The my baby won't nap sign here thread?

[Zimm]

Helllo all,

Until recently DD (6 months) would only nap in her pram, this worked ok-ish. Now even this seems to be failing, yesterday I paced for 1.5 hours to get her to take a 30 minute nap. NOTHING gets done during the day as I am constantly entertaining her. Her night sleep was fantastic (8pm-6am, 6.30am - 8.30am!) but all went wrong at sleep regression and we now have anywhere between 2 and 6 wakings.

I worry about the lack of naps affecting her and making her miserable.

So please sign here if you too have a nap refuser, maybe we can share ideas or just support each while our houses descend into a cloud of mess, phone call go unreturned and exhaustion from street-pacing kicks in!

Zimm

Bad day for naps.

Managed to get 1 hour at about 11, he'd been up since 7 so got over tired.
And he's just fallen asleep on our bed with OH. Was going to get him ready for a bath but he's out for the count. Which means he will now be up late, I'm out tonight so OH can settle him :)

A friend of mine took her DS swimming yesterday and he slept for... wait for it... 16 HOURS last night!! With only 1 wake up!!!

First thing Monday morning we are going swimming!!!

vix - how do you settle your baby for naps/sleep? I'm looking to find a way of not feeding to sleep, and she's never responded well to being put down in her cot unless she's playing or already asleep!

Leggyblonde I'm on my iPhone so forgive me for being brief...:) my settling strategies are listed on a recent post on this thread. If you take a quick look back I think it was 2/3 days ago. More and more we are relying on swaddle, dummy and rocking. What's that? Rod for our own backs? You betcha!!

At the moment we are using whatever we can to get him used to sleeping, then we will tweak and sort out the props one by one. Hard work this sleep malarky isn't it?!

Hi ladies,

Quick update from me... BTW, DS is 14 weeks, so a bit younger than most of yours (& too young for me to expect an uninterrupted night!), but I am determined to get him into good sleep habits early & get him to nap in his cot during the day.

Got a few good naps in yesterday (probably because we were out, so I wore the sling a lot, which almost always settles him). Plus got the evening to ourselves while he slept in his own bed.

Today we only managed 3x 30 min naps (none in his cot), but he did settle very quickly at bedtime, which is now 6pm following Vix's magic plan. A short grumble at half 8, which we groaned at, but hopefully ignored & (wonder of wonders!) he settled again. He's still very snuffly, so think he found it hard today & am hoping he feels better tomorrow.

Hope you all have good nights.

Mama that's great! Have you raised the head of his cot? That really helped my ds when he was sniffly a few nights ago. We just used books to raise it off the floor by about 20cm.

Oooh, I didn't think of that - will give it a go if he's still snuffly tomorrow. I did put some Karvol on a muslin by his cot (out of reach) to help with breathing.

Ok, so I've just woken up. I was out last night and didn't get in until
2am (hangs head in shame!) very good night though!!

I am shocked that DS slept from 8:30pm-6am with NO WAKE UPS!!!!!

Why can't he sleep like that when I'm not out drinking cocktails!!!
It must be putting him to bed later, or that he cried a lot before bed ( was over tired)

I am praying for a repeat tonight!!! Right, strong coffee and paracetamol for me!!!

Imisssleep - that is amazing!!! Last night DP settled DD at 2.40 when she woke up (so she is pushing the wake up a bit later) but she was up again at 3.45 for a feed. Still we will persist with the system of him taking the first wake-up for now... today's naps will again be buggy based as we are busy but I will try again with cot nap tomorrow...need to read back through this thread for a settling plan.

Question - do other people have a strict 'routine' for naps? As in a series of things you do before the nap? I think DD might respond to one as she goes down well at night after her very strict bedtime routine. But I don't want to do the bedtime routine in the day as I don't want to confuse her and also it includes a bath!!

I'm also wondering about bringing her bedtime forward to 7 rather than half 7...

I think.......... he might be coming round to the idea of sleeping in the daytime. I've just put him down in his cot after he dropped off during a feed and, although he opened his eyes a couple of times and looked at me, he has now gone to sleep. A week ago he would have opened his eyes and gone 'what am I doing in my cot, it is the middle of the day?!' and been wide awake from then on. Hooray!

Imisssleep - that's brilliant! Perhaps going out and drinking cocktails every night is the way forward? I might try. I went out last night too, was back by 10.30 like an old lady, and he woke up at 11.30 just after I had dropped off!! Clearly I did not drink enough cocktails.

