The nap battle rageth...any experienced campaigners?

[funnylittlekaty]

Hello all, just looking for some advice or a place to share stories. My ds is a gorgeous, happy boy who sleeps generally well at night but we have massive nap problems. He can only fall asleep on the boob, but this doesn't always work. He is 6 months old on Friday and apparently should be having 2-2 1/2 hours a day. I'm lucky if we get 45 minutes some days. By tea time grumpy is not the word! I'm a bit worried for the little chap as he gets so frantic and wired when he hasn't slept well. Anyone else fighting the nap battle? Any advice, short of a shot in the leg?
Tia

(redcamels here - name changed)

Bedtimes are fine here for some reason. He just nods off by himself probably because he's so knackered from resisting naps during the day

I think he has FMO (fear of missing out). He must think that something spectacular is going to happen whilst he's asleep so he must stay awake

Hi everyone, another mother of a 6 month old reluctant napper reporting for duty :)

DS can nap it just seems that he chooses not to most of the time! Currently asleep on the bed meaning I have to stay with him in case he wakes up and falls off. He will also sleep in the car and in the pushchair, my major issue is that I really need him to sleep somewhere on his own so I can drink tea and eat biscuits in peace crack on with getting some work done on my PhD.

I'm also concerned about the effect this has on his night sleep as he currently wakes a lot, just reading 'the no cry sleep solution' which advises that poor night sleep is the result of poor quality naps. Didn't know about developmental issues, although DS seems to be getting on pretty well so maybe he just doesn't need really long naps.

I'd also recommend reading 'Three in a Bed'. Even if you aren't co-sleeping (although sounds like most of us are), it explains why babies wake in the night and are so reluctant to sleep solo. It doesn't offer any practical advice, but made me feel better about our co-sleeping 'choice'!

I tend to co-sleep from about half five, and can sometimes get the bear down for a nap on my bed if I lie down and feed him like that. He's just nearly fallen asleep on the boob but I had to rouse him to give him a bottle (we are doing mental mixed feeding) and now he's wide awake again but shrieking so I know he's tired. He napped 8.15-10 next to me while I napped too, I mean reflected thoughtfully on my parenting skills. Been up since then...sigh. How are your days going?

I would sleep if we had a bigger bed. DS does an outstanding starfish impression when he sleeps which leaves DH and I with fuck all very little room to sleep comfortably.

In other news: OMFG I have managed to extend his nap. Put him down at 3.15pm, he woke at 3.50pm and I went in, dummy replugged, mobile on and he's just dropped off again. I'm soooo please. He babbled for a while but he's fallen asleep again. Miracle.

DS seems to have a new playtime - 3:30am . Last night we couldn't get him back to sleep for 1.5 hours - and boob made no difference, for the first time ever FFS. Praying tonight is going to be better.

Katy we tried co-sleeping at 4:30am and it was HILARIOUS. DS between DH and I. He was pushing his chest up and looking from him to me, then reaching and grabbing mouths/noses - literally, couldn't believe his luck that he was with mummy AND daddy. After about 15 mins of him clearly just playing, we got the giggles and he went back to bed. But then dropped off pretty much straight away .
Today he had first nap in cot (no battle, 40 mins). Second in buggy for 30 mins, again no bother. And last one for 40 mins in buggy, all fine - been out and about this afternoon.

He's gone down fine tonight and seems quite happy - although coughing like he smokes 20 a day . Slightly worried that he's off his milk, but we'll see if it makes any difference.

furry woohoo - I am so chuffed for you. Think i've had that happen maybe 3 times, so I can appreciate how chuffed you'll be feeling!

No fecking rhyme or reason for him sleeping good/bad.

Little milla, I think your naps sound enviable but I know what you mean about no two days being the same. Sounds like the co-sleeping was a bit of a non starter!!
We've had a bastard of a day tbh. Had to stay in all day for washing machine man to come, and though lo managed 8.15-10 and 2-3.30 (both on my bed, having been boobed with me lying next to him) he's been quite screechy. Then it took 1 hr to get him to sleep...he fell asleep on the boob and then finished all his bottle milk before he fell asleep. We put him in his cot and he just shuffled and shuffled for ages before getting upset. Progress though, he fell asleep sucking my finger and not my boob...does that count?!
I'm so gutted I could cry, the 7pm sleep is the only banker of a sleep in our day.
Hands up who thought it would be easier by 6 months?!?!

Ps massive well done furry sausage!
Pps love your name change by the way!

I thought it would be easier by now.

DS had two hour long naps, one on the bed this morning and one on the sofa this afternoon but he wouldn't unlatch during the course of either of them without a fuss. Also managed a quick half hour at about 4.30 where he did unlatch so I'm hoping this will be enough to mean that he's not too restless tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to take him out tomorrow today was just far too wet for a decent walk.

