9 month old naps gone to sh*t!

[ninipops]

Ok a little background - bear with me! My lo has never relished sleeping during the day and up to about the age of 7.5 / 8 months we would rock to sleep on seeing sleepy signs. This worked fine until then but then she decided to completely resist falling to sleep to the point where the only way we could get her to sleep would be to hold her in a bear hug - she would have a little cry then conk out. Doing this she would sleep half an hour to an hour in the morning, an hour and a half to two hours in the afternoon and 7 til 6 at night self settling if she woke.

Given that she was crying to go to sleep anyway DS and I agreed that we might as well try CC. Which we did this weekend. 45min crying the first night, 20 the second, 15 the third and about 5 last night. The problem now though is her naps. We tried to keep up the CC for her naps but she is not going for it with the result that she has been having about half an hours nap every day since Saturday.

Just this morning I tried rocking her to sleep when she started rubbing her eyes (at about 9:15) in the hope that she would get some sleep but as I type she is burbling/protesting in her cot. This is impacting on everything else in her day - she doesn't want to eat lunch or dinner cause she is too tired and cranky and she is impossible to keep entertained.

Anyone had anything similar happen? Got any suggestions or reassurance?

It sounds like the 9 month sleep regression:
info here

It's very hard to make CC work for naps, especially during this developmental phase. You don't have the biological imperative for sleep on your side during the day. For the time being, I would try and get your DD to nap in any way you can, rather than fruitlessly trying to put her down in her cot.

I know because I'm in the same boat as you at the moment. I'm managing to put DD down for her first nap in her cot (might take a few attempts), where she'll sleep for around half an hour. After that, the only way to get her to sleep is in her pram on the move.

It's not ideal - I'd love to be able to get on with other things rather than spend hours pushing the pram through the neighbourhood, but at least DD is getting enough daytime sleep to keep her sweet and this phase will pass.

If you're worried about being inconsistent and letting your DD nap anyoldhow will interfere with the better settling she's doing at night, don't. Naps are apparently governed by a different part of the brain, so it's likely she'll continue the better overnight sleep (bar illness, teething etc.), even if you're going back to "bad habits" for the naps.

HTH

Agree with everything IC says above.

There is a great book explaining the cause of sleep regressions: it's called The Wonder Weeks by two scientists who researched all the developmental spurts up to 13 months.

They say:

"Your baby may start sleeping less well. Most babies do. She may refuse to go to bed, fall asleep less easily, and wake up sooner. Some are especially hard to get to sleep during the day. Others at night. And some stay up longer both during the day and at night."

The developmental spurt causing this happens at about 37 weeks. The fussy period often begins at 34 weeks. It usually lasts for 3-6 weeks.

There?s useful information about it here, here and here.

We're between the 2 spurts - in the run up to the 37 week one, DS would only sleep for 30 mins a.m. and 30 mins at lunchtime instead of 40 mins + 2 hours. It just went back to normal after a week or two.

Not surprising, Angel, I think I originally got the info from you!! [hgrin]

Thanks guys really appreciate it. Good to know this will hopefully not last long!

Glad you've read & inwardly digested it proerly then, IC!