How do you do naps?

[Frog253]

This is my 3rd child and you'd think I would know what I am doing by now but I am just as useless as ever with my baby. Essentially he is miserable most of the day and I can't help thinking it is in part to do with his lack of naps. I look for signs of tiredness, then feed (bf) with him wrapped in a blanket and put him down, it works some of the time but not that often really. My only successes have been a nap at 9.30am and a good bedtime routine at 6pm (not that he sleeps through of course). However, if he doesn't nap at 9.30am then I am a bit stuck as what to do for the rest of the day, if we miss 9.30 then he won't then go at 11am instead even if he is really miserable. If I am lucky he may nap after lunch but then only for an hour or so and he's still miserable... I am tied to doing school runs so he has to fit in with the other DC. So what exactly do you with good sleepers actually 'do' to get them to nap? He's 9 months btw.

My DD is 10 months - don't know how helpful this is as she is my PFB so I don't have to fit around anyone else's needs.

She's pretty much always needed a sleep about 2 hours after she gets up, so it's usually 9 or 9.30 am when she starts rubbing her eyes and gets that look about her. If she's been playing I sit with her on my lap for a few minutes and look at a book or sing, then give her a dummy and her comforter, lay her down in her cot and switch on the lullaby on her monitor, then leave her. I'll check in after a couple of minutes and if she's sitting up in the cot, just lay her straight down again and repeat. If she's still arsing about after about 10-15 minutes I take her out the cot and pop her in her pram with the hood up and a blanket over her; if she can't fidget about she'll usually go over within a few minutes.

At 9 months she was mostly having 3 naps a day of around 45 minutes - 9.30 ish, after lunch (roughly 1 pm) and then again about 3.30/4 pm, although that last one was the biggest battle and some days she would go without it although that made dinner and bathtime a bit of a grumpfest.

Ds is 11 months and (not intentional) always has his milk feed after he's woken up, never before (apart from bedtime feed) so has never had to rely on milk for sleep.

When younger he always needed to sleep around 2 hours after he last woke up so around 10am I would take him upstairs in a light room and put him in his cot, lullaby's on, dummy and leave. As he got older the nap time went later and later so 10.30am then 11am until eventually it was at 12.30pm and the morning nap had gone.

He usually falls asleep straight away but if after a couple minutes he's not asleep I will go back in and lie him back down/give him dummy. If he's not asleep after 15 mins I will bring him back downstairs and try again in half an hour but it's very rare I have to do this now.

You make it all sound very easy, but it's been one of the most challenging parts of baby care for me. It's the second nap that we just can't manage easily, even if we go for a walk (would knock him out in the morning) he just stays awake watching the world go by. It wouldn't be so bad if he were more cheerful when awake. Have tried dummies and he spits them out. Thanks for your thoughts.