5 mo will not nap!

[Kleokat]

I'm desperate. After months of struggling to get dd to nap I am really at the end of my tether.

She's visibly tired. I watch her for tired signs and as soon as I see them I try to get her to sleep. Sometimes after ages of voicing rocking and singing she will sleep in my arms for 30 mins but wakes up grumpy still. No matter what I do she won't sleep longer.

She has me at napped in her cot or anywhere bit in mine or dh arms. I've tried everything but it just ends in her being completely hysterical.

I've tried a sling and she hates being confined, she stays wide awake in her pram and screams non stop in her car seat.

What can I do? My days consist of doing anything g yo get her to nap. I hardly do anything else. I am so drained.

How long has she been awake when you see these tired signs?

About an hour usually max 1.5 hrs

I obsessed over my little ones naps for a long time. She’s 10 months and still will only cat nap. Honestly, I think the more you stress about it the worse it’ll be for you, I just accepted it (after having tried everything) - she could be grumpy for other reasons such as going through a leap or similar - do you have the wonder weeks app at all?

Kleokat - tired signs mean baby is over tired. These outward signs come at the later stages of being ready for a sleep. Baby will actually need to be asleep at heart half an hour before any tired sign.

The only way you use a tired sign is to help you better predict future naps. So if you see tired signs after 90 minutes awake, then baby needs to be asleep 60 after minutes awake, and so on.

This also includes the time it takes you to get baby to sleep ("ages", you said). So if you're seeing tired signs after 90 minutes and it's taking you 30 minutes of work to get baby to go to sleep, then you may need to be working on getting baby to sleep after only 30-40 minutes awake time initially. As you develop settling methods it's reasonable to expect to only need 10 mins to get baby to sleep.

What can I do?

I would do your naps in a bouncy chair, foot bouncing it while you sit on the sofa. I'd also introduced a dummy used consistently for every sleep time.

So after 45 or so minutes awake (having had a full feed), into bouncer. Be relentless about the bouncing. Rhythmic and non-stop and (at least initially, for the first few days) keep it going throughout the sleep. Keep on inserting dummy and tap on outside do baby is actively sucking the dummy.