Why will he not just bloody SLEEP, aaaaaarrrrggghhhhh

[Tinkjon]

At 12.45pm I laid down with 11mo DS for his afternoon nap. 1.5 hours of him kicking, scratching, screaming, biting and hitting me and he's still awake. He has been awake since 04.40 this morning. It is like this EVERY day. "She cannae take it much longer, captain..."

I don't understand why something so vital to survival as sleep is such a struggle. Surely mankind should have evolved so that we sleep when we need to, if nothing is physically preventing us from sleeping?!

Have you tried a morning nap instead? He could be too tired to settle perhaps if he's been going so long. Does he usually sleep in a cot or do you co-sleep? Do you have any kind of naptime rituals?

Forgot to say, crikey poor you, you must be knackered.

Overtired?

I've said it before on here, but funnypeculiar gave me the best advice ever which finally got me on the road to a better-sleeping baby (been a long haul, mind, and we're a long way off a full night's sleep!): Do anything and everything to charge him up on sleep, for days on end if you have to. For me I rocked him for 45 minutes at a time about 4 times a day for weeks. When he got less tired, he got more willing to sleep. HTH

I have had similiar "phases" with my ds. He is ten months now and is in not settling well and standing in my cot for 15 mins phase before having to be stroked to sleep! (last resort when screaming child is getting us no where!) He used to wake up at half four and not sleep until lunch and then that was a struggle. I tried everything, more food at tea, darker nursery (think that may have helped a little) more activity, less activity and whilst i was busy trying all these things, one day he just did it on his own! They have their own agenda i have found and if you think that each day they discover something new that they can do and things that they want to do, with so much going on it must be hard to sleep!!!
I know this isnt the answer but what helped me was understanding the development milestones such as crawling, standing, walking etc that create so much for them to think about causing the difficulty in sleep. Somehow it made it easier to cope, knowing that it wasnt something that I was doing wrong!!

Thanks everyone!

IAteDavina (LOL name!) yes, he is always overtired 'cos he never bloody sleeps! :

fleacircus, he usually has a morning nap and an afternoon one. At night he's usually in his cot but then he often ends up in our bed as well - lack of consistency is our problem (am just too exhausted to deal with it!) We don't really have a naptime ritual, no. Other than it being at the same time of day and in the same place.

Do you let him sleep as much as he wants during his morning nap or do you wake him?

I used to wake ds2 after 45 minutes in the hopes that he'd have a better afternoon nap but it just didn't suit him so I actually put him down at 9am (which seemed ridiculously early for a nap too me) and let him sleep aslong as he wants (sometime 2 hours) and then he usually has a shorter nap in the afternoon.

He seems much happier this way

OK, well, I would suggest work out what you can do which does get him sleeping (for us it was nothing, at one point!). It might be driving, pushchair, rocking, wearing him in a sling, music, patting, singing, leaving him alone, whatever. And every single time he shows a sleepy sign, do that and nothing else, for days. So he gets less tired. It's a killer but worth it.

Another thing which helped us was me realising how quickly DS got tired in the morning. It's currently (13 months) around 1hr 45mins - 2hrs after waking, regardless of what time he wakes up. If we miss this he goes right into overtiredness and then the rest of the day's a write-off - lots of frantic clawing back of naptime and fighting with a wired baby, not good.

Me too ConnorT - if DD has two decent sleeps during the day she usually sleeps well at night as well, it's when she's had less daytime sleep that the nights tend to kick off. She's just getting settled with CM etc now so it's all over the place, thus I am just back at work completely wiped out after being up several times a night!

And yes, the 'early' morning nap really helps when she has it, although with the new routine it's not really happening, which is a bugger.

I hope things improve Tinkjon.

Oh, also, maybe try to get some kind of ritual going? I'm still BF so if I'm around DD usually feeds to sleep for daytime naps, but after a week of the same evening ritual (dinner - bath - teeth & story - goodnight daddy - counting the stairs - goodnight teddy and doggy - bedroom ready - supper BF - into cot), finally finally she's started going to sleep on her own without making complaints. Not every time by any means but still it feels miraculous each time!

Connor, no I don't wake him - he sleeps so little that I would NEVER interrupt what little he does get In the morning he has half an hour, tops.

In the morning he sleeps in the buggy on the way home from the school run and in the afternoon he sleeps on a duvet on the floor of our bedroom. I wonder if I ought to persevere more with getting him into the cot for daytime naps - I just don't have the strength or stamina to fight him at the moment...