Catnappers and 'bad sleepers' support thread

[AwesomeSuperTasty]

This is inspired by this napping thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/2123505-Any-advice-for-daytime-naps A user commented that they wanted to start a catnapping thread, but seeing as no one did, I thought I might start a 'support group' for all parents of catnapping babies and generally poor sleepers. (I hope the user who prompted this thought will come forward to claim the credit!)

Anyway, it's really just a place to vent and maybe share experiences.

So, I will start. My 7 month old son still catnaps 30 mins at a time, something he allegedly should have grown out of. He also wakes every 90 minutes at night, and wakes up at 5.30 in the mornings. He self settles to sleep and has an early bed time but can't resettle at night. Basically, since he was born, I've not slept longer than 2 hours at a stretch. I'm sure I'm pretty exhausted but stopped registering it.

I do have some questions for anyone who'd like to share.

• If you have an older catnapping baby, how long does she/he go between naps?

-Has anyone managed to sucessfully implement some kind of a napping schedule, for babies who sleep only 30 mins?

And please don't tell me to get a sling...or co-sleep

I'm late catching up again! Will have to read back properly in the morning but echoing everyone else, DS only had 3x30 min naps and 4 wake ups already since bedtime.

Just to say, pickle 'angry like we tricked him into sleeping' is such an illustrative phrase, hilarious wish I thought of it!

Must turn in before the next wake up, but returning bright and early in the morning.

Pickle, have you tried stroking his head or back? Or a vibrating bouncy chair? Or sitting next to him with your hand on his chest? White noise? Or heartbeat noises? He sounds like a tough nut to crack.

Sometimes with Dd I would hold her really tightly and do vigorous rocking. She would initially protest and then the lure of a human swaddle and rocking was too much and she would drop off.

Will he drink from a sippy cup?

Bad night with toddler. He has started waking and is sleeping worse than baby, and she is the one with a cold FFs! I honestly thought we were over all off his night wakings!

Are you up too, Popalina? Joining you for a virtual

Pickle, yes, what Popalina and monster said. Sometimes you find the less you do, the better they respond. We has a stage exactly as you describe and my son stopped responding to rocking and feeding to sleep. At that point I decided to teach him to self settle and it worked after a while (3/4 months I think). What worked for us was the hand on chest thing and shhhhh. Hated shush patting and pick up put down.

For me, far the biggest challenge was working out when to put DS down for a nap. He showed sleeping signs pretty much from waking up onwards! I found if I got the time right, he fell asleep without crying or very little crying. If I got it wrong he howled and shouted for ages.

Another crap night here, I stopped counting after the 6th time I was out of bed. I didn't even get a couple of hours under my belt this time as the wake ups started from 12.45, compared to 2/3am previously.

Oh no Frankel! You must be exhausted :(

Have you got anything nice planned for today to take your mind off it?

Btw, your baby really sounds a lot like mine at that age, literally constant hourly wake ups through the night. I always thought it was over tiredness as naps were so poor, but naps are worse now and he wakes up less (as in, every 2-2.5 hours instead of 60-90 min). So it could just be one of those things that they go through and grow out of?

Pickle, why did your dr say your baby was an anomaly?

Also, how do you make a porridge with rejected milk? :)

Yesterday, I went from room to room looking for something I can get done in 30 mins and ended up just making a coffee; reminded me of your comment on not knowing what to do with all that time :)

I've got a baby group this afternoon so that will help. I'm 99% certain this is the infamous 4 month sleep regression so I'm just hoping if I ride it out it will get better I'm trying a slightly different tactic with her naps today, normally I go with the "2 hour rule", but this morning I've put her down for her first nap only 90mins after she woke up, and within 10 minutes she was asleep with no fuss. We'll see how long she stays asleep!

Experiment failed: nap lasted 35 minutes

Had a semi successful lunchtime nap yesterday-30mins in crib followed by 30mins pick up put down-that seems useless-we were both exhausted after. I'm letting him sleep on me/in car for the afternoon so he gets at least one decent nap a day.

Morning nap done here, much better than yesterday, I've ditched the sleeping bag, it seems to annoy him in the day. No crying and 40min sleep in crib. I tried rocking from 35 mins to try and get him to transition to anther sleep cycle but no luck. I'll be happy if I can get all naps in the crib though, one thing at a time!

Frankel- I feel for you, sounds exhausting. Can you manage a 20min power nap when she sleeps?

Currently sitting watching DS on the video monitor refusing his first nap. Been trying for 45 minutes now FFS.

He's asleep. My god that was hard work for a first nap. I think I slightly missed his window as we were face timing my mum when he started to get tired and I pushed it for 10 more minutes. Plus then when I got him down he filled his nappy and had to be brought into the bright living room to be changed. The second time I put him down he went so bananas I had to lift him out and feed him to calm the sobs. He went in awake, had a cry then fingers in, and off he drifted. Bloody hell. Someone pass the gin.

mrsmugoo OH's parents are French so we have to Skype with baby once a week. I have made a rule NEVER EVER to Skype before nap or bedtime as it seems to do something to his brain and make him wired.

