9 month old crap daytime napper- advice please!

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DS is 9 months and has never been the best sleeper (still rarely sleeps through), but it's his daytime sleep that's mostly rubbish and his sleep pattern seems to be changing again so would like some advice (or sympathy!)....

Whilst he goes down well between 6-7pm at bedtime, mainly because he's so knackered from lack of daytime sleep, other naps during the day are a nightmare. He hardly ever has a long sleep at any point during the day (an hour at lunch is a miracle and a rare treat for me!), and instead seems to have got into a pattern of half an hour in the morning, half an hour at lunch, and half an hour mid/late afternoon. As a result, i'm finding this exhausting, as I never get a chance to do anything or have a rest, as after the half hour he's up and ready to go again.

Have spoken to HV who says that this really isn't enough decent sleep, and that it could affect his development

Currently he wakes at 6am-ish, and then first nap put down for at 9-9.30am, lunchtime nap at 12.30-1pm, and then another nap usually between 3 and 4pm, often in buggy if out and about.

However, i'm wondering if he's wanting to cut back on morning nap (seems unbelievable!) as he's taking ages to get to sleep when I put him down (rolling around in cot, making 'shouty' noises), and same with lunchtime nap.

Do I just move everything back time-wise? Or keep lunchtime nap same time but reduce morning nap? Ideally want him to sleep longer at lunch and cut out afternoon nap completely. Trouble is with moving timings back to say, 10am, 1.30pm, is that lots of groups/activities we go to start at 10ish, and have visions of being a recluse and never being able to do anything! Or is that selfish of me?

His room is quiet and has black out blinds, and I have now removed his toys from his cots during the day due to him wrestling with them. Temp seems fine and I always make sure he's cosy, but not too hot.

Has anyone out there had a baby like this? Do things get better? Any tips?

As he so exhausted come bedtime, he spends most of his time screaming after his bath, which isn't fun for him and especially not for DP who is in charge of bedtime routine and would like to spend some quality time with DS without him in hysterics.

I have a 9month old and she wakes around 6.30am so I put her down for a nap at around 8.30-9am. I find if its any later than this then she is very over tired and fights sleep (rolling around, shouting like your DS)!

So I would definitely suggest putting him down for his first nap before 8.30am and see if this helps. Hopefully he may settle easier and sleep a bit longer if he is not so overtired.

Hi there,

We used to have exactly the same problems with our little one. Our DD was NEVER good at daytime sleeping (too much of interest going on during the day!), although she was good at night (although not at the moment, as one of my threads goes into). We've worked really hard to get her into a daytime nap routine and she does seem to have settled into this.

She generally wakes between 6 and 7am. I then put her to bed at about 9am. We have introduced a pre-nap routine, which does seem to have worked for us. I check her nappy, put her into her sleep bag, then switch on Classic FM and hold her for a few minutes gently swaying to the music, which seems to help calm her down from the excitements of the day, then put her down in the cot with her favourite cuddly toy and switch on her 'music monkey' and leave the room. She sleeps for a maximum of half and hour.

Next nap is after lunch, at about 12-12:30. We go through the same pre-nap process as above and she sleeps for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

She no longer has an afternoon nap - just won't, even when she's really tired. But she generally seems to be OK without it.

Bedtime is 7pm.

Good luck with getting her naps sorted. I understand how frustrating it is (particularly as I work from home) and how it becomes impossible to get anything done when they won't sleep. They are then crabby and it's impossible to even prepare their meals. At one point it really felt that the only way I could get her to sleep would be to leave her screaming for ages.

Do you put him down at set times or when he is tired?

Hi all, thanks for your replies, good to know that I am not alone!

I put him down at pretty much set times, or at least within a half an hour window, so:

9am-ish
1pm-ish
then so knackered needs nap about 3.30-4pm

I don't mind the short morning nap but desperate for a longer lunchtime one! I think I might try the putting down at 8.30 nap idea, as sometimes he'll be rubbing his eyes after breakfast so i'm guessing he must be starting to get tired? It's often hard to know exactly what time he wakes in the mornings, as my alarm goes off at 6.20, and he is always awake when I get up, and I suspect has been a lot longer as he chatters away in his cot and plays with toys there before getting 'shouty' and calling for us! He's just a machine!

Right about him getting crabby though- often by teatime he's really grumpy and crying in his highchair which is heartbreaking . Makes him seem to other people that he's miserable all the time and hard work (that bit is true!). When he has a decent lunchtime one, he's like a ray of sunshine when he wakes up!

Good luck for tomorrow with putting him down bit earlier, let us know how u get on :)

Thanks for the good wishes Timeoutofmind !

Right, put him down at 8.30 this morning, didn't go to sleep until 8.45am so we'll see how long he sleeps for now! Will wake him just after 9.30 if he doesn't wake before as we have a class to go to for 10am.

Will then put him down between 12.30 and 1pm and see if we can get a longer sleep that will get him through until bedtime!

Will report back....

Also, he's gone to sleep on his front this morning for the first time ever- went into to check and was very surprised! He normally sleeps on his back or his side, so this is new!

How did he get on? Sounds like he did well settling himself for his morning nap in 15mins.
Since my DD started sleeping on her front her sleep has been SO MUCH BETTER, so hopefully this is also the case for your DS!!
:)