Nap times for 8 mth old?

[popeye123]

HI,

I'm struggling to get my DD to nap during the day. When roughly should she be needing a nap and for how long ? Also, does anyone have any tips on a nap routine (and environment) - we're ok at night time but we've never been that good during the day and recently I've gotten into the bad habit of going out in the pushchair in desperation!

Current routine is roughly...

7am - wake and breastfeed
8am - breakfast
mid morning (10am or whenever she gets cranky) - breastfeed
1pm - lunch
mid afternoon (only IF she gets cranky) - breastfeed (HV suggested cutting out this feed to improve supper time and therefore night time sleep)
5.30pm - supper
6.30pm - bedtime (story, bath, breastfeed)

She'll have a nap at anytime during the day, once or twice for a total of 30mins-1.5hrs ...if I'm lucky.

Thanks!

My DS was a dream when it came to bed time but a nightmare for naps in the day. He would go all day and then get really grumpy and fall asleep on me in the afternoon for about 30 mins.

I think that they say that they should be having 2 naps a day for a total of 2 1/2 hours but my DS never did that.

I started putting him to bed at about 11 (he woke at about 7.30) and at first he cried and cried but I just kept going in and lying him down til he was so tired that he fell asleep. Only took afew days and he was rubbing his eyes at about 10.45 so it was easy then.

The advantage is that he was alot less grumpy and had more energy, but the bad thing is that as with every routine, it can be a bit tying. Depends what kind of person you are and whether you like routine. If your baby and you are happy with what you are doing, then I would stick to it.

I think that mother and baby mag had an article on sleep this month. Dont know if you get it but \link{http://www.motherandbabymagazine.com/nav?page=motherandbaby.yourbaby.listsleeping&domain=MOTHERANDBABY&product=MOTHERANDBABY&fixture=ARTICLE&articleSection=SLEEPING/here}
is a link to their sleep page if that helps.

Im rubbish at links, try this

dd 8 months only naps for 30 mins 3 x a day but sleeps all night so I say do not worry about it!!