Lively 6 month old day time naps - help please!

[Bexy99]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone can offer advice. I'm really struggling to get my 6 month old son down for day time naps and have recently lost any resemblance of a routine!

He goes down really easily at night although he still wakes in the night - however I can live with this.

He used to go down well for the first nap around 9am but now even this seems to have gone out of the window. I've just attempted again to get him down at 11:20am and still no nap after 20 minutes of trying. He seems pretty happy now mind.

He's a very lively baby, full of energy. I believe he has a milk intolerance but we're waiting for consultation with a pediatrician in January.

I've tried 'pick up put down' but this just seems to turn into a battle of wills and becomes really stressful - I end up persevering for about an hour before giving up. I don't wish to go down the Gina Ford route. Can anyone offer any advice please or perhaps recommend an alternative approach or book? I have now lost any kind of routine which makes weaning difficult. Also, I'm exhausted as I don't really get a break during the day and am not able to get anything done. Sometimes I think I should just give up trying to get him to sleep as we just seem to end up having miserable days. We seem to do better when we get out and about and he sleeps on the go in his pushchair.

Any advice please anyone?!

Many thanks in advance!

Totally sympathise, ds is the same age and although he will go to sleep in the cot he will then only sleep for 30mins. He now has all his naps in the sling as that's the only way he'll go for a decent stretch. Like you I found I was getting stressed and it was spoiling the day so I'm really trying to just do what works for him as then we are both happier. We are in a really good routine and my hope is that he will get used to sleeping at the same times each day and grow out of catnapping so I can eventually get him napping in the cot. Have you tried lots of different things e.g. White noise, comforter, ssh pat etc etc? The no-cry nap solution will give many ideas which you ould try. I sometimes use his shorter nap as an experiment nap where I try different ways of getting him to sleep longer in the cot, then if it doesn't work he still gets his long afternoon nap in the sling. I also play white noise every time he is going to sleep so that it acts as a sleep cue. The house is a total wreck but I guess we have the rest of our lives to do cleaning whereas this will be a relatively short lived stage for them, frustrating as it is! Good luck :)