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

Here is my update,today we have had....

30 mins in pram at 10.30
30 mins awake in cot (but not crying) at 12.30
1.5 hours in pram at 1.00
Bed and fast asleep by 6.15.

Let's see what happens next!

Aiming for a cot nap (however long, I don't really mind to start off with) by the end of the week.

beela - good aim, i join you!

Ooh loads of great results how exciting!! I'll check back in the morning!

I can't really play along as DS has a cold and is teething. He is so utterly miserable at the moment :(

Today he napped in his car seat after a trip to the shops in the morning, and in the sling when I went for a walk in the afternoon, after he'd been overstimulated by a visit by the grandparents (not their fault, they just love him to bits but he never gets any sleep when they are here!).

Normally we have no probably at all getting him down of an evening but he was obviously in pain tonight, rubbing his ears, and took a lot of feeding and a bit of rocking before he could be put in the cot without tears. Think I need to wait until he is better and the next tooth is through before I can do much about his sleeping.

oh no. the nap time gods have struck me down for daring to instill my own regime.
got dd down and out at 7 with a feed. she woke at 7.45 and did not go back to sleep till 8.20. then up again at 9 but back down quick. then up again at 9.50 so I fed her. its now 10.30 and I'm still in with her. we have the odd night like this every couple of weeks but for the most part she goes down well at night. I hope this is just a one off and not a defiant 'if you make me nap ill make you pay'.

Oh dear, Chill! They are such little monkeys aren't they. I'm sure it's just a blip.

Sign me up! My 4 month dd is also a bad napper. Today she has had 3 20 minute power naps, which is an improvement on yesterday. She has always been a bad napper but hasn't done more than 45 mins for over 2 weeks. Nights are much better but a bit random lately. Will try the every hour and half routine. She doesn't sleep in the cot so will have to find a way round that.

The nap gods have also frowned on us! It was all going like clockwork last 3 nights but tonight he seems to be very upset by his teeth. His nose is blocked with it too. Been waking every 20-40 mins since 10.30. I'm shattered but we will just stick with it because I know this is just a bump in the road. :)

I just wanted to say that DD has/is a terrible sleeper.

She is now 11 months and naps (fingers crossed) are a lot better. She has gone from 20-30 mins to 1.5-2 hr naps.

Like others have said, she was clearly overtired. We worked a lot of her being able to take herself off to sleep. It almost verged on CC, but only because she got to the stage where she got more upset when we tried to settle her.

Now we put her down, if she's initially crying, she normally stops after a couple of mins. If she's initially quiet but then starts crying, we go in, pick her up and hold her for a few mins (normally in a different room) and then try again. If she doesn't go straight off, she has shorter naps. This happens if we've put her down too late.

Now if she's up for 2 hrs, she is put to bed even at 11 months. Now if she sleeps less than 1 hr, it is obvious she needs more sleep.

DD even if she's tired, if she's interested in what's going on, she could continue forever without other people being aware that she's tired. Even now DH misses the signs and he's a SAHD so it can be really subtle things you're looking for. For us, crying when removed from something and rubbing not quite her eyes, but her nose but signs that she's tired.

Hope this is of some use to someone.

As for night time sleep, although she goes off easy (never a problem with this) we still have multiple (but thankfully normally short) wakings.

chillchill did your night improve? And vix> Useful info peguinarmy!

here's the morning update - DD went down about 7.15 and was up at 7.15. We had 2 wakings - 2.30am (so she did a 7 and quarter hour stretch!) and 5am. Both short feeds and then back to sleep. I am really pleased with the seven hour stretch, it is certainly something to build on. Today i am going out for an hour's walk at 9.30 to get the naps off to a good start! Thanks to her new nap schedule she was def less overtired at bedtime! I tackle cot naps tomorrow, honest....

Hi PA I wondered if I might see you here!

I'm still not sure I want to tackle cot naps. Surely naps in the buggy are ok as she can sleep there when we are out? I will go crazy if she decides the cot is the only place to sleep and I become housebound.

It's a duble edged sword isn't it Fumblina? Buggy naps suit me a lot of the time, but they do mean no time to do housework or just sit down for 5 minutes. I don't think sleeping cot would equal not sleeping buggy though...99% of kids sleep in buggys/car seats no?

Oooohhh - DS is asleep.... IN HIS COT!!!!! Wooohoooo!!!

He woke up at 6am for a feed and sometimes goes back to sleep at this time but was having none of it this morning, so we got up and then I thought I would try at 8am cos he was unusually quiet. 5 mins of grizzling from him and a bit of a ssshhhhh from me, and he is asleep!! It has been 10 minutes so far, this is a 10 minute improvement on previous days, and they have always been in our bed, not his.

