7 month old short naps-one sleep cycle

[lkj6666]

Help!!- short naps. One sleep cycle. Ongoing forever!!

I feel like I’ve read everything and tried everything but things are still not getting any better. Someone please give me hope or ideas of what to do next.

Almost 7 month old girl struggles with short naps. Naps have always been an issue for her and we have the dreaded 45minute/one sleep cycle issue for months and months now. I would not be bothered by the short naps in themselves but she is obviously tired and cranky all day long and needs more sleep.
She sleeps well overnight 10ish hours no wake ups.
She can link her day time cycles occasionally but with no rhyme or reason. I’ve tried shortening wake windows, extending wake windows and currently trying 3x scheduled naps as per clock for the past week. (On a sleep consultant advice)
Just when I think she is getting it and we have a good day we then get several awful days and feel like we’re back at square one or even worse than we were before. I feel she must be in a huge amount of sleep debt as a result of not getting enough total sleep for the past 6 months. Early bedtimes don’t help her catch up as either she just doesn’t fall asleep earlier than usual and even if they did work then we’d be doing early bedtime most days as most days are crap nap days.

I know naps can take time to consolidate but when??? I feel like I keep trying different things (consistently for a while before I try something else) and just trying to give her time but it’s just not happening. It’s sucking the joy out of having her as I’m thinking about her sleep all the time and she is cranky miserable during her awake time. She does need more sleep as she yawns, rubs her eyes all the time which then makes it even more confusing as to when I next put her down for next nap.

She self settles quickly (has done for months) for all sleeps in a dark room with white noise. No dummies. If anything my presence annoys her off even more so when she wakes from a short nap I have no way of extending it or getting her back to sleep. I’ve tried leaving her and although it occasionally worked in the past it doesn’t anymore and she just cries hard straight away. She doesn’t contact nap anymore or nap in the pram/car.

Is there anything else I can do to help link her cycles and get her the sleep I know she needs?
Will she ever do it???- why can she do it sometimes but not most of the time.
How do I catch up on all the sleep she has already lost- sleep debt?
How do I decide when to put her down for her next nap as her cues are not reliable-ie she is generally tired all the time from crap naps but not necessarily tired enough for her next nap.

Ive read lots of people say it might just take time but what do I do in the meantime. Just accept she isn’t getting enough sleep on a daily basis and pretend that’s ok. Health visitor suggested to stick to the scheduled naps I’m trying this week and just jolly her along if she looks tired in between.. does this sound reasonable. But what if this creates an even worse cycle of overtiredness resulting in more crap naps and starts to affect the one reasonable thing we have which is night sleep.

This is nothing like my first. She struggled with short naps for a few weeks during the 4 month sleep regression and as soon as I taught her to self settle they resolved. This one knows how to self settle already but still can’t do it.

Sorry for the essay. I’m losing my mind over this.

I just want her happy and getting enough sleep.

Hey, I know this was a while ago, but I could have written this myself and feeling very desperate! How did this result for you in the end? Did your little one ever nap?

Hi,
Yes it did get better in the end!
It was all in the timing for us. I was getting it wrong for so long…. And just wish I’d got it sooner.
She just wasn’t tired enough to sleep longer naps. She would show tired signs and I was trying to follow the ‘average’ wake windows for her age but she needed slightly longer in between. She is very funny with timing I’ve realised… but that’s just her and so unlike her older sister.

We were stuck in an undertired overtired cycle where she was generally tired due to crap naps all the time but not tired enough in between naps to take proper naps.
It was a horrible time though and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I’d suggest try experimenting with timing even by 15 minutes either side for a few days until you find the right spot. Once I found the spot we’d stay on that time until she did short naps again and I knew it was a sign to extend wake windows again or eventually drops naps as she got older.
Now a very happy but still a very sensitive to her conditions 2.5 year old who gives me a 2-3 hour nap every day and sleeps well at night as long as I follow her sleep rules and timings the little madam! the key for my kids sleep was finding the right sleep conditions for them and getting the timing right. I’ve also realised mine are very different to others and just don’t sleep anywhere or whenever. I still plan my days around her nap but it’s better than the misery of getting it wrong. We still have exception days where we don’t stick to timing if we need to life or holiday etc and she just catches up the next day but know I need to stick to it most of the time for a happy child and mum.
Good luck.

Thanks so so much for replying! Great to hear there is light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll try and lengthen wake windows tomorrow and see what happens. Really really appreciate the response! :)

My boy is 10months and naps always been 30-45mins. Sometimes randomly sleeps longer but rarely... 😩