briefly then leave, or she thinks it's playtime.

My question, chiefly is: what is going on?! But also: Is she trying to drop a nap? Is it a developmental thing? Will I ever be able to eat lunch in peace again?! And is there anything I can do about it or is this one of those "ride it out" scenarios?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice...

Oooh, I hope you get some answers, as I am in the same position here.

8/9 month sleep regression / developmental spurt often messes with naps. At 8 months my DS went from napping 40 mins + 2 hours to 30 mins + 30 mins. Life was not happy for anyone . After a week or two he went back to his longer naps without me doing anything different.

The developmental stuff can temporarily stop them being able to self-settle too. And there's often separation anxiety going on as well.

Often around this age they need to drop the third nap as it can make bedtime very late. My DS dropped it around 6.5 - 7 months, although that was relatively early. A lot of babies fall into the 2-3-4 pattern: first nap 2 hours after waking, second nap 3 hours after waking, bedtime 4 hours after waking, although that usually involves a longer lunchtime nap. But I wouldn't guess that was a problem for your DD from what you say, OP.

There are good links on the sleep regression here, here and here.

Ds also dropped his 3rd nap around 8 mo - he then went to one mid morning and one at about 2/3pm.

Soon after (waaaay too soon!) at about 14 mo he went to one mammoth nap in the afternoon - 1.30pm - 3.30/4pm

Ah! Angeldog, you are in fact just an angel! I did not know about this 8 month thing and it sounds right on the money. This current madness does smack of a developmental phase, which gives me hope it will pass...

When you say you didn't do anything different, do you mean that you just put him down for naps at the normal time? If you did this, did you perservere with trying to settle him til he went to sleep/was due a feed? Or did you get him up if started kicking off?

The late afternoon catnap has never seemed to affect her bedtime- it's lights out at 7pm- but I would be perfectly happy to drop it as it involves me tramping around with the pram for half an hour every afternoon- great in the lovely Indian summer but won't be fun in winter time!

Glad that was useful. I'd be tearing my hair out if I didn't know about this stuff!

Well, I have to rock to sleep, so I just kept on doing this. But when there's develompental stuff going on, I have to jiggle / bounce as rocking doesn't quite cut the mustard. I used to feed him to sleep but that sadly stopped working.

I did keep on going for naps at the same time (prior to this I did naps by the clock). It might be worth trying for a nap slightly earlier to avoid overtiredness, but I suspect there's not much you can do.

I'd stick with the late afternoon nap until it starts pushing bedtime later, or you'll have a baby who's overtired by bedtime which may affect your nights. When she does need to drop it, you'll need to move bedtime earlier for a bit to compensate, and you may get some early morning waking due to overtiredness while she adjusts to only 2 naps.

In fact, if she only sleeps a short time, I'd see if doing the third nap a bit earlier helps her sleep a little bit longer (35-40 mins is usually a whole sleep cycle).

8 month sleep regression?! Urg! Didn't know there was such a thing. DS is almost 8 months old, I can't wait till it happens

Is there anything really wrong with LO's not sleeping in a set pattern like that? Or is it just important that they do sleep during the day?

Just wondering. DS sleeps quite well during the night, has a good routine which is one that he has developed himself, helped a bit by me.

I really don't know, TryLikingClarity! Common sense tells me that babies must sleep in the day- otherwise they get really really tired! But received wisdom is that they need around twice as much daytime sleep as my daughter is getting, and in much longer stretches (right on cue she's just woken from a 45 minute nap!). However she sleeps well at night- particularly well last night, after her day of madness yesterday!- and seems fine, so I don't know.

I like having a set pattern because it means that I get at least a little bit of predictable time to myself. And I would love her to nap for longer for the same reason . But she is a human being not a robot!

TLC, I think it is important for babies that they do nap during the day because naps reduce levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in their bodies.

However, I don't think there's anything wrong with not sleeping in a set pattern. A set pattern works well for us, which I discovered after a long while of just trying to follow DS's tired signs and failing miserably. :( But I think that going by the clock works better for some than for others.

And some babies are just short nappers and there's not much you can do about it. Some have short naps (30 mins) because they're overtired by the time they get to sleep. Some have short naps (40-45 mins) because they're not tired enough to need to sleep for longer. Some have short naps because they're working on a developmental spurt and can't sleep. Some have short naps because they wake from the first sleep cycle and need help to get back to sleep again (my DS does this). And some just do it randomly.

I think the main issue is for them not to be awake for too long between naps, rather than the nap length. A lot of babies end up on a 2-3-4ish pattern: nap 2 hours after waking, nap 3 hours after waking, bedtime 4 hours after waking. But of course, it doesn't suit them all. :)