Thank you ladies for giving me the moral support to try again!

oh VIX, I know your pain. hope your night got better. mine was not great. she went back to sleep.at 10.45, up at 1, 3, 5.30 and stayed up till 7. then she was up again at 8 so dh took her till 8.40 and I fed her till 9. just rocked her to sleep.and only 3 minutes of screaming, so that's an improvement. I have not had a night this bad in ages. going to persevere with the naps but if I have to choose between day and night sleep...
ZIMM- so jealous of your 7 hours. I dream of getting that someday, maybe when she's at uni?
oh. and my cheeky dh said as he left for work just now, "so the nap thing is really working out well". bugger.

Terrible night with 12 wakings but something was wrong as his nose was so stuffy and he seemed to have pain in his teeth. Stick with the naps you honestly won't have to choose between day and night sleep they really complement each other.

Congrats to those of you who had a good night!!!

Sign me up too! Our LO has been cranky from lunchtime onwards for weeks despite sleeping relatively well at night (he is 3 months) & I am sure it's due to lack of naps. I'm trying Vix's methods (was baby-whispering, but think, like others have said, by the time he shows tired signs our LO is already past "the window").
This morning I put him back in bed 30 mins after we got up, which seems bonkers, but he's been asleep almost an hour, so clearly needed it!

DH needs convincing in the evenings, as he comes home from work & (quite understandably) wants to play with his DS. However, when DS then gets cranky, DH is convinced he is bored & needs more stimulation. He can't believe that anyone, even a little baby, can need to sleep just an hour after waking. I've also started expressing a bottle of milk a day so that DH can give him his final feed at bedtime & they can spend some calm time together.

Fingers crossed we can work out a routine. It's hard, as some of my baby groups are paid for & I don't want to miss them, but I fear they may interrupt nap times...

Morning update - DD slept from 7:30 until feed at 12:30 then woke up again at 2:30 for another feed. She was wide awake at 5:45 but not upset, but she was so loud with her crazy noises and rolling around in the cot and DP was getting up for work an hour later so I ended up putting her in my bed and feeding her - she was so fidgety she kept us both awake for the next couple of hours, but then fell asleep from about 8 til quarter to 10. She did stay in our bed all that time though - woops. Going to try a nap just before 12.

The nighttime wakings are okay, but this early morning waking then staying awake is a killer - I am not a morning person!!

Update - OK so I had a terrible night too. Is it a full moon or something?

I need some help! Have been trying to put DD down for a nap for half an hour now - she screams uncontrollably when I put her down and I have picked her up lots of times - each time she has kept on screaming for a few minutes, then calmed down, but when I put her back in the cot, the screaming begins again. Should I keep going with this just now or should I try and put her in my bed for a nap??

Oh hang on - don't want to speak too soon but I think she may have cried herself into exhaustion and appears to have flaked out! Oh dear. That's not the ideal way to do it, is it?

Bad night here too but DS had bad morning naps yesterday (he'll only sleep for 20 mins in pram and DH took him out for first nap to let me sleep in). Have decided to stay in this week and work on naps. Think he's really overtired today and only seems to be managing an hour awake. Had 2 successes with shs pat but he's falling asleep on the boob as I type and tempted to leave him though means no lunch. Hope it helps tonight.

Utter madness! My LO must have woken 7 times last night, culminating with waking for the day at 7am (she normally wakes at 8.30). She had a few good naps yesterday - now I'm wondering if that was the reason for all the waking last night, are we heading into the 4 month sleep regression or was it a one off? Its reassuring to see that I'm not the only one. She is in her cot now, woke from last nap at 11.

Reading all this wondering if DD's naps need to be even more frequent (was going for about every 2-2.5 hours) especially in the morning. Anyway, a week of hard work I am now getting 3 naps a day (all short ones, but such an improvement) and the first one is in the crib - hurrah! Next is to tackle the length of the naps, and the fact that DD always kicks up a fuss before going to sleep, even in sling. How are others getting on?

So today DD had woke at 7.30, had a 20 minute nap on me at 9.00am (fell asleep feeding should have tried to get her into cot) a half an half nap from 10.45 - 11.15 in buggy and a one and quarter (!!) nap between 2.45 and 4.00. So that's my 3, I am now going to give her dinner, loads of milk and try for a 7pm bedtime!! Sorry there were so many bad nights last night but a big WOOOHOOO for anyone has achieved a cot nap today, I will really try tomorrow....I think the thing to focus on is extending that first nap....from a min of 20 minutes to 30 minutes...

mamagool - these early bedtimes are not great for the OH's are they? But I don't see we have a choice - we'll just have to convince them to get up and do an early morning nappy change instead :-)

Vix please do post back tomorrow and reassure us that your system has righted itself!

chillchill stick with it - I've heard some LO's take at least a week to respond to a routine change...