Hi there - can I join too? haven't got time to post too much as need to go to bed early, but my 10 mo DD is a very reluctant napper. I have tried the No Cry Sleep Solution and it just made me feel a failure that I was only managing 20-25 mins in the morning and the same in the afternoon with my daughter when it said she should be getting 2hrs plus! I've nearly driven myself crazy staying in and have literally tried everything (not a CIO or CC fan, but have had moments of desperation when I tried it for 20 mins or so and it was a total failure). A few weeks a go I just decided to go with the flow and stop stressing about it and just take the 20 mins on the chin. I used to co-sleep and feed her to sleep, but after months of perseverance she does now sleep in her cot and I have some success with removing her when she slows and rocking her until nearly asleep and transferring her, but like tonight it takes 5-6 attempts and she then wakes up a lot afterwards. It's one of the hardest things I've found in terms of being a mother - all the well-meaning Mums who say that routine is key and their babies just lie in the cot and go to sleep for a hour or so! My DD has rarely done that and screams a lot when she goes in the cot so we never have a peaceful and relaxing nap or bedtime!!

katy they sound like good long naps. Does your LO have a dummy/comforter?

I know! I was astonished! I was lying next to him just in case he stirred for most of them. No, no dummy. Maybe we should have tried when he was a teeny tiny one, I think it would be good and give me some freedom, but it's daft to introduce one at 6 months when everyone else is getting rid of theirs.

I'm not

Queenkong sorry to hear your bedtimes are a mare as well, we have dinner before starting his routine at 7pm. Last night it took FOUR HOURS to settle him to sleep!!! He is poorly this week though... so are DH and I!

katy we tried a dummy with DS from the start and he never really took it properly, now he takes it out of his mouth and puts it back in sideways! So there's no guarantee starting early with one would help.

milla love your account of cosleeping! Ha ha! We bring him into bed any time from 3am when he wants feeding (he's in a cot to start with) so I can feed him lying down and enjoy being stuck in a weird sideways position for 30 minutes attempt to go back to sleep. furrysausage I dig the starjump problem! DS is more lazy nowadays but used to be a right little flapper!

So today DS had a 20 min morning nap on DH, but DH had a doctor's appointment and tried to put him in the cot but he woke up. He was pretty grumpy until his next super nap from 2-4pm! Like some of you I fed him on our bed and extracted myself afterwards...I surround him with pillows so he can't roll off (it's a superking size!) but end up staying in the room just to be sure. At least it means I can get up and do a few quick jobs and pee as opposed to when he's asleep on my lap for 2 hours!

I flit between trying not to worry about naps and thinking "if he only gets 10 minutes, that's his problem, he obviously doesn't need more", and getting in a flap and spending an entire day organising my life around trying to get him off to sleep. Sound familiar?

Loubyloo that is it exactly!!!!! I'm lying here on the bed now with ds attached to boob dozing and sucking while I make a mental list of all the things I need to do before dh comes home and pil arrive tonight.
I also flit between thinking that he's fine, he's just not a big napper, he's happy and healthy and it's my problem not his to reading the nap books, whitefaced, rocking backwards and forwards, proper freaking out that he doesn't have proper daytime sleep and must be going mental and no wonder he's crabby and wired by bathtime.
I've just extracted myself and am now hoping that a nap now doesn't fuck up bedtime. Poor little man can't win can he?!?
Hope your day was napalicious...

You need to throw out the clock and the baby book that told you what is 'normal' napping time.

Nothing is guaranteed to drive you insane faster than watching the clock with the baby book advice at the back of your mind.

None of mine were nappers, one exceptionally so (and she didn't sleep through the night until age 2.5). Twasn't pretty, but we all survived.

So I posted in behaviousr & development: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/behaviour_development/1340680-40-mins-naps-will-they-EVER-get-any-longer

Looks like I've either got a month or six months to wait .

DS is clocking up his 40 mintute-ers OK again so I am going to stop whinging and just crack on. He slept through last night again, so I will simply chill the f*ck out and let him be I think!

Good luck y'all! xxx

Another two here.... Twins have about one hour a day on a good day. They have been feeding a lot at night recently. It looks like that may be changing (please don't let that jinx it) and I have used the No Cry Sleep techniques to get them to sleep at 2 in the afternoon (inconvenient but it seems to be when they 'want' to sleep). After about 2 weeks of persistence I can now get them down with up to 20 minutes of holding/bfing. They then sleep for about 30-60 minutes (no correlation to length of nighttime sleep or if they had a morning nap). They sometimes have a morning nap - sometimes in the pushchair, sometimes in the car if we are out but there is no pattern to it. Am grateful I get half an hour most days in the afternoon now... Next mission is to try and crack the morning nap issue - timing/location and length.... Oh - and being able to go out in the afternoon and them sleep in the car/pushchair would be nice - at the moment I rely on darkened room and cot.

Yikes dw, hats off to you for doing it with 2!