Zimm - same, our bedtime routine seems to work but the bath is a large part and it is not practical to give him a bath every time he needs a nap! I do tend to take him up to his room, change nappy, feed etc with the blind closed before a nap. Gives him a while to get used to the idea anyway.

VIX when you have time would you pls advise me on where I might be going wrong. I seem to have naps sorted. I'm on a 4 hour schedule with my combination fed baby (7.30,11.30,3.30), except at night when she is having just one feed (the times vary).

Anyway since this thread started my naps are sorted (about 2 x 1.5 am and pm and a 40 min 4-5pm ish before bedtime routine which tends to see her in bed between 7 and 8 after the last feed of the day)

Anyway she is sooooooo unsettled at night. Despite the fact she self settles for naps. I re-read your post on page one and see you had lots of wakings. Do you have any suggestions for me.

I have to resettle her repeatedly in the evening after bedtime, she seems positively upset for no reason, then after her night feed she is waking up a couple of times (but its too soon for her to be hungry and she doesn't want to feed in the morning when she wakes at 6.30 until 7.30 or sometimes later, so I don't offer her 2nd night feed now)

Do you think I should put her to bed earlier? What would I do about her early eve feed if she's not ready.

Sedgiebaby I'm afraid I need help with that too. Before the nap schedule ds woke every 45 minutes through the night. For 8 weeks. It was sheer hell. Now he tends to go down 6-7, have maybe 2 dummy runs as we call them between 9 and midnight. Then he wakes at 2 for a feed. Then around 4 he wakes and needs a quick reassurance and at the moment he wakes at 5 or 6 wanting to get up.

So I am far from sorted. But compared to how it was before it is still fantastic

Your naps are great, much better than ours. This weekend has been crap , the mil just turned up today unannounced: fed him a load if sugary stuff behind my back and totally screwed up our schedule too. So tonight should be fun. He was so hard to settle tonight.

Sorry I can't be of more use to you but I'm in the same boat re habitual wakings.... I feel I could give a later dreamfeed but at the moment I need to catch up on so much lost sleep so I'm in bed asleep by 9!

Our only rule for naps is that in the half hour before sleep should start I go into calm mode. Quiet speaking, gentle play (books, soft Teddies etc rather than flashing, noisy toys).

Then, 10 mins before nap I quietly and slowly take him upstairs and do as mist people do. Darkened room, nappy change etc.

Obviously if I'm out and about then it's just a case of timing walks/drives to his nap times. I try and set off 15 mins prior to nap start time.

Hello all - it's my birthday today so have been off the grid! Hoping DD gives me a nice birthday present by sleeping well.

IMissSleep so glad you had a good night out and a good sleep!

Zimm for naps I have been carrying her up quietly, closing curtains, putting her in grow bag, doing feed if it's that time, then down on her tummy (have given up putting her on her back), rubbing her back as she cranes her neck for a while before giving in. The naps have been going quite well for me but this morning she howled for ages and didn't really nap much the rest of the day as we were out and about.

Still having several wake-ups in the night and I'm afraid I've pretty much just been feeding her as I know it'll put her back to sleep quickly.

Happy birthday Geordiegirl!

Rubbish night here - various wakings, OH took shift until 3am blesss him and now he has gone to work....

Today's nap attempt will be in the afternoon, morning naos in buggy as we are out and about. Good luck all!

Morning all!

Happy Birthday Geordiegirl!

Zimm - Good that your OH helps out at night, gives you some much needed rest :)

So yesterday was a bit of a right off for me due to stinking hangover, never again! OH was incharge of naps, DS had 1 hour at about 8am, then 45 mins at 2pm.

I put him to bed at 6:45pm, he fell a sleep on the sofa, bedtime is usually 7:30pm so I was expecting a rough night. He only woke once and didn't have any night feeds. Just popped his dummy back in at 3:30am and he slept till 7am.

I was in bed at 8:30pm and OH said he woke up a little at about 10 but just for his dummy. I'm hoping that he continues to sleep well at night, makes such a difference.

VIX Thanks for replying, ahead of last night I gave it some thought and did things a bit different and it was better.

I put DD down less than 2 hours from her late pm nap (just) even though it was at odds with feed times. I offered the feed even though it was 2.5 hours since the last - she took everything which surprised me.

We had two disturbances first part of the eve (this is better) and DH settled her instead (I always do.

I woke her for her night feed (did this the night before also) well, she didn't wake. I decided not to change her nappy after so she was put to bed still asleep and I reswaddled her in the cot not out of it so she was still asleep at this point.

