Any tips on how I can get 13mth DD to nap in her cot again?

[DomesticGoddess31]

She used to go down twice a day in her cot no probs, and then her sleep all turned to sh!@ and for about 2 months its been hell. Her nightime sleep has just started to improve dramatically, coinciding with her finally learning to walk unaided and last night, a miracle happened....she slept 6pm to 5:45am! H-a-p-p-y.

However, she still screams blue murder if we try and put her down in her cot for naps. She will nap in the car/pram but this isn't practical all the time.

She usually only has 1 nap of anything between 40mins-1hr 20mins, guess its still settling down from her dropping the second nap. If she only has 40mins though (often happens if its in buggy or car) she's grumpy and we have to put her to bed early so seems to me its not long enough.

Any tips on how I can get her to settle happily in her cot for naptime again? My nerves can't take any more screaming (her scream is and always has been a v loud and distressed scream)

Can you work out the best time for her 1 nap? it may be that she is over tired when you are trying to put her down. Could try pu/pd while leaving her for a few min each time so she knows she will have to stay in the room until time is up. If she is up at 5.45 she may want her nap by 11 and lunch later?

Thanks candr.....have tried all manner of different times but result is the same, screaming like I'm actually murdering her. PU/PD will not work for us as she screams her little head off as soon as she knows she's going in the cot. She's always had an extremely loud and distressing cry and gets hysterical at the drop of a hat. I think new plan of action is to pick a nap time and just stick with it for as long as I can and see if she gets the hang of it.

I agree with 11am being a good time to start or maybe even slightly earlier, half 10ish. My 15 mo is ready for an 11am nap when she wakes at 6ish.

Could you do a little routine before her nap? Even if its rocking her til she is almost asleep or a quick drive round the block to wind her down? (or let her nap on a mattress on the floor so you can cuddle her?)

Good luck!

Having similar problems with DS 13.5 mo except that he will nap in his cot if someone other than me puts him in it (DP, childminder, BIL). Is it the same no matter who puts her down?

Thanks all. No onelittlemonkey, my DH and DSis have more success than me but she still screams, just maybe for less time.

DH tried putting her down in the pm yesterday....she still screamed, but did settle and had a long sleep, but then she woke up 40mins after bedtime and screamed for an hour so I think we shall do as you suggest and stick with attempting to putbher down when she's sleepy in the morning which is usually 10/10:30. DH did this today (more screaming...sigh) and she had a good hour and a half sleep, so crossing fingers for a good night tonight.

I just wish she would go down without the screaming, its so distressing for all of us :(. DH and I are starting to wonder if her level of screaming (I mean how distressed it is) and if we should think about taking her to see a cranial osteopath or something!

haloflo, yes done the rocking thing which worked for a while but she's a fickle little thing and now will scream and kick and writhe about for aaaaages and I can't physically or emotionally do that anymore day in day out.

domestic Glad she slept ok today. How long does it take her to settle? Can you maybe make a cup of tea (closing the kitchen door) or say clean the bathroom and distract yourself from it (ideally so you can't hear it?) She clearly needs her sleep and hopefully this phase will pass but its horrid when it upsets you.

Good luck tomorrow x

DG - if she is screaming at naptime I would probably try putting her down slightly later at say 11am. It may be she is undertired. I have learned with my DS that screaming at nap/bedtime typically only occurs when he's not tired enough. Whereas if he's overtired he will bounce around the cot like a wild child, then try to get to sleep then start to cry but its not hysterical shrieking like when he's not tired enough.

If she is only taking the 1 nap, ideally she needs it to be a good 2hrs to sustain her through the day. If it is less than this, and especially whilst she is taking it so early in the morning, I would advocate an early bedtime - it will help prevent her becoming overtired.

HTH.x

I nap my 13 month old by rocking her back and forth in the pram for 5 minutes with the radio on in the dining room. I figure it doesn't matter which room in the house she is asleep in! I can sneak off and leave her there and get on with other stuff. It works well for us.

We're the opposite to you... naps we've got cracked, however night sleeping is still a work in progress.

Ahhhh well I wouldn't say nightime is cracked quite yet...last night was not good!

Omama, we've tried putting her down earlier, later, at first signs of tiredness, and after waiting till she's shown multiple signs, we've tried am, pm, you name it we've tried it. She ALWAYS screams. LOUDLY. My nerves are seriously in tatters!

I do put her down early for bed (5:30 is not unheard of) if she's had an early nap or not napped much.

DG it sounds v upsetting. Don't have any good advice but have a hug..X

Update in case it helps anyone else (crossing fingers that I'm not jinxing it!)
Over the last couple of days I've introduced a short naptime routine;

• say to DD that its naptime now,
• let her choose a book,
• take her to her room and make a bit of a thing about closing the curtains and saying 'have a nice nap' to the bird and the snail on her curtain tie backs (do I feel silly, yes, do I care, no)
• give her a dummy and read the book with her on my lap
• lay her in her cot and zip her into her grobag
• quick kiss and get outta there pronto

I've done this 3 times so far and she will shout and start to cry at the laying down stage but very quickly stop, and then go to sleep, twice before I even left the room. A-MAZING!!!!!!!

The other thing is I'm making sure I put her down when she's showing signs of tiredness even if its at 9:20am which it was yesterday.

Thanks all for your help and sympathy. I'm just praying this isn't a temporary improvement!

Helpful to me, thank you I'll agree a similar routine with CM so we're doing the same things on the days where DS is with me and her, and see how it goes...

Update to my update...it was a temporary improvement....back to screaming...

onelittlemonkey, hows it going for you??

oh noooo that's no good! I wish I knew what to suggest for the screaming.

still no good with me, although a perfect little monkey for his childminder! Thank you for asking (and for letting me hijack the thread a bit). He goes eventually but it's painful, and today one thing led to another and he ended up not having a proper lunch...which will probably lead to waking up in the night...and we're all out of sync again.

(DS is generally more mischievous with me than everyone else - he gets up halfway through nappy changing for example (poo everywhere) and doesn't do this with CM or DH. I don't know why he's like this, I'm not stressy with him, but the nap thing is part of it.)

He is GREAT at night though, is going straight down, only 20 secs of crying. And his cry at naptime is heartbreaking but not unusually distressing like your DD.

Surely we must crack this soon...I'll PM you if (when??) I do...X