do any of your babies NOT take a daytime nap?

[Booyhoo]

ds is 8 months old and since he was about 8 weeks old, hasn't really slept during the day.

he gets very grumpy and you can tell he needs to sleep but he wont. i rock him and take him out for walks and try and distract him by doing little games with him hoping he will fall over but he just wont. if i'm lucky he will doze for about 10 minutes but the most he has ever slept in a day is about 30 minutes and it's never in one go its always broken into 2/3 little naps.

i wouldnt mind except that he is so grumpy and demanding attention constantly. i'm due to go back to work soon and i hate the thought of him being in terrible form with a CM and wanting me. also, i dont think it's fair for a CM to have to deal with this when she will have others to deal with.

what can i do to get him to take a nap during the day. he really is getting very demanding. he hates being in his playpen but i cant hold him all the time.

how does he sleep at night?

CMs and nurseries are used to non sleeping babies and don't mind rocking etc

i remember asking at DS's nursery how they got all the babies to sleep at the same time and they simply rocked/cuddled/patted them all

he goes down at 7 and can sleep through to about 5/5.30ish. somenights though he wil wake at 11 and again at 3 then 6.30. he will take a Bfeed each time he wakes.

bump

Wow i thought my DS 9mth was bad he has v little about 40mins in 2/3 sleeps and its really not enough but he's a light sleeper and doesn't transfer easily.

His sleeps vary at night, Sometimes sleeping through others not!!!

Don't know what to suggest really...

has he always been like that wellbalanced? or did he used to nap well and then grow out of it?

He's never been a 1-2hr kinda baby like my friends seem to have! When alot smaller did sleep longer (slightly) but never much more.
Will he not sleep in car, pram, rocker?
My DS is hard to get to sleep too, Needs rocking or BF cos doesn't really want to sleep but i want him to!!

he will fall over in the pram or car but as soon as it stops he'll wake and i could keep on driving/walking but i want him to sleep so i get things done, so walking him round to get him to sleep defeats the purpose.!!

he really fights it if i rock him over, he doesnt like it.

my ds1 would sleep for 3 hours in one go until he was 18mnths old.
i miss those days

My problem is when he sleeps i cant get the things done i want to ie- prepping dinner, empty dishwasher, tidy up, even making a bru wakes him up even if in diff room (live in apartment)!! Really light sleeper.

My DS wakes when car/pram stops.

Have you ever left him to cry in cot? I wont with my DS but know ppl who have. My DS won't self settle.

no, his screams are unbearable. the neighbours would think i'd abandoned him. i couldnt face them.!!

My DD wouldn't sleep during the day and it took me until 8 months to get her to. I realised that because I didn't want to leave her to cry I wasn't really giving her the opportunity to sleep. So I decided to let her cry for a bit, it was horrible but I found that if I went on the computer or something it helped to distract me. I know you said about your neighbours but who cares about what they think, it's your baby that really matters. He may be crying because he's over tired and he just needs a few mins to get it out of his system. Trust him to do it, he can do it!

My DD only selpt for 40 mins to start with at 8 months. This has gradually increased as she's learnt to get resettle herself.

Good luck.

thanks racheljane4.

i dont know if i could bear it. he screams so loudly and it is such a high pitched scream. i'm going to have to try it though because its at the point now where he is constantly whingey and tired and i am pulling my hair out with it.

dd was always a nightmare to get down (day and night tbh) but at 7-9 months tried to give up her daytime nap altogether.... it took me two hours a day to wrestle her to sleep which i was able to keep up til she was 18 months and ds1 was born when i just didn't have time to do it anymore and she stopped completely.

the slightest sound or movement would wake her so once she was asleep i couldn't move at all and had to just sit there with her asleep in my arms..... it was a complete knightmare.

ds1 was better, he did try and cut out the nap at 9 months and was a bit scatty with it til 18-20 months, often only falling asleeep late afternoon but from just before 2 til almost 3 he slept almost everyday of his own accord, he'd just curl up on the couch and doze off.

ds2 is happy enough to have a nap during the day but it's getting later in the day and shorter now... he's almost 1.

ok, i put him up to his cot about 15 minutes ago and he is still screeching. i have been up 3 times to resettle him and lay him down again but he's still screeching. how long should i let this go on for?

dunno, we tried it with dd and she was still screaming 2 hours later so i gave in and we went back to the usual rigmarole.

you have my utmost sympathy but unfortunately i haven't a single helpful idea as we never succeeded in sorting it with dd

2 hours!! i dont think i can do it that long. i think i'm going to take him out in the buggy and hopefully he'll stay asleep when we stop. thats if the snow that keeps threatening doesnt come.

We used to leave ours for 20 mins - it was awful but luckily that was as long as it took and then over a very short time she simply "got it". Moaned a little as we put her down for a minute or two but then out like a light. Now at 19mo she is down to a single nap that lasts 30 mins to 2 hours. But when she was a young baby, leaving her to cry completely sorted her nap issues out.

well i gave in and took him out in the buggy and spent the afternoon in softplay centre to avoid being in the house with a screaming baby.

i just dont know what to do for best. he really had no notion of settling earlier and he was there for at least 20 minutes. it was awful, i couldnt listen to that everyday just for 10 minutes of sleep.

Oh, I'm sorry that it's so hard for you. Have you tried a dummy? I'm not sure if you are for or against them but that was one of the things that helped us?

Hope things improve.

My DS (6 months) isn't a fan of daytime naps either. Today for example he's had two 15-minute naps, but did lie in this morning until 10.30! He's quite cheery on such little sleep, but I fear it's disrupting his night sleep - he wakes 2 or 3 times a night.

It's so difficult to know what's for the best, isn't it. Some books/people say that some babies just need fewer naps, while others say that any nap less than an hour (I wish) is a waste of time, and that we're stifling our child's development by not getting them napping longer.

Some mothers of my acquaintance say such absurd things as: 'I put my baby down for his 2hr afternoon nap'. What? 'Put him down'? '2 hr nap'? If I put him down he screams blue murder, then might go to sleep for about 20 minutes.

I know what you mean herbaceous. Gina Ford says, "settle the drowsy baby in the cot for a 2 hour nap". To this I reply, "so then Gina, which drowsy baby is that then!?".

A mum at my swimming group came in all flustered today saying that she was running late because her DS was late down for his nap at 9:30 so he was still asleep at 12:30!!!! That's 3 hours!! How does that happen?

Sorry to digress.

I like to think that it's because they're so intelligent - too much going on to waste time napping!

Have you tried feeding to sleep in your bed.

I used to (and still do even though ds is 2.5, snuggle down in bed, milk, story/song, pat/rub to sleep, then sneak away

hi, well we had a good night sleep so i'm feeling a bit better about it today. i used to settle him to sleep with a feed and let him fall over on my knee but it meant i had to sit holding him while he slept because he wakes as soon as i move. also with me starting back to work i wanted to get him out of that habit. i dont want a poor CM having to sit and rock him over to sleep.

he has a dummy but throws it down when he knows i'm putting him down to sleep.