7.5 month old not napping-any advice?

[Mirage]

DD is 7.5 months old & has always had 2 naps during the day,usually about 1.5 hours each.Recently she has only been napping for half an hour each time & today only slept for 20minutes after getting up at 9am (had to wake her) & going to bed at 7pm.

Remarkably,she hasn't been grizzly & has only cried when I tried to lay her down to sleep.Once she was sitting back up,she played happily with her toys.To look at her you'd never guess she had hardly napped all day.

She is a fab sleeper at night,loves her cot & gets really excited about going to bed.She settles herself to sleep & we generally don't hear a thing from her from 7- 7.30pm until 7.30-8am the next day (touch wood!)

My quandary is-she naps downstairs during the day.Should I start trying to get her to nap in her cot?I am worried that if I try & make her sleep there in the day when she doesn't want to sleep,she will start to associate her cot with being upset & not want to go in it at night.

Previously,I had gone by the 2 hour routine-ie put her down for a nap after 2 hours,before she gets over tired,but she just doesn't seem to be tired at the minute.She has always been very alert-even as a newborn & even the midwives commented on it & she hates to miss anything.She is dribbling & red cheeked so it could be teeth unsettling her,although we haven't seen any yet.

Any advice? Should I just count my blessings that she sleeps well at night & doesn't get grouchy in the day-or does she really need the naps?

Thanks

sleeping for 12 to 12 and a half hours in the night count your blessings mine sleeps for about ten if in a good mood from what you have described she is definaely teething so yes it could be unsetling her but if shes alert and happy with out her naps try going a couple of days without her have her nap and see how she gets on it might be th fact that she has gotten herself into the routine of night time sleep time and day time awake time which in its own way is great and plus i see you had to wake her this morning which means shes getting the sleep that she needs in the night and not relying on the day but if you realy want her to sleep in the day the best thing i can thik of is take her out for a walk the fresh air does it for my ds every time sorry havent helped much but from what i have read you dd is doing great on her own accord

I would defo say that she is making up for it in the night which a lot of mumsnetters would kill you for

My experience is that they sleep more when they are having growing spurts then ease off for a while and so on...

Provided you are flexible enought with your time so that she can fall back into daytime naps when she needs them then there shouldnt be too much problems. I think it would be different if she was grumbly during the day but she is obviously happy enough - so just enjoy her - these early days dont last nearly long enough!!

Hi Mirage - sounds like heaven!! Joking aside, it was around this age when my ds (who is now 9mo) started to move away from the 'put down after 2hrs' thing. He is still up at 7am most days (give or take 30min) but gradually shifted to going down for his nap at 10am around 7mo. He has shifted again to 10:30am just this week. They start staying up longer to get to one nap a day at 18mo-24mo (or whenever). So just go with the flow.

Teeth do unsettle sleep - we went through some indicators on this thread .

As for the cot association the only way you'll find out is if you try. My ds is a terrible day-time sleeper (most naps in cot unless out and about) but is fine (touch wood) at night and we have very little grumbles. For some reason he just knows it's bedtime and not a nap.. HTH

Thanks everyone,I knew I could rely on Mumsnetters for a sensible view on things.

I was a bit worried that not napping would somehow harm her development or something! I will try & be a bit less paranoid.

My sister had dd yesterday,whilst I was at work & had the same battle trying to get her to nap,but eventually managed it after 1.5 hours!

I now realise how lucky I am that she sleeps well at night & will go off & count my blessings pronto!I feel a little bit guilty about 'complaining' about her when she is such a good,happy little girl-she just hasn't read the books which proscribe how long & when she should nap!