Napping in her pram/trouble settling at nights - argh!

[suemerry]

My 18 week old is an OK sleeper at night, some good nights, some bad. Mostly goes down around 9/9.30, wakes up a couple of times after one or two hours (just needs hand holding/daddy cuddles to go back), then usually has a late feed (before midnight) and one more around 4am. She then sleeps til about 8am. Some nights (like last night!) she's up every 2 hours, but I accept that I'm working to whatever she wants as I'm still BF on demand!

The waking up between 9 and midnight is hugely frustrating! Any ideas what this may be? We have a good bedtime routine...

The other problem is napping. She will ONLY nap in her pram and sometimes it's for up to 2.5 hours (usually around lunchtime - she's asleep now since 10.30am and I need to wake her up I think!). She'll then have another 45 minutes or so late afternoon. Does this seem like too much?? Is she too comfortable in her pram? How do I get her to nap anywhere else? Suggestions...? Thanks wishes I could nap while she does :-)

My best friend has 2 yo daughter who has always slept in her pram in the day! She says that when she was little she tried everything....but she would only sleep in her pram. So she gave in..... She still now naps in her pram and sometimes it literally takes 3 rocks in the pram and she's off for 1.5 hours. Plus my friend can still go out to shops etc and take dd with her. So she thinks it's win win! Sorry no practical advice but just so you know you're not on your own. There are positives I suppose. Good luck.
Ps is there a reason you want your dc to sleep elsewhere?!

Oh.....Just re-read your title...do you think your baby would settle better at night if they slept in the cot in the day?!

Night wakings in the first few hours after bedtime are usually down to overtiredness.

OP - what time is she taking that 45min afternoon nap? If she's waking at 8am & napping 10.30-12.30, then for her to last from then all the way through to 9/9.30pm on a 45min nap is a really long time. Its my bet she is overtired at bedtime, so sleeping a restless night, and she is then making up for the lost sleep with a huge nap in a morning if that makes sense?

At that age my LO was having 2 naps of around 1-2hrs each plus a catnap at tea time. He dropped the CN at 6-7 months old. Some LO's drop the catnap early at around 5months old so it may be your LO doesn't need one now, but my thoughts are:

1. try putting LO down for a 3rd nap to prevent overtiredness at bedtime, OR
2. work on tweaking the timing of that PM nap so you get a longer nap which will help her last until bedtime without getting overtired.

Oh & WRT sleeping in cot in day - at this age I don't really think it matters too much, but certainly as my LO got older he would only sleep a longer nap in the cot. It all comes down to what they are used to & if you are happy for her to sleep in the pram & she takes a decent nap thats fine. If you want to start getting her used to the cot she may well protest at first if she's not used to it, but with a bit of perseverance she will get there.

Thanks everyone. May stick to napping in the pram. My nephew still does and he is 1 now, just would prefer not to have to go out to get her to sleep (seems she needs the fresh air on her face to nod off!). The afternoon nap is usually around 4.30 - 5.30, sometimes a bit later, and never usually more than an hour - may try and balance the two naps out, so they're about the same size as each other, that could do it. Sounds logical that the broken sleep in the night is made up for by the giant lunchtime one, but that puts me in a bit of a 'chicken and egg' situation - how do you correct one without upsetting the other?! Will have a couple of tries this weekend, easier when my other half is around, and let you know how I get on! :-)

Hiya

Agree its probably better to try & make the day a bit more balanced. One thing that stands out is she is going a really long time between that AM/lunchtime nap & her PM nap - she's awake 4hrs. A typical awake time for a LO's her age is around 2-2.5hrs after a 1.5-2hr nap.

So, I am wondering what would happen if you try to put her down for her PM nap a bit earlier, maybe 3pm ish? Let her sleep as long as she wants & hopefully she will take a good nap of 1.5hrs & this will help her last the distance til bedtime a bit better. It may take a bit of trial & error to get the timing of the PM nap right. You might also need to bring bedtime a wee bit earlier too to 8/8.30pm, so that her day is 12-12.5hrs long max. Despite what lots of people think, a later bedtime can often backfire & babies can often sleep a longer night if they go down a wee bit earlier

Most little ones of that age still take a tea time catnap in addition to the 2x naps of 1.5hrs so if the second nap is short, I would probably try & squeeze an extra nap in to stop her from being overtired at bedtime.

