Day time naps becoming a battle ground

[Liff]

While day time naps have never been a walk in the park (actually that's what they often become as I give up and put her in her buggy) they are getting worse and worse and I have lost any sense of what I should be doing to try and get her to sleep.

I also have a DS who is 3 and I seem never see him as I spend all my time upstairs with DD while she shouts at me while she refuses to go to sleep.

Any tricks or tips gratefully received!

How old is she?

ah, good point, she's 19 weeks old....

Liff - my DD is 18 weeks old and I understand exactly what you mean. I have just sat down with a cup of tea after almost 3 hours of trying to get her to go down for her 12 o clock nap!

Is your DD teething? Mine is and I think that's a big part of the problem. Just now she only went to sleep after I spent 30 minutes rubbing her gum with my finger.

My DS recently did similar at about 22 weeks - think it was teething. All sorts can send them a bit barmy around this age - teething, growth spurts, development. For a week or two it was a screaming nightmare but now he goes down better than ever.

Not sure what tips I can give you, we did a lot of pushing the buggy and DH was better than me at shushing him to sleep - although it often took a long time. We did introduce a little toy - we gave it to him when we put him down for a nap and he plays with it for a while. But not sure that was what solved the problem. Has she any teething symptoms? Or perhaps she is having a growth spurt and is hungry when you put her down (that also applied to my DS and I spent a lot more time than usual on the sofa, feeding him to sleep, which he never normally does.)

Do you use a cot mobile or lightshow type thing before she goes to sleep? I found they over stimulated DS too much and playing a CD of nature, wave and rain sounds was much more calming.

Does she have a comforter or have you tried to give her a dummy? The best way to make a comforter is to stuff a muslin down your bra for a few hours so it gets your smell on it and you could also spray it with your perfume if you usually wear it. The bonus of them having a muslin as a comforter is they are easily replaced if they get lost.

Have you tried swaddling her? DS was swaddled until he was about 14/15 months.

Have you got blackout blind and blackout curtains. You really need to use both cos if you only use one light still gets in round the edges.

DS responded well to having his hand held, being stroked, shushing, patting, gently singing and talking to him until he fell asleep.