7 mth old - Help needed with napping

[HaveToWearHeels]

This could be long so please bare with me.

DD is 7 mnths and has slept through the night now for some time, she did have a dream feed at 11pm but we dropped that about 2 weeks ago and all seems fine. We start her bedtime routine at 7pm and she is usually asleep in her cot by 7.45 latest. She is uaually asleep when I put het into her cot but maybe one every fortnight she is awake. I just pop her down and say goodnight and leave the room, she then goes off on her own.

She then sleeps through to about 8.30am.
She does sometimes wake in the night, has a little babble to herself then goes back off to sleep, which to me would mean she is happy with her cot. She also doesn't cry when she wakes up she just babbles and shouts for us to go get her.

Now napping is a different matter. I have been trying for weeks on and off to get her to nap in her cot but she just won't have it. She currently sleeps on me which is getting increasingly uncomfortable (dead arm). I can put her down asleep and she will wake within 5 minutes and scream blue murder. We have tried the "shush/pat" which makes her scream worse. We have tried leaving her to cry popping back in every 2-3 minutes and she cried for up to and hour when I gave in and picked her up.
Her crying breaks my heart as she still makes the sobbing noise even after she has stopped crying and her eyes go all puffy with tears. We pop her in her cot periodically during the day to get her used to being there, put in some toys and her mobile on and as soon as she crys we pick her up.

She has always napped on me, on her tummy on my chest when she was tiny, now snuggled in my arms sucking her thumb (won't use a dummy). She only naps twice a day for 45 - hour each time.

My other half blames me and used that horrible fraze containing rod and back.

Any help would be appreciated as when I go back to work she will be with a childminder three days a week.

My now 8 month old started refusing her cot in the day at about 6.5 months and I didn't want to create bad associations with it for night time (at the time she was sleeping beautifully at night - different story now!). By chance, we discovered she slept very happily in the day in her pram in the garden. Since then, I put her in the pram for day time naps, outside if weather okay.
When tiny, she always slept in a sling or swaddled and I think the security of being strapped into the pram helps her. She smiles when I put her in and then just talks to herself to fall asleep.
Your nights sound fabulous, by the way!

I am facing something similar with my 5-month old. She has always been a champion sleeper at nighteven when she was tinybut she has never been a good napper. Frankly, I would be thrilled if she would nap twice for 45 minutes!

I am facing the same problem as you and haven't solved it yet, so my advice may be worthless, but a few things stood out to me in your post. First, are you putting her down at the right time? I think it's important to put them down before they get really fussy. I watch for slower playing, eyes staring off into space. If she's rubbing her eyes and whimpering, it's too late.

What are you doing to settle her? She needs a nap routine just like the evening. (I feed mine to sleep. I know, I know. . .)

Can you take a nap with her? My daughter sometimes seems influenced by me -- if she sees me lying next to her with my eyes closed, sometimes she's more likely to go back to sleep. (She sleeps in a co-sleeper next to our bed.) Maybe, when your daughter wakes up after 5 minutes, if she sees you there she could settle herself back to sleep?

We are also doing some "crying it out." I didn't want to do this, but then I read that, for some babies, comforting every few minutes stimulates them and prevents them from going to sleep. I believe this is true for my daughter. When she sees me come in, she smiles and thinks it's playtime. My husband and I picked 20 minutes as a time limit, and she fell asleep after 10. The thing is, if she falls asleep after 20 minutes, that's less total crying than if you leave her in her cot for an hour and visit her every 2-3 minutes, if you see what I mean? I would add that my daughter does not scream blue murder she just whines and fusses, with tears and I'm not sure I would leave her if she were really screaming.

If you prefer to stick with the periodic comforing, have you tried having your partner go in instead of you? Maybe on weekends, in hope that she'll get used to the idea and by Monday will need less comforting? I find my presence is really stimulating, probably because of feeding, and I cannot comfort her without a feed. My husband can comfort her with singing and rocking, though.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advise girls, very interesting reading. Will try the pushchair thing, she does love having a nap when we go shopping (we walk). I just need time to do some housework lol.

Teapot - She is really screaming and sobbing, if it in whining I can ignore that but this is full on wailing. I think I am missing the cues, but she is such a little madam I start to cuddle her and all she wants to do is sit up, then it becomes a battle of wills and she is over tierd.

I thik my biggest problem is I love her having a nap (as I get some rest) and it is all to easy to continue as it. My partner got her to nap for 40 minutes today in her cot while I had my hair done, then this afternoon she grabbed her blanky while playing on the floor and started to snuggle, but then the music for "Deal or No Deal" came on and that was that lol (she loves that programme !)