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Sleep

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Original poster

Fecking afternoon nap....

28 replies

LittlebearH · 05/01/2011 15:13

My 10.5 mo will go down for a nap no problem. Trouble is she wont sleep for long enough.

She has a good half hour or so at 9am and is tired at 12.45pm but will only sleep for an hour. I have done CC for night sleep and this has worked.

(She will do 1.5 hours or more if I nap with her)

CC just doesn't work with her afternoon nap.

When she wakes she just automatically sits up as if a reflex.

This has been going on for months and she is shattered by tea time and she is not a great eater at the moment either.

Anyone else have this problem? I thought she would have got better as time went on...but no.

She has a bottle at 2.30pm and her tea at 5pm. She has dropped her 4pm nap.

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CarGirl · 05/01/2011 15:14

I would drop the 9am nap and put her down at 11.30 or similar. Means they have crazy meal times for a while but will work out in the end.

Original poster

LittlebearH · 05/01/2011 15:16

I was thinking of that...she wakes before 6am though...:(

I go back to work next week and I don't know what the childminder is going to do with her...

I am so stressed.

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CarGirl · 05/01/2011 15:19

Hmmm I think you just have to go through the pain to get her into a sleeping pattern that is going to work for you and the childminder.

Speak to your childminder and ask her what sort of sleep routine will work at her house.

You could let her have 10mins at 9am and then put her down at 12?

What time does she go to bed in the evening?

ShushBaby · 05/01/2011 15:34

Are you me?

My almost 11mo daughter has never been a big napper- fond of catnaps, resistant to naps etc. Has also dropped her 4pm nap and is up before 6am. Is also about to start at the childminder! Only difference is that she has been having long morning nap (1.5 hours), I think to compensate for early rising grrr.
Nothing will settle her when she wakes from a short nap.

I've decided (with some trepidation), as cargirl suggests, to just bite the bullet and drop the morning nap. I hope this will help her sleep later in the mornings and longer at her afternoon nap. This was a slightly forced decision as she had her first morning with the childminder today and I knew there was no chance she'd go to a new place with new friends and snuggle down for a nap as soon as she got there! She was fine when I picked her up at 11.30, despite having been up since the crack of dawn. Then she was a total devil to put down for a nap after lunch (but my fault because I mistimed everything, so she didn't go down til 1pm) and only slept for 40 mins. There's a good chance she'll be beside herself by bedtime but I figure she'll have to go down to one nap eventually, so it may as well be now. I really, really think the early rising is connected to the morning nap so I'll be glad to see the back of it. It may be painful in the process but worth it I hope.

FWIW the childminder was very relaxed and put things in perspective. Remember they have loads of experience of all kinds of nappers and non-nappers. Plus they have to manage multiple babies! So it is not such a big deal to them. She said she has had nap-resisting babies before and she "just perserveres". In fact one toddler she looks after who was a varmint as a baby now asks to go for a nap. Asks! I can't imagine.

I felt very reassured after talking to her. And to be honest it will be fabulous to hand over responsibility for naps to some other poor bugger for a few days a week!

teenyanne · 05/01/2011 15:40

I had a similar problem - fantastic sleeper overnight, and even now at 14 months her daytime naps are rubbish (I used the baby whisperer techniques, and still do for her naps). Since she went to nursery though, things have improved somewhat - they have a nap / quiet time after lunch, and she sometimes sleeps for 2 hours. Although she never does that at home, we normally manage an hour or so after lunch. It might be a cop-out, but could you wait and see if the childminder can get her into a routine that you can follow at home? I think with my dd, the fact that all the other children are sleeping and if she wakes she doesn't get to do anything noisy until nap time is done, helps her to sleep better as everyone else is doing the same thing.

CarGirl · 05/01/2011 15:46

Shushbaby your dd may will have been overtired today which can be counterproductive.

Once they have that one long nap at lunch time it is bliss. You get sooooooooo much housework done and lunch

ShushBaby · 05/01/2011 15:51

CarGirl I dream of that day. As much as I love my daughter I'd also enjoy a nice long stretch of time on my own each afternoon! She was definitely overtired today. I should have put her down at noon. Ho hum, we live and learn.

Original poster

LittlebearH · 05/01/2011 16:12

Crikey...ShushBaby I am you it seems!

CarGirl, she goes down at 7pm and generally no problem these days since CC. (She used to wake every 2hrs through the night too)

I cannot imagine getting stuff done whilst she sleeps. We live in a flat so we spend all the time she does sleep one eye on monitor and tip toeing about!

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Original poster

LittlebearH · 05/01/2011 16:22

I feel like my life is madness due to this. We don't go anywhere as she wont nap unless in a moving car or pushchair.

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CarGirl · 05/01/2011 16:50

Poor you, it's not fun is it!

Original poster

LittlebearH · 05/01/2011 17:16

No..on top she won't eat f all either. Just spits everything she used to like out. Have just left her with DP giving her toast. Again. Eating was her one thing she did do. She drinks bugger all milk.

I hope this is a phase. I am sick of throwing food away.

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ShushBaby · 05/01/2011 19:20

Poor you littlebearH. I too have become very wound up over naps as the months have gone by, to the point where it sometimes hinders my enjoyment of my time with my baby, which is a real shame.

