napping

[2cute2spook]

well the story so far, my Dd is 8 months old and is fine sleeping in her cot all night, but if you put her up in the day she wont sleep in it. any advice how to get her to have her two hour naps in her cot. (hour in morning hour in afternoon) should say she sleeps on me during day. any advice would be wonderful. xx

I leave the door ever so slightly ajar so she can hear what is going on, she takes a bit longer to go off but does eventually. I think at this age they just want to be ' where the party is'!! aside from that I do exactly what I do before i put her down at night, same cues ( minus the breastfeed which I substitute with a close cuddle for a few mins)

Have you blackened the windows? I found with mine that she'd sleep for ages on me but if I put her down anywhere the only way to get her to sleep for more than half an hour was to make the room really dark. I think the visual distraction really effects them but when they're on you they can block everything else out because they feel so safe

I don't have any advice - just the exact same problem! I have 8 month old twins (born 11th feb) and sleeping at night is generally good - they go to sleep no problem but naps are a huge struggle. The bonus of having twins is that if one cries I will worry she will wake the other one up! I've just put them both down in their cots with the blinds down and am leaving them there until they're due a bottle at 10. I feel awful but am praying this will work. I've never left them to cry it out before but am at the end of my tether. One of my girls has recently started waking in the night again - twice a night for the past week, then a few nights of sleeping then up at 4 this morning. I read somewhere that this could be because she's overtired and not napping enough during the day. I'M overtired too!!

2cute, have you tried gradual approach? i.e. sitting next to her in her cot until she falls asleep, then gradually moving your chair closer towards the door? then eventually you don't need to be there at all (so the theory goes).
not sure if it will help, but may be worth a try?
either that or let her just about fall asleep on you, then put her in her cot, i.e. so she is drowsy and sit with her til she falls asleep.
all sounds good in theory doesn't it?
good luck x

thank you all for your replys, will def get some blackout blinds.
twinmam when my little one doesnt get enough sleep during the day she wakes in the night to. your not alone on that!!
likesleep the gradual approach... why didnt i think of that? i have tried to put her down when she is asleep but that lasts for about 10 mins. everything sounds good in theory!!

Thank heavens! My 8 month old DS is the same way. I haven't pulled the curtains because in the past he'd nap too much (if there is such a thing). He's up there now and I can hear him playing with his cot toy. He did the same thing yesterday and last night was a nightmare - up and crying 4 times. He'll generally do his morning nap without a huge fuss but the afternoon nap is a killer. Tomorrow I'll try pulling the curtains shut - I'm afraid if I go up now, he'll get even more riled up.

just out of interest does anybody know where i can buy some cheapish black out blinds/curtians? TIA XX

dunelm mill and ikea both do blackout blinds quite cheap and work well.

laraeo A book I read in desperation said that 8-9 months is a really common time for babies to start waking in the night and it suggested that this is partly due to lack of sleep and being overtired. We had the same problem with one of our 9 month old DD but I think we're getting there... have started putting them to bed much earlier (now down for the night by 6.30) and also enforcing naps which has been hideous but also (touch wood) seems to be working - I put them in their cots with blinds down at about 9am for an hour then again at about 1. At first we had hysterical screaming and kicking/ headbanging on the cot from our sleepless one (other DD just went straight to sleep!) so we tried again the next day, armed with cot bumpers. The second time she cried for about 10 mins and now it's a couple of mins if that. The biggest bonus has been that she's sleeping through the night again. Good luck with it!