Need advice mums!! My little one is almost 8 months old. She’s recently transferred to her own room for bed time sleep and is doing really well, sleeping through the night the last few nights. But day time naps have always been a problem. When I started struggling to rock her to sleep (as she got heavier), I started rocking her whilst on a yoga ball, which made it much easier on my back. Although still can take around 20 - 30 mins of bouncing. I learned to deal with this, until recently when we’ve gone out, I’ve found it impossible to rock her to sleep without my yoga ball. I have to stand whilst rocking, and bounce quite vigorously, which is exhausting. Meanwhile, she screams, stiffens her body in protest, punches out and almost launches her body out of my arms. I find this really embarrassing as I just look like a mum who can’t console her baby. The last couple of times when I’ve been out, I’ve had to give in and try keep her as happy as I can (which is very difficult when she’s tired and grumpy) and wait for the car ride home to get her to sleep. Needless to say, this makes going out very stressful.
I’ve tried a couple of sleep training methods, however listening to her cry was unbearable. She just got herself too worked up, cried and cried for hours and was unconsolable. She definitely is not the type to cry herself to sleep. Also tried the more gentle approaches, but she eventually just cries anyway because she’s getting more and more tired.
i always look out for sleep cues and have the huckleberry app which offers guidance as to when she is due a nap, so don’t think being over or under tired is the issue here. I just don’t know what else to do!! I don’t want to stress about going out or avoiding it all together because I can’t get her to nap. She also doesn’t nap in her pram either so unfortunately nice, leisurely walks aren’t a solution here 😫