She cried out at 2am. I picked her up and resettled her. I heard lots of shuffling and bit of noise from her at 4, 5, 6 but no crying, she must have gone to sleep in between. Then I had to get her up at 7.30.

So this is an improvement. I think that using DH to settle and getting her up for her night feed rather than the other way around helped. I'm thinking now the dreamfeed is good because, she will come to know if she wakes us up she's going back without a feed rather than sometimes my offering a feed sometimes not - maybe the consistency is helpful.

I'll try this again tonight, I'm feeling a bit more positive now

Happy birthday Geordiegirl!

We had an ok night until DS woke up and decided to start the day at 5.30. He usually goes back to sleep after a 5am feed until about 8am. Not sure how this bodes for the rest of the day. I got him to sleep for 20 mins at 7.30 but he's now sitting on my lap and yawning

I tend to feed straight away with night wakings too, cos at least that eliminates hunger as a cause for a few hours. It's just too depressing if you get them to go back and then they wake up after an hour for food. Also, decided to enjoy the technique while it lasts, speaking to friends with toddlers, they are gutted they can't just stick a boob in to get them back to sleep in the night anymore!

Imisssleep - great news re the night sleeping, hope it stays that way!

Happy birthday Geordiegirl

DD is asleep in cot, has been for 1 hour thats the second time in a week.

Ohhhhh -she just woke up...

nope, false alarm. Thought it was the monitor, but it was just the cat snoring next to me

1.5 hours nearly

Hee hee brilliant Fumblina and thanks for all the birthday messages! We did have a good night with feeds at 12 and 4 then sleep until 7:45...hurray!

imisssleep I just saw your message about last night, fantastic!

When you have time pls would you note the factors that you think have contributed because, I need help with nights. Naps are going really well now, but nights there is certainly room for improvement.

Hello all, can I join you in the non-napping baby madness? Taken me a while to read through 11 pages but it's been like reading my life so far with 5 month old dd.

Our story so far is a baby who from day 1 everyone oohed and said isn't she alert for x age! Alert yes. Adorable yes, but will she just shut her eyes when tired and go to sleep..... Er no.

We seem to be ok at nights, compared to what a lot of you are going through, but getting more than a 30 minute power nap out of her during the day is hard, even with pram walking, sling wearing or any other tricks. But having read all the posts here this morning I fed her back to sleep 2 hours after waking and he had a 45 min nap. Now on the second two hour window and she's been feeding/sleeping for 30 mins but someones just started using a digger in the road aargh!

Her bedtime is 7pm, and she's actively looking to go to bed as she's so overtired. She is mixed fed, with formula at bedtime and on night wakings, usually twice, sometimes once if we're lucky. Once asleep, she's generally ok, but getting her to do that is a bit of a battle

Just wanted to join you guys for moral support as no-one seems to understand that she just won't go to sleep, even when clearly exhausted, and comments from my parents really aren't helping!

Uh oh, 30mins and she's awake again, time for a car trip

My 15 week old has never been a good sleeper. Nights are betterish as he starts to get dozy about 6 and we let him sleep on us til we re ready to go to bed at 10 and he goes down with no fuss. Ive given up with the books and things like 'accidental parenting ' I'm just glad to get to watch tv in the evening albeit with a sleeping baby on me. And day naps? Only if he's bf' d to sleep and laid down really gently;)

sedgiebaby - I have done 2 things differently over the last few days...
1 - No Naps after 4:30pm. If he is sleepy then I play with him, dinner at 5pm, Bath 5:30pm then by 6:45 - 7pm he has fallen a sleep either on the sofa or sitting with us!

2 - Ok, 3 weeks ago OH was away for 2 nights. So I let DS sleep in my bed with me, just thought it would be easier if he was with me to settle him and to be honest, I couldn't be bothered with getting up every 2 hours!! In our bed he had a pillow, my pillow. And he slept through. All night.
So I have given him his own pillow with my pillow case. Its only a small one for 1 year old. He is 6 months and I know you're supposed to wait till they're a year... But he's slept through for 2 nights now. I've just met some friends for lunch and they gave their boys pillows at 6-7 months.

He is so comfortable that he just falls into a deep sleep. There's a few moans about dummy but no where near at much. For the past 2 nights, he's gone to bed and we haven't heard a peep out of him till about 3:30am.

I think the sleeping better at night is helping with naps, he's had 1.5 hours today at 9am and 45 mins at 1pm.
Hope everyone is having a good nap day :)