10mo nap crisis - DS attacking me!

[IsItMeOr]

Please can I have a dose of MN wisdom?

10mo DS has never been a very good sleeper, but is finally doing better at night. He's sleeping from about 7pm to 6.15am with one wake for a feed in between.

But naps are still problematic. I find it very hard to spot reliable tired signs. The sleepy signal is generally that he goes from playing at full pelt (he's been walking for almost a month now) to full-on wailing.

It generally takes 5-10mins of rocking/singing in darkened room, with him full-on crying, before he drops off to sleep.

Increasingly he's attacking me while I'm rocking him - biting, scratching and pinching. Enough to draw blood.

Is this normal? Is he trying to drop from 2 to 1 naps? Should I be doing something different? Help!

They are all really bitey / hair pulling / scratchy / pinchy at this age. They have no understanding of what they are doing or that it hurts etc. DS (just over 9m) does the same. Generally I try and keep out of the way of it i.e. I put DS down if he starts doing this with a firm no, so that he hopefully begins to learn not to and associates being put down with all those behaviours (and I advise my 2 yr old and 4yr old DD to keep their hair out of yanking distance!).

I would suggest that at nap times if he does this to you that you put him down in the cot. Keep singing and patting, but not holding and rocking him. If he does full on crying anyway then as long as you are with him calming, singing patting etc maybe you don't need actually to hold and rock him as he drops off?

I would also maybe try and work out a routine of when he usually needs a nap and take him up for his nap then rather than watching out for sleepy signs which are easy to miss when they are running around, meaning you can then find yourself in the overtired nightmare situation. I would think you want him off for a nap before the wailing starts.

DS usually wakes between 6.30 / 7am and I put him down for a nap at about 9.30am (so approx 3hrs after he wakes). If he has a decent nap at this time (say 1.5 hrs), then I know he can last into the afternoon and will pop him down for a shorter nap at around 2.30 / 3pm. If he has a short nap (less than an hour) at 9.30 then I'll put him back for another nap straight after his lunch. Note the time you take him for a nap and after a few days think about which days went better for you and then stick to those times?

Good luck

Thanks Nelly - I do know what you mean about him not knowing what he's doing. It's more that it makes me wonder if I'm doing the wrong thing.

He's been napping at 31/2 hour intervals, but this week he's skipped a couple of naps and has upped the upset at nap time. So I wonder if maybe he's trying to drop a nap?