Good advice!

2nd nap in pushchair - 35 mins
3rd nap in pushchair - 1hr 25 still going strong!

LOVING my new snooze shade!

The only thing that DS will tolerate when trying to sleep is a cover over his eyes. Wee freak.

He used to love his bouncy/vibrate chair UNTIL he worked out that it sent him to sleep. Now, no matter how hard we bounce (and I'm surprised DS hasn't crashed through the ceiling) he will not sleep.

Shhh pat enrages him to the point where he physically growls. A hand on his tummy sometimes helps but it's hit and miss. He's taken to turning himself towards his bedroom door during wake ups, so he can see you enter the room and give a massive grin. At 2am. Then 3/5-6. Joy.

DS is notoriously mistrustful of any liquids. He despises his milk (possible CMPI but we can't be sure as he won't take the hypo formula either) so sippy cup works for tiny sips. Then the remainder goes all over the floor. Natch.

DS is an anomaly as is super mobile. He's been pulling himself from sitting to standing since 19 weeks and has now started walking (with support-him holding your fingers while he takes steps forward) at 22 weeks. Now, I walked into the living room and saw him using the couch to cruise along the carpet. He's 25 weeks old.

Apparently, the DR has also never seen a baby refuse bottles to the extent that he will refuse a dream feed. The boy knows what he wants.

Had a lovely day at the beach today so I'm hopeful that we've overwhelmed him so much he'll actually sleep tonight. Ha.

To make discarded-milk-porridge, you take the rejected milk in the bottle, add to porridge oats, add fruit and shovel it in DS's mouth before he realises he's been duped. Prep must be done when DS is in a different room, as if he sees the bottle anywhere near his food, he'll refuse to eat EVEN if he's ravenous.

Sorry that everyone had a rubbish night last night. It's just so crap. I'm back at work in 5 weeks so I'm preparing myself to be a total zombie.

For me, the best thing has been weaning DS off all the rocking, patting, jiggling, tummy rubbing, shushing etc... It took a bit of crying and some even less sleep than usual nights but we just cut to the chase and said "right, he needs to learn to self settle, end of".

That was last weekend.

This weekend I'm embarking on reducing wake ups by withdrawing feeds every time. I'm sleeping in the spare room and I'll only be offering feeds at 1 and 4 at the earliest. DH will be dealing with the fall out!

I would love to know night weanibg goes mrsmugoo.

I am trying tk wean off night feeds too. In my defence I resorted to so much night feeding as there were so many wake ups, and if I fed him (bf) he'd go back to sleep in minutes. I was doing nights on my own for months because of DH being abroad.

Well done everyone today! How on earth did the 1hr plus nap happen mrsmugoo?

Jealous of your beach trip, pickle! Hope your super mobile DS sleeps well :) he sounds like a lot of fun.

Frankel, hope your day went well! How was baby group?

We had the usual 30 min naps but one so late that I managed to get an almost 7pm bedtime! Woo hoo! Will probably get a 5am wake up though anyway. Although now DS thinks is so hilarious to roll over in the cot when I put him down and peek at me from between the bars.

Pickle, I start work soon too (in August), hoping for some kind of a spontaneous sleep resolution by then.

Earth, yes, it can take a while before all naps are in the cot but if you start with one and build up it takes pressure off you. Hope your day went well!

It ended up being 2 hours! Pretty sure the snooze shade had something to do with it.

Have you tried the white noise app on your iPad or iPhone? Mine is 10 months next week and we still use it.

She used to sleep for 44 mins and 30 seconds at each nap but the last week has suddenly gone last 1 hour..she has never done this before.

Do all naps take place in the cot?
Is the room dark?

This, plus the white noise, seems to work for us.

Amazing work mrsmugoo, that's one impressive nap.

Awesome, thanks for asking. Fairly successful day nap wise, just hoping it wasn't a one off! We do have a blackout blind but I haven't put it up yet, might add that to the list of jobs for the weekend.

Thanks Kelly! Yep. We have the lot - dark room, white noise, naps usually in the cot.

So your lo improved at 10 months? Good to hear there is hope! :)

Ba

Sorry, my iPad has a mind of it's own!

Baby group was good, if only to get out if the house! Today was a 4 nap day, but none more than 45mins Off to bed now, quick dream feed for DD then fingers crossed for a good few hours before the wake ups start! Good luck everyone!

Hope it all went well Frankel. In my book 4x45 is a win :) As we are down to 3x30. Despite a 7pm bedtime DS was up at 5.30 so he's in his cot for his first nap already, a very efficient baby!

What do you make of baby groups? (Thread hijack!) I agree they are good for getting out of the house and there is always a baby who sleeps worse :) I didn't much fancy the local parent organised ones as they were very clique-y and a bit dull for me, but the local sure start ones are a riot! Plus every week they have a different activity like a sensory room or water play. Anyway, highly recommend looking into a sure star centre if you have one near you. Ours also organises trips and days out.