30 minute naps driving me insane!!!

[passmyglass]

My lovely nearly-10m DD has always been a crap napper. She takes 2 x 30 min naps a day and it's torture for both of us - please tell me someone out there has beaten this!

She sleeps through the night luckily, but not a huge stretch - it takes her quite a while to settle, so she quite often doesn't actually drop off to sleep until 8. Then wakes usually about 6.15ish.

She gets put down for morning nap 9-9.15 and is usually asleep by 9.15-9.30. The afternoon nap is much more of a battle - usually gets put down 1.15ish, but doesn't settle until 1.45 - 2 ish. Both naps almost always last half an hour, and she is clearly still tired and quite often grumps and whinges for most of the day. And she is completely not interested in taking any more naps. On the odd occasion when she manages longer naps, her mood is fantastic. Quite apart from this being a tough existence for her, I'm pg and could really do with the opportunity to sleep a little bit myself!!

Is this a sign that she is ready to go to just 1 nap a day?! It seems rather early to me??

I won't flame anyone for any suggestions - any ideas at all appreciated!

I never achieved the textbook naps, although I didn't feel dd was suffering for it unduly. One thing I noticed was that I was pushing it really to expect all naps in the cot. I used the pram or car for at least one a day. Could you try that?

Thanks for replying :) I wouldn't mind not achieving the textbook naps (3 hours in the day I think at this age - ha!!) in the slightest if she seemed alert and happy, but she's very obviously really tired. I have tried the pushchair or car, but she'll still fight it for at least an hour (she really really likes staying awake) - which means driving/ walking for a bare minimum of 2 hours a day every day - I can't face it!!

Well, as I say, I'm just an amateur. A sleep pro who actually fixed an actual problem will be along soon, I hope!

Do you think she might be overtired when she's put down for her naps? If she's waking at 6.15am, she's having almost three hours before her morning nap which, for some, is fine, but if she's grumpy, it suggests not.

Also, do you try feeding her at 6.15am to see if you can get her back to sleep for another hour?

I would definitely try putting her down for her lunchtime nap earlier, say 12.30pm.

The whole situation of not settling well at night, waking up early and not taking long naps sounds like an overtiredness situation.

If you can get her to go down earlier, I would also leave her to sleep as long as she likes (for the first couple of days) to catch up on her lost sleep. Then you can structure her naps so she's not sleeping too long in the day as this can really affect nights.

Daisy - I agree, on paper it does look like over tiredness. I don't think the morning nap is too late: what I should have said is she is in a lovely mood until her morning nap, then as soon as she wakes up from her first morning nap, she tends to be grizzly after that. Also, I really base that morning nap on when she needs it rather than the clock - ie first yawn or eye-rub and it's off to bed we go. It's just she does tend to be like clockwork, so it's always at that time. Also there's no way I could get her back to sleep after her first morning waking. She is always delighted to be up and raring to go!!

However, the afternoon nap may well be needed earlier. I'll give it my best shot. Just out of interest, do you then give lunch at half 11 or something? To allow for eating and afterlunch poo?

Have you tried 'wake to sleep'? I did this with dd2 because her naps were so short it left both of us tired and cranky.

In a nutshell you tine your baby's naps for a couple of days to find out exactly how long she sleeps, then every naptime go and wake her a little shortly before she wakes herself and re-settle and if it works you can double the length they sleep.

I was very skeptical when someone on here told me about it but it did work.

If you google you can probably get better instructions.

hth

agree with love 30min naps were almost always a sign of overtiredness in our house. I think the timing of the morning nap (9.30am) is ok, but I think her afternoon nap is too late, she is overtired & so she takes ages to sleep & only naps 30mins, & then she is way OT by bedtime, hence why she takes ages to settle & only sleeps 10hrs at night. I would also shoot for lunchtime nap at 12.30pm, let her sleep & if nap is 30mins, do a super early bedtime of 6pm. If nap is 1hr, perhaps do 6.30pm BT & if nap is 1.5hrs+ (ideally she will eventually nap for 2hrs here) then you could aim for around 7pm bedtime. You will need to be consistent with the new naptime for a week or 2 to see if it is helping.

WRT lunch, I used to do it at around 11.30/11.45.

picky - thanks, yes I have tried wake to sleep, with some success in the past. She never quite managed to stop needing it, and now it doesn't seem to work.

omama - thanks for your practical reply. am going to give the timings you suggest a whirl and will update.

DD had an early bedtime (asleep by 7.15 - yay!) last night as she was mega tired. Unfortunately, it seems to have caused her to wake for over an hour in the night (pretty unusual) and then she woke for the day at 5.45 (yuk). As a result she has been pretty sleepy all morning, so I got her down for nap as early as I could (8.30) So far, this has resulted in much walking around in the cot and chattering to herself, with the odd little moan, upon which I go in and give quick cuddle before popping her down again, and coming out of her room to have quick type on MN, which is what we're up to right now! Any thoughts on where I might have gone wrong in the past 24 hours welcome!

All comments so far gratefully received!

Yes!! another cuddle and we have achieved nap!!

Don't worry too much about last night. Its easy to focus on individual nights but I'd do what omama suggests and work to a new schedule of early lunchtime nap and earlier bedtime for at least 10 days to a fortnight before you make any judgements. Write down what happens each day (I have always found this incredibly useful) and you might see a pattern emerging.

Have faith... It took me 6 weeks to sort out my DD's early morning waking but she's a brilliant sleeper now. And yes, I would give lunch as early as necessary, sometimes 11am if she was getting tired.

and we're awake again half an hour later. Boo hoo.

That's okay! Rome wasn't built in a day.

Give her an early lunch and put her to bed early - say 12 noon if necessary. Anything to avoid overtiredness. If she wakes mega early, you can always try a quick afternoon nap (although this probably seems like going backwards) to see her through to an early bedtime.

ok. a little update. been trying earlier pm nap with some inconsistent success - managing the odd pm nap of 45min or 1 hr. However, yesterday put he in cot at 9.00ish as normal and she spent AGES wandering happily around cot (as has not long mastered this, so is very excited by it) before having a bit of a paddy and self-settling at 9.45 and slept for 1 1/2 hours!!!! Does this mean that I should actually be putting her for am nap later or that she is even ready to drop a nap?! there is no rhyme or reason to her!!