Crap Nap

[Hanster85]

Hi everyone,

My DD just turned 6 months on Friday & we are having problems with her last nap of the day - she is literally fighting us with everything she has. We tried for an hour today & then eventually gave up.

We used to feed to sleep, rock her and put in crib for daytime naps. But just in the last couple of weeks, she has been waking when being put in the crib, has a chat with her lovey & falling asleep independently! It just started from nowhere! So it can't be due to sleep associations etc.

Her current routine is
Wake at 6am
Nap at 8am (usually an hour)
Nap at 11am (usually 1.5 - 2 hours)
Nap at 3pm - cries & grizzles, and will not settle! Getting giddy when we go in to reassure her - arching her back, shouting and trying to grab our face 🤣! Then crying again when we put her back down!

This has led to us giving up by about 4pm & getting her in bed for 6pm. Although this is far too early for her & means that she is having a long wake up between 4 & 5am 😖!

I was reading that she might be dropping the third nap? But if that's the case - what do we do about bedtime - as if we put it at 6pm/7pm - she will have been awake for 4/5 hours without a nap & will be overtired?

I'd really appreciate any advice! I've yet again entered unknown baby sleep territory!

My little girl dropped to two naps at six months. If possible aim for the second nap to be 12/12.30 and then bedtime at 6.30pm

Can you try and alter her first two naps so that they are slightly later? So that there isn’t such a big gap between the second nap and bedtime?

Yep, time to push back the first and second naps a little and skip the third.

Alternatively - make the third nap later (like 3.45) but very short (15-20 minutes) just enough to get her through to bedtime. Easiest if you can take her in the buggy or sling somewhere and she falls asleep in it.

Also - babies who can self settle at other times, often need help falling asleep at the last nap of the day, that is always the trickiest.

Oh really? I didn't know that about self settling! That's really good to know!

I wish she would sleep in a buggy or sling, but she will only sleep in the car or her crib - which is a pain sometimes!

As you say, I think I'll have to push her naps up, as she is point blank refusing her third nap. I'm going to continue trying to encourage this though, as otherwise I'd have to do 4 hourly? And she does show to be tired after 2 hours!

Why is baby sleep so complicated? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Once you’re down to 2 naps it does get a lot simpler! And you can fit more into the day.

Yeah, DS had pretty much dropped to 2 naps by 6 months, I did encourage it to be honest since, as PP said, you can get so much more done! We fell into a 2-3-4 routine, (first nap 2 hours after morning wake-up, second nap 3 hours after the first one ends and then bedtime 4 hours after the second nap ends). This doesn't work for every baby I know, but has been great for both of mine.

I'm not going to lie, there have been some trying evenings! I do sometimes find myself stretching the second awake period so that the second nap doesn't start too soon and leave us with a long slog to bedtime. Changes in nap routine are always a bit painful and rocky but you will get there in the end. I'd say it's taken us a month or more to get the hang of it, but it's worth the misery!