Today taught me a few lessons:
a) That she can skip a nap and be awake for (gasp) 7 hours and the world will not stop turning. In fact she wasn't even grumpy.
b) That childminders really are fine about dealing with naps- it's their job.
c) That a day with practically no naps (40 mins) does not mean a hellish bedtime. In fact she settled herself to sleep at 6.45pm for the first time since before Christmas.
Of course, the night may hold horrors in store, but hey ho.

It's made me think I really should do as others have always advise me and relax... Though whether I'll achieve that remains to be seen.

Can symptahise with the food thing too. Our dd is having a phase of eating everything in sight (and she has never been one of those babies), but she has often turned her nose up at food in general or eaten next to nothing in the past and I'm sure will again. It will pass...

Well done on the nights by the way! We are not consistently there yet...

Original poster

LittlebearH · 05/01/2011 20:01

Thanks ShushBaby. I wouldn't say nights are perfect as she still wakes 1-3 times a night but no more sitting in her room for an hour stroking her to sleep. :)

I can empathise with you over nap stress hindering enjoyment. I feel just as things got marginally better over the year, I have to go back to work.

The childminder has her on Friday for a second taster session and wants to try and nap her. She wouldn't eat for her on Tues and was in a right state when I got there.

I have just got to get through this.

Poor DD I am always wishing her life away...wish she would sleep/eat/have more teeth/chew/tell me what's wrong!

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Original poster

LittlebearH · 06/01/2011 13:33

Well I cut the 9am nap and she has slept for half an hour and is screaming her head off and I am crying.

WTF do I do? What is the childminder going to do? Last night she woke up 4 times in the night.

I cannot stand this.

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Original poster

LittlebearH · 06/01/2011 13:38

I hate being a mum. Nothing has gone right from the beginning.

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Teleaddict · 06/01/2011 13:52

Please don't despair it gets easier, promise! In the meantime, how about pushing her morning nap back, say 10/15 mins every couple of days? It is a big jump to push it back by 4 hours in one go. Then eventually it will mean that she is having 1 nap around lunchtime (my dd goes down at 12). If she resists her afternoon nap until then or doesn't sleep for as long then how about bringing bed time forward fora while? An earlier bedtime will mean she isn't as over tired and therefore may sleep better during the night. It doesn't necessarily mean she will wake up earlier either. Once my dd was completely shattered and my mil putherinbed at 4.50pm!! I was horrified but she slept till 6am!!
It might work, good luck

CarGirl · 06/01/2011 19:35

Have you ever taken her to a cranial osteopath, it really is worth a go.

How do you normally get her to go to sleep, what are her "sleep props"?

Original poster

LittlebearH · 07/01/2011 07:39

May look into that. Have no sleep props. Have tried comforters, music etc but everything is a distration to her.
It was me soothing her until CC fixed it.

I just have to lay her down and she turns onto her side. She has a dummy though.

To my suprise, she did go back off yesterday afternoon ten mins after the wake up, and did another hour. The day before she wouldn't.

So maybe she is improving with going back to sleep herself.

A lot of the problem is not her going to sleep in her cot, it is is just staying asleep. Well this is true at home.

Going out is a problem, she will only sleep for as long as pram or car moves. Max she has ever done is half an hour.

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CarGirl · 07/01/2011 22:37

One of mine would only sleep in a cot. The summer she turned 1 she didn't nap at all with the cm as they were out and about all day everyday. fortunately she was jolly enough and it wasn't really a problem.

I would try a craniel osteopath just to rule out an discomfort.

It's horrible though have a dc that doesn't sleep well easily.

StartingAfresh · 08/01/2011 02:11

My dd dropped consistent daytime naps at around 9 months. She then continued to have random ones at around 2pm that would sometimes last until 5pm.

Original poster

LittlebearH · 08/01/2011 12:29

CarGirl, thanks for your help. I have booked her in to see a CO on the 17th. DP thinks a good idea too.

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COCKadoodledooo · 08/01/2011 12:34

Ds2 is a crap daytime sleeper (at 14 months he's only just become a non-crap nighttime sleeper too tbh!). Half an hour is all he gets most days. I've long since given up trying to make him sleep. Just wasn't worth the stress.

CarGirl · 08/01/2011 12:56

I hope it helps it is so wearing if they are rubbish at napping and don't sleep well at night. I think if my poor sleeper had been my first child she may have been my only!

Iggly · 08/01/2011 13:10

Littlebear, my DS wasn't great at napping til 9-10 months and consistently good til 1. He was(is at the mo) and early riser and night waker.

In the end I put him down for morning naps at half 8 and lunch at half 12. Then gradually pushed back (so he's now 9 and 1).

I used to struggle when he had wind - time and time again he wouldn't sleep, I'd get so wound up then end up picking him up to rock, he'd do a big burp then sleep. Same thing makes him wake up at night - wind. Usually bum wind though. Peppermint and fennel tea (just a teaspoon or two) works wonders. He also has reflux too.

What kind of foods are you trying? Does she eat finger food? So you could try chips, chunks of veg, meatballs... I have to beware of harder to digest foods as DS gets wind = no sleep.

Also has she got teeth coming? Always a trouble in our house!

Original poster

LittlebearH · 08/01/2011 15:11

Iggly, food is an issue too now. She only has bottom teeth. Finger foods except toast end up all on the floor or bitten and them spat and mashed food or jars start off ok, after 4 spoond she starts spitting them too.

She used to do whole dinner no problem. Eg. 190g jars, she now will eat about a third. Just to give an indication.

Fromage frais no problem, nor fruit puree........

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