How to change daytime napping?

[Spod]

I'd really appreciate some tips/opinions. My dd has always been a poor daytime napper (shes now 10 months), but sleeps very well at night these days (not tempting fate!). At best, she'll manage 2, 40 min naps during the day, and doesnt seem to need any more than that. Thats fine, but its the palavar of getting her to sleep that is taking up so much time. She normally goes to sleep in her pushchair, but I can be walking for well over an hour some days, and she'll still not be asleep and ends up getting upset and then its impossible. I've tried simply laying her flat from begining of walk... she screams until I'm sure she'll be sick!! Half the time she'll nod off sitting up/leaning back without much bother. But, with winter coming, and me going back to work a couple of days a week soon, I wanna teach her how to go for naps in her cot. What could I try... today, I had a go, she eventually did go to sleep... but it was a fight... she refused her second nap of the day in her cot! I dont want to do cc. Any tips gratefully accepted. tia.

My dd2 is/was the same, be very glad she sleeps at night . Some babies once they reach this age just don't need 2 naps during the day esp if they are asleep all night. One nap a day is probably enough for her, you need to gradually give one up, try to encourage the one to keep to be just after lunch so she makes it through the afternoon in good humour.

should she only be on one nap a day then? Not sure she'd get through the whole day like that... can give it a go, although at the moment she has a nap before lunch 'cos she's so tired!

sorry spod, no tips i'm afraid as my DS always had at least one of his daytime naps in his cot, going down awake, and it's too long ago now (he's 3) to think how I dealt with any problems - sorry.
You might need to bump your post tomorrow to get it seen by some other mumsnetters. I'm sure someone will have some advise.

From that age mine only had one nap, depends what time they get up but just put her in her cot when she seems really tired and let her wake up naturally then see if she can make it through till bedtime. If not she may still need 2 but you might be surprised.

How much does she sleep at night, Spod? At that age I think they need, on average, about 14 hours sleep a day though they all vary of course. My dd's now 22 months and sleeps about 11 hours at night and 2ish in the day, any less and she gets over-tired. I used to do that pushing about thing but got fed up with it when she was about 8 months old and found when I got her to sleep in the cot she slept much better. She'd have about 11 hours at night and 2 x 1.5 hour naps which she continued to do until she was about 15 months old when she switched to napping once immediately after lunch. I actually find it hard to get her to sleep properly in the pushchair. She goes off ok but wakes up after about 45 mins.

i'll try doing one nap then... as for putting her in her cot... tried that so many times.... she just cant get herself to sleep... and these days she just stands up and protests!.... Nightime is fine... but then i feed her and we have a good established nightime routine.

she has around 10.5 -11 hours at night... best ever was almost 12... just the once! BUT, when she wakes, at 7ish, I bring her into bed with me for her morning feed...sometimes she'll go back off to sleep until 10ish (as long as I stay in bed too...which I do!) you're gonna tell me to get up after her feed arent you?

spod, you sound knackered - absolutely poleaxed - is something else wrong or is it just plain motherhood? I do think that if your dd is waking at 7 or so and sleeping 11 hours at night then I would count sleeping from 7ish to 10 am as a daytime nap. I absolutely loathe getting up at first with my ds (usually 6.30) but I usually find I've bounced back to life by the end of the first feed downstairs. If you want to alter the rest of the day I think you may have to get you both up at 7.

Nothing to stop you having a naptime routine as well, tho I suppose it might take a while to establish? Just for info my ds at 7.5 months currently sleeps 2.5 hours after he wakes for 1.5 hours and then at 1.00ish for about 1 hour.

sorry, re sleeping in cot... if i had the choice between sleeping int he big bed iwth mum and sleeping int he cot i'd go for the big bed! so if you cut out that early sleep she may get used to the cot i guess. who knows.

do i sound that bad? blimey! i think ou're right acnebride... i need to get up with her, or just have one other daytime nap for her... but how do i get her to have this a) in her cot b)without me feeding her to sleep c)without walking her in her buggy. Lat week, all week, she woke at 7ish...fed her, got up, played for couple of hours, then both went back to bed for an hour... but I need her to do this without me... Trouble is, by the time she is in bed at night, I've cooked a meal, eaten it... digested it... its midnight or later before I get to bed. I am knackered!

btw... motherhood is great for me... loving it... other areas of life are a tad shite at the moment... if i could have an extra couple of days in the week i could fit everything in!

spod, if she was just having 10.5-11 hours sleep and those short daytime naps I'd say she needs a bit more. But if she does that extra 3 hours in bed with you in the morning she definitely doesn't need much more, maybe an afternoon cat nap. I know you said you don't want to do cc but I wondered if it might be worth you looking at a bit of Richard Ferber's book (which advocates cc I know), there's a chapter called 'what your child associates with falling asleep' or something like that and it explains how their sleep associations work.

But to be honest, you could either carry on having your lovely sounding lie-in and just get her to take a small afternoon nap later in the day or give up the lie-in and you might find she's more receptive to sleeping in the cot if she's really ready to sleep. Can you more or less repeat the bedtime routine (minus bath) at nap time? That's what I do with dd.

stf: yeah, i think I am gonna try and stick with the lie-ins (lets face it, they are so nice and snuggly-cosy)...for the time being at least, she does have phases of no lie-ins and we get up instead.... Today, I gave her lunch before she had a chance to nap, and at 3pm she was so tired... I put her in her buggy while i went to the loo (we were just off out), told dh to watch that she didnt climb out... came back.....she'd zonked out fast asleep!!!! but only slept for 40 mins.... but she's so happy all day that she don't need much more. Will see if I can get her to have that nap in her cot when we're at home though. Wondered if I should introduce a blankie or a special sleep teddy or something, so that she associates with her daytime nap?

What about putting her in her cot and getting one of those musical mobiles - may hypnotise her into falling asleep.

btw - do you think 40 mins nap isn't enough? My ds sometimes only has 45 mins - but wakes up quite smiley - I think that means they've had enough - if they wake up crying they haven't!

Spod - when ds got mobile about 4 weeks ago he wouldn't lie down in his cot even though he was ready to fall over with tiredness (previously he had been a great sleeper and great napper). I found putting him down during the day in his sleeping bag did the trick. Doesn't stop him from standing up, but slows him down enough to remind him he's tired.

It won't solve all your problems but it might help her to settle if you combine with some of the other ideas.