Sleep frustration

[Horse]

My dd is on the GF routines. She is 4 months and on her second week of weaning. She eats very well but I feel that she doesn't seem to get enough sleep during the day. She usually wakes up at 6am (still has a 10.30pm feed), sleeps for 45 mins from at 9am, 2-2.15 hours from 12pm and will go until bath time without a nap. I feel that she really needs this nap because when it comes to feeding her at 6pm she becomes upset and agitated and is obviously very tired. What has happened is that her bed time gets earlier and earlier. I try hard to make her have a late afternoon nap, knowing what is going to happen but she fights the tiredness. I know that GF says that babies cut out this nap between 4 and 6 months but I feel that it is not the right time for dd to cut it out as it makes the 6pm feed quite fraught. Tonight she hardly had any of her dinner, she could just manage the milk. Your ideas would be very welcome.

Horse, I make sure my DD gets the opportunity to nod off for the 4pm nap if she wants by either being out on a walk with her in the stroller or on the way back somewhere in the car. Some times it is 15 mins, some times 30 minutes. Tried not doing this a couple of times and she cried through bath, feeding and not settled for 7pm sleep so obviously still needs a little nap at that time(now 6 1/2 mths).

Mine had that nap late afternoon nap until she was 6 months old... yes take her out in a buggy and let her dose off. Clearly she needs that nap. When she won't you'll know

Thanks for your replies. The problem is that when I take her out in the pushchair in the hope that she will sleep she won't. She cries and gets upset. The same with the car. I know that she is tired because she yawns and rubs her eyes. Yesterday we went swimming so she was pretty knackered, at 4.30 I put her in her cot but she still wouldn't sleep.

Horse - If she won't go down in a buggy what about on your shoulder, moving around in the house... she only needs 10 minutes at around 16.30... that would get her energy back up.

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Yesterday bedtime was another fraught session. She ended just having her milk and not having the energy for the solids. I will try again today to get her to have a nap. If this fails do you think it is worth bringing her feed to 5pm instead of 6 and bathing her afterwards?

Horse, when my ds was only about six weeks old we invested in a battery-operated swing... BEST thing we ever bought. It was a stand-alone frame with a swing in the middle, you could lie the seat back or put it in a sitting position. It would swing either side to side or back to front. Initially he didn't like to sleep in his cot, but he would always fall asleep in the swing, and it was handy if he really needed to sleep. The best time was about 5.30-6.00 pm when he was usually tired and I was also trying to get tea ready, I used to put him in the swing and he would have a half-hour nap. During the day he would sometimes sleep in it for up to an hour at a time. It truly was great for settling him, and as he got older he would still sit in it regularly. Someone commented that he might come to rely on the swinging movement to fall asleep but it never became a problem for him - he eventually learnt to fall asleep on his own in his cot and he has been a fantastic sleeper ever since. I think they cost about A$200 (not sure about in the UK) but you may also be able to get one second-hand if you were interested.

If anyone is thinking about a swing I have just bought one from kiddicare.com for £59.99 (should have posted this on the bargains thread as I believe they are £99.99 in Mothercare). I have about four friends who have used one for their babies and said they were the best thing they ever bought. Small babies like to sleep in them and older babies apparently love the swinging movement and sit up and play (most of them have toy trays). We have not used ours yet as second baby has not arrived but if you do buy one we have been advised to start swinging it manually before you switch it on as apparently it uses the most power in starting up and if you start it yourself the batteries last forever!

Hi...this is a similar type of query. My DS (now 14.5 weeks) was on the GF routines but it all fell apart at 8 weeks as he wouldn't sleep at dinnertime..he would wake after 45 mins. Try as I might he just would not stay asleep for any longer so I just had to go with it and he now has 40 mins naps during the day after being awake for 2 hours. Yesterday however he slept for a record 1 hour 45mins...the difference being that I have just started weaning (only on small amount of baby rice) and even though he stirred after 45 mins he wasn't hungry so went back to sleep. (didn't happen today though so maybe was a one off!).

Anyway...did any other GF followers have problems with the lunch time nap which resolved itself when weaning was introduced?

Futurity - my dd seems to sleep better between 12 and 2.15 now that I have started weaning her, she will stir occassionally after 45 minutes but most of the time will sleep well. I am wondering whether she is going hungry in the afternoon though because today she got upset at about 4.30 just when I was trying to get her ready for her nap. She just wouldn't nap after being in the pushchair and then coming indoors and me rocking her. She got very upset so at 5pm so I decided to feed her. She just gobbled up her milk and apple puree (didn't go for the baby rice much). I bathed her at 6pm and gave her some more milk. She was exhausted and went to sleep on the bottle. I put her in her chair and then put her in her cot - she went out like a light. It seems so strange, she used to nap so easily between 4.30 and 5pm but we are having a pretty stressful time now that she won't sleep.

Well today was near perfect. Dd slept and ate very well and even had an afternoon nap at 4.45pm. She was tired still at dinner time but not as tired as previously. We had a much happier feed. I managed to stretch the feed until 6.25 (from 5.50) so she went to bed early. Hopefully this won't impact on her nighttime sleep.