What can I do with my no-nap baby?!

[beatie]

It's getting worse. What can I do? Once or twice she has been a text book baby and slept in her cradle 2 hours after waking and then had an afternoon nap in her cradle 3 hours after waking from the first nap.

Mostly, she would have the 'two hours after waking' nap and NOT nap in the afternoon in her cradle (but sometimes on me/under her play gym/in her pram)

NOW - she won't nap in her cradle/on me/under her play gym.

SHE WON'T NAP

She doesn't even look tired. She's not cranky. How can this be?

What can I do? I sometimes leave her to cry for a bit but she gets hysterical. I pick her up and she clings to me like a baby monkey and then seems to be even more resistant to going to sleep, for fear I'll abandon her again.

Will she get the nap thing in time or can I be doing something else to help her nap? She's 20 weeks old.

She's my second baby but I cannot remember how/when I got dd1 into a good daytime nap routine.

hi beatie

both my dd went through a stage about this age, it drove me nuts, but it didnt last long, one day it just all changed again

hang on in there

You forget so quickly. Ds is 14 months and I remember trying to get him into a good nap routine at about 6 months old. It did get a bit better but I also remember at about 8 months thinking that we would never crack the regular daytime naps thing. ds was really irritable and tired though. Maybe your dd does not need much daytime sleep. Does she sleep well at night?

One of my friend's dd sleeps 12 hrs at night but the most she has ever managed is one 1 hr nap during the day and that was after her mum absolutely enforced it with pu/pd (She needed some sanity time)

"Does she sleep well at night?" NO.... but that's a whole other post.

Hi Beatie

I know what you mean! My 22 week old daughter has always slept 45 mins in morning, but will not have a longer than 45 mins at lunchtime, unless I put her in the pushchair and walk the streets! She then always needs another half an hour about 4pm, but does sleep 7 - 7 at night. I would also like some tips on how to make her sleep longer at lunchtime? I have been following the Gina Ford routine since 7 weeks and that is the only bit she does not follow!

DS at that age would take 3 short naps. he only started consolodating into a long and short (and now 1 long) naps when he started crawling.

I put mine in a bouncy chair w/toys dangling from it and take her into whatever room I'm working in. If it's the kitchen, I bung in a load of washing and sit her in front of the machine - she loves to watch it.

If it's the living room, I put her baby mozart video or music on and hum whilst I work.

dd is 23 weeks and her naps are slowly getting better. At the moment she has 3 short ones, morning, lunch and afternoon before tea. I have resigned myself to the fact that the naps will sort themsleves out - probably once she is mobile but spent weeks feeling really depressed about why she would have 2 longer naps a day like the HV said she should. She is happy mostly when she is awake, feeds okay and sleeps most nights so C'est la vie I guess!