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

We have had:
About an hour and a half this morning (in bed with me);
30 min nap after 30 mins of screaming (in the cot);
10 min nap (on my lap after feeding);
5 min nap (in cot) after 30 mins of protesting, followed by lots of screaming and then an hour nap (in bed, lying on me and I fell asleep as well).

Aiming for 7:30pm bedtime and hoping for some good results!

Mixed success today, we have had:
Up for day at 6am (not great)
20 mins in cot (yay!) at 8am
20 mins on me at 10am
30 mins in cot at 12 noon
... then it all went a bit wrong as he was still tired after the 30 mins but I couldn't get him to go back to sleep so we ended up on a 45 minute drive , then another 20 mins on me after a feed a little bit later.
Upstairs now with DP having his bottle of expressed milk and hoping for in bed asleep by 7pm.

So in total, 50 minutes in the cot, which is 50 minutes more than any other day this month. I am pleased :)

Zimm - you can do it, cot nap tomorrow! I'm with you on extending the first nap, but how do we do that??

Oh, and we have injections tomorrow so it will probably all go to pot anyway! Something to work on though.

update- after bad night and day starting at 5.30 (wtf!) we have done well with naps.1 hour at 7, 1.25 hours at 9ish, 45min at half 12 and 35min at 4. now feeding to sleep hoping for a 7.30 bed time. first 2 naps were in bed with me (was exhausted) and last 2 in pram cause I was out. at least no screams.
GEORDIE- sounds like we had the same morning. ugh.
ZIMM - at least you got naps, baby steps.
well done BEELA!
Vix, Jasmin, Fum, Judy, mama, ...any luck today?

Hope everyone gets a better night tonight - DD has been asleep since 8 so fingers crossed. She went down without protest tonight (although she had to have expressed bottle PLUS what DP calls a 'breasty top-up'(!!)).

DP also reminded me that it'll take a while for her to figure out what on earth is going on when I put her in her cot during the day. I want instant results though of course!

We also have injections tomorrow - joy.

Aah, good luck with the injections geordiegirl - one of my friends swears that it makes hers more sleepy so here's hoping.

I am the same - I try something for 2 days and it doesn't work, so I doubt myself and try something else. No wonder the poor little thing is confused! That's why I need this thread to keep me going on one plan for at least a fortnight so that he realises that cot in the daytime = sleeping. I'm sure(ish) that he'll get it eventually if I give him a chance....

I want to join in. I can't face giving you my whole sorry saga at the moment as I will start crying. Again. My DD (and I am struggling to use the first D at the moment) is 5 months old. NO real naps for first 3 months, then I thought I had managed to get her a bit sorted and she was taking a couple of naps in her bed each day (bottle fed to sleep/drowsy alot) but now this no longer works and she is just so over tired and irritbable and I NEED to do something and am thinking about some training next week.

Yes, we'll keep each other going - glad of the support. DP just managed to settle DD back to sleep by stroking her head for 1 minute! I'm going to swap places with him :)

Sounds like we're all on a rocky road! :(

DS napped this morning: 9-10 (in our bed), then again 11-12, 1-2.45 & 3.15-4 (in sling, as I was out). Great, thinks I - we've cracked it! But then he got cranky again, so I got him to have 30 mins at 6pm. Had friends over (too late to cancel, but I won't be inviting anyone else over in the evenings!) & of course they wanted cuddles. Bath at 7.30 with me, then bottle of expressed milk & DH has been trying to settle him ever since. I just keep hearing wailing (DS) & singing (DH)...

Tomorrow I'm going to bring bedtime forward to a 6pm bath & see if that works any better...
Good luck everyone!

Udderly - there is a developmental leap between 14 and 19 weeks that is linked to the 4 month sleep regression. May be worth waiting to see if that is it as not much point in trying during those times.

Soo, the full moon had the opposite effect last night we had 6.30pm to 11.30pm then down to....

...wait for it...

...7.00am

Wooooohooooooooo!

Then naps 9.00-11.00am Longest nap ever. In buggy in house but hey I don't mind that I think.