I think if you can get her napping a bit longer in the afternoon so she doesn't go to bed overtired then her nights will probably get longer. Then I think you may find that her morning nap will start to shorten a bit, as she won't need to use the nap to catch up on her night sleep anymore, thus resolving your 'chicken & egg' dilemma.

WRT cot v pram, I personally think the cot is the best place to put your LO for their naps - as you say you don't want to be tied to having to take her out to get her to nap (that said, b/c I only do cot naps I can't get my LO to sleep anywhere else - but this works great now he has just 1 nap b/c we come home have lunch, he goes to bed & I get 2hrs to do housework etc).

Anyway, if its not what she's used to, she'll probably get quite upset, so if its something you wish to tackle then you need to be prepared for some crying, but it can be done (& will be easier at this age than when she's older). If you want some more help with this please ask - its something we tackled with my LO when he was 2 months as he was being cuddled to sleep & I am so so glad we did it b/c he sleeps brilliantly now.

HTH & good luck.xx

Oooh, goodness, I encouraged my DD to nap in her pram (without pushing it, though will sleep quicker if pushed). Helpful if I need/want to pop out, and means she will take that nap anywhere (as long as the pram is there).

Is she swaddled at nap times? If so, opening up the swaddle tends to, in my case, rouse them from sleep. Another way to rouse them from sleep is to unbutton their sleepsuit at the legs, let the cool air in. This will encourage her to wake. I dont know if this would help, but am assuming a smaller sleep in the middle of the day may encourage a longer one later on (say, 8.30-10am then 12-1.30 then 3.30-5?)

May also be worth trying to settle LO after a feed around 7pm? She may then start to realise this is 'bedtime'? And hopefully have a deeper sleep.

Thanks for all the advice. Strangely enough she slept for 12 hours last night -8 til 8, but she has been for her jabs earlier in the day. Tonight I just could NOT get her down for an afternoon catnap (last sleep ended at 3.30) so we brought bedtime forward to 7 rather than 8 to try and avoid overtiredness. She's woken a couple of times so far (it's 930 now), so I don't think our plan worked! I am definitely trying to even out the two naps, I feel sure this would help, but the catnap is really difficult as it is around the time my other half gets in from work. We'll keep trying to tweak the naps until it seems right. Thanks again, will keep you poated with how I get on :)

I am having a similar problem, my 13wk old will only nap in her car seat! She was waking in the morning at 7am, having two 2.5hr naps during the day and going to bed at 6:30pm, she'd be able to self settle during the day and no input was needed from me at nap time. Then she'd sleep all night long! However gradulally she was becoming harder to put down at night and I came to the conclusion that she was so used to the car seat that she didn't understand why she wasn't sleeping there at night. Then I found out that it's bad for their spine development and harder for them to breathe well so decided it was time to come out, sooner rather than later.

I spent a week trying to put her down for naps in her crib, it would take about an hour each time (and she'd cry for most of it) and when she did sleep it was only for 40 mins. It was so waring and if anything it got worse, on the last day I did it she cried almost for three hours and in the end I put her in the car seat (she slept for 4 hours!). As the week had worn on I felt worse and worse and actually in the end it made me really unwell, so unwell I couldn't even pick her up for a cuddle. As I was unwell I just couldn't carry on with it so I tried just one nap a day in the car seat and one in the crib, that didn't work either. I'm now weaning her off by gradulally changing her nap place, was car seat with insert, now it's car seat without insert, next it will be buggy sat up, then lying down, then carry cot and then crib and then we cross our fingers.

Unfortunately in my case after the disaster that was operation get DD out of car seat she was no longer able to sleep through the night, self settle or have her naps without being assisted during the day. So now I'm having to rock her to sleep aaaallllll the time and wish I had never bothered.

Ok so that's probably worst case scenario (although I'm sure there's worse!) but all I'm saying is be sure that you can stick with it and you really feel that you need to stop it.