Help me solve this nap conundrum!

[Annarose2014]

DD is 10 months old. For the past month we've been working on two big naps, but the only way I can do that is to put her in my bed, and lie down beside her. The reason is because she needs so much resettling. So I can pop the dummy back in when she stirs. This way we manage 9-10.30 and then 1.30-3, and bed at around 6.45.

Obviously this isn't sustainable. I need to get shit done!

So this morning I put her in her grobag, the whole nighttime routine and put her down at 9am (she's been up since 6.30)

She woke at 9.30, flailed around, climbed up the bars like a monkey and wailed. It was literally 30 seconds before I got to hr but it was enough for her to be AWAKE. No chance of her going down again.

So not only does it give me no chance to actually do anything (I was just about to step in the shower) but it means it'll be a 3 nap day. No way can she last now till 1.30.

I'm utterly pissed off tbh. The 9 month sleep regression has killed us and as it is I'm in and out to her all evening until about 1am. I haven't watched TV in about 3 weeks as there's no point. And now its going to be a shit nap day too.

How the hell do you keep them asleep? How can you transition them to 2 naps when they nap so little on their own?

I never stuck to rigid nap times. Just go out and get stuff done

This is a very cranky child though. And crankier when tired. So naps are necessary.

I have no idea, just hugs and , I struggled with my ds until he was 5 months old and then followed Gina Ford to the letter because I had no other options, that worked.

Good luck

Shower straight after she is fed and happy but awake. Put her in a playpen/cot where she can see you and then go out with the pram so she can sleep in it if she is tired.

The shower thing has always been an issue cos our bathroom is absolutely tiny and I shower behind the open door and there is literally no room for the baby. It's one of those where the door barely clears the loo when open. And if she cant see me she screams the house down. And tbh even if I put her straight on the floor she would scream to be picked up.

So I just don't do it. It's not worth it. I only do it when DH is here. Everything else I have to do with her underfoot. And she's at that terrible age where they scream if they're not standing up but they can't stand up alone so they are basically screaming for you to hold them up 12 hrs a day.

She doesn't nap in the car or the pram or the sling. Well she might after an hour, but realistically after an hour you've come back home again.

She is very very very vocal. Very demanding. Rather irritable. I can't have her tired on top of that.

My older boy was shit about only napping for 40 mins but he seemed quite content so I didn't stress about it. But this is not a content baby.

When she goes in the cot to go to sleep, what happens to get her to sleep?

If you put baby on the floor to play (when happy and awake), if you showed her the dummy and then placed the dummy behind her by her feet, could she move herself around to pick up the dummy and put it in all without help?

It's clipped into her and she's perfectly able to put it in herself. Before her sleep regression she was doing it 100% of the time and sleeping through. If she woke shed just find the clip and work away.

But now she only does that half the time and the rest of the time she forgets it's there and rears up clambering up the bars immediately screaming. But I'm hoping she's coming out of it as she's (very) slowly improving.

And she's never ever resettled herself like that for a nap anyway. She doesn't bother. Dummy or no, unless you're beside her, she's going to start crying to get up. If she's in the bed beside me my physical presence seems to lull her into a second cycle but if she's alone forget it.

Am currently on nap no 3 for the past 15 mins. Trying to figure out how much I can get away with and still have a 7pm bedtime......

I have no help for you but lots of sympathy. I'm currently trying to get my uncooperative 10 months old off for nap 3 - she's not having it, but we'll have meltdown by 5 if she doesn't get one in. Mine also won't sleep in the pram unless she's been pushed for about an hour. It's a fucking nightmare. Every stupid twatty Internet guideline tells you they need at least two hours of daytime sleep over two naps - but not what to do when that just doesn't happen.

I feel your frustration.

Annarose2014 - when it's naptime or bedtime, what happens to get her to sleep in the cot?

And she's at that terrible age where they scream if they're not standing up but they can't stand up alone so they are basically screaming for you to hold them up 12 hrs a day

Is she crawling? In my experience standing unsupported comes before crawling. Once crawling, you can start making floor time much more interesting. Put things out of reach. Play at rolling cars/balls. Lie on the floor yourself and encourage her to chase or follow you. Climb over stuff, cushions etc.

This is not really anything to do with sleep, just sanity savers so you get some personal space whereby you are playing with baby, but not holding her.

Oh she's been crawling for a good while. Like the clappers. She crawls over to your feet and screams until you pull her to standing. Or she crawls over to furniture and pulls herself up and screams till you stand her in a slightly different position. Great fun.

In the evening I give her a bottle in the bed and she's asleep in five minutes. She falls asleep on the bottle and I go in after 5 mins and take it out. But she's gone right off bottles in the daytime and the little she does take is never at naptimes so generally during the day it's dummy and white noise.

To be fair to her going to sleep isn't usually the problem. It's staying asleep.

Tonight of course is an epic fail after her late third nap. She's still wide awake.