Then it all went to hell and we had 20 minutes at 1pm and 20minutes at 4pm. A screaming fit at lunch and again at dinner. And again at bathtime.

Not sure why these naps are so short as she clearly needs them and we did get to the stage where they were reliably 45minutes.

Good luck to injection people tomorrow.

Wow Fumblina what a night!! DD went down at 7.45 but has been up twice since then and needed to be rocked back to sleep. Unsure why as she was very well rested and happy this evening due to her mega afternoon nap! Really hoping it isn't a sign of bad night to come!

pleasethanks welcome to the thread - when you say no naps do you mean not even pram naps?

I thought it might be useful to share nap soothing strategies - so on the two(1) occasiosn in the last 3 months that I have got DD to nap in cot I:

Shut the curtains
Put on her gro-bag to send a sleep signal
Put white noise on (a recording of me shushing her)
Breastfeed to sleep
Try to transfer to cot, she usually wakes
Rock herback to sleep
Put her down and hold her arms still
Hold arms until she is well asleep!

I repeat the above steps for as long as I can bear before giving up usually...tomorrow I, Zimm, hearby pledge to attempt to get her to nap at 9.00am in her cot. You are all witnesses!!

Fumblina your night last night sounds brilliant! It's the unpredictability that's so hard isn't it - thinking you've cracked it one minute, then seemingly back to square one.

Pleasethanks - you are in good company here! I really feel for you.

Right - Zimm, I am going to join you in that pledge. It has been too easy to drift in and out of sleep with DD in bed with me. Lets see what happens!

We had a terrible night yesterday. Today he wouldn't nap in his cot but did fall asleep during a feed (I did too as was exhausted) for about 90mins until 12. At 1pm I went to a baby group and we were there until 3pm. Unlike the other babies he would never go to sleep at a group :D. He fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep until about 4pm. No more naps.

Tried to get him to bed at 7pm (husband doesn't return home until 7 most days so DS always has a late bedtime, perhaps not ideal), but he wouldn't feed to sleep like he normally does and it took a lot of singing, calpol, and an hour of consoling him before he nodded off properly. He is teething, though.

I only have four weeks of maternity leave left and do need to get out the house most days so can't be as firm with a routine as perhaps others can. I would be happy if I could get him to have just one nap off me per day, with at least two naps in a day. Tomorrow I have a dr's appointment and am hosting a baby group, Weds he has a settling in day at nursery, Thurs I need to go out in the morning, so perhaps I can try again properly on Friday :)

Glad to see lots of successful sleepy babies! I'm meant to be asleep (dh has given me until 2am) but just wanted to see how everyone was faring.

After last nights blip here, so far so good. Didn't quite manage 3 hrs of naps (2.5 in the end) but ds has been sleeping since 6.15 soundly. Just gave dreamfeed and hoping for at least another 3 hours out of him until he stirs. He seems to habitually wake between 2 and 3, then again between 5 and 6. But compared to this time last week when it was every hour - that's fab!

He's still very blocked up in the nose so I'm sure that's what caused last nights disturbances.

Good luck to everyone. This is such a busy thread now with loads of support - i love it!

My soothing strategies are:

Stroking from crown of head to tip of nose very slowly and gently while whispering softly 'ssshhh sleepy time'
Dark room
Dummy
Swaddle

If all of above fails then a cuddle where I stand, sway and breathe slowly and gently near his ear always works but then I have to put him in cot and extract my arm which is hard.

Other desperation methods include laying down in bed with him doing any/all of the above, leaning over cot and dangling boob in his mouth (yes I am that desperate sometimes!!!).

My favourite is the head/face stroking though it really calms him down and feels loving iyswim?

Right must sleep. Ds is fast asleep but I just can't get the hang of sleeping at the moment!

But before I go...pleasethanks I was feeling just like you this time last week. Join in and see if we can sort this out together! Keep us updated and if you feel like sharing details at some point I'd love to see what's been going on with your DD.

Why is such a necessary part of life so blinking difficult for so many babies eh? You'd think it'd come naturally not be such hard work.

Marking my place. My dcs are lovely sleepers (touch wood!) but I'm staying with my sister whose ds, now 7 months, doesn't do napping. He also wakes frequently through the night. My sister ends up bringing him into her bed but co-sleeping is not working for them, her ds squirms and kicks all night. Tonight my sister came downstairs in tears after her ds woke up while she was trying to put him down for the umpteenth time. Poor love is so tired. Scrabbling around on Mumsnet for something helpful to say I found this thread. It does seem that dn is very overtired. Sis agrees. So tomorrow the new routine starts! Will update. Thank you ladies!!!!

Aargh I can't sleep. So I relieved dh early (midnight rather than 2am) and as he went into our bedroom from the nursery he flicked the light switch really noisily. Two hours later I was still trying to settle ds. Being bloody angry now which doesn't help. Its always been one of my pet hates and now we have the baby it's seriously annoying! So mad because our night was going well but now is absolutely ruined. Ds would not settle after all my attempts and ended up in bed with me. This resulted in 1 hour sleep now it's 5 and he won't stop screaming. Plus I've only had 2 hours sleep and now potentially won't get much more. Grumpy and nauseous with a long day of baby caring stretching ahead of me.

Oh VIX, poor you. bloody men! my dh can be the same about noise.
so.its 6.35 and I'm feeding dd in.the hope that she will go back to sleep and not be up for the day yet.
night was better than last.7.30 bed time. she fussed a lot in her sleep, moaning and crying. think its her teeth. had to.settle her at 9. then dream fed at 11.30. then up at 1.45, 3.45 both times fed and back to cot quickly.4.45 up again, brought into bed with me, was to tired to settle het again. fed for 1 minute then back to sleep. now up again and does not look like she's going back to sleep.
I don't get it. before o started 3 hours of nap time a day she slept 7/8 till 7.30/9. now she is getting up much too early for my liking. I know its only been 2 days but really hope it changes, don't want to have to go to bed ay 10 like an old lady!

Chillchill, I've not been up after 10 since de arrived! I'm starting the day now even though I've only had 3 hrs sleep :( will have to watch my words when dh emerges at 9....

Can I join please!!!!

My DS has always napped quite well (6months) but the last few days, its been HELL!!

He usually wakes at 7am, bottle, breakfast (I weaned him at 4 months, breastmilk just wasn't enough. He was breastfed till 5months)

He would normally nap at about 9am for an hour then again at 12 and 2 hours at about 3.
The last few days he's not been napping as much or sleeping at night. He goes to bed no problems at about 7:30pm after dinner, bath, play....

Wakes at 11pm for a feed. Then wakes again at 3am and WON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP!!!!!
I've been putting him in bed with us at about 4am but he just seems so restless, thrusting around and just generally grumpy. I guess he's got a tooth coming through. He has 2 already. Me and a friend joke that we blame our LO's not sleeping on either teething or a cold or growth spurt...Not the fact that they just wont sleep! So I've had 4 hours sleep last night. He's back in bed with OH. I am dead on my feet!!
I keep telling myself things will settle down... they will right??!!!

BLOODY HELL!
DS just fell asleep and OH's alarm went off, he's now awake again.
MUST.NOT.GET.ANNOYED.WITH.OH

Oh no, Vix and IMissSleep - nightmare!!!
Here's my morning update:
DD went down about 7:30pm, did dreamfeed about 11:15pm then she went back to sleep until 2:30am, feed, sleep until 5:00am I think - she was wide awake and wanting to play so I ended up feeding her then she was wide awake at 7am. So not too bad all in all and she did not scream at all when we put her down at night, which is a major result. Still feel grumpy and tired though!

Rodformyownback does your sister's DS sleep in her room? A friend of mine had a nightmare with her DS waking up throughout the night, squirming etc and as soon as they moved him into his own room he was much more settled. The theory was that their (or perhaps rather her and her milk's) presence was actually causing him to wake up..?

Imisssleep- welcome. your name says it all.
managed to get dd back to sleep at 7 but now day us starting at 8. ugh. and I have a friend visiting for a couple.of days, really hope she doesnt mind doing bugger all.
did he have a nap yet VIX? hope you do when he does