7 month old refusing naps - help!

[fabulosa]

Over the past month DS2, now 7 months, has become increasingly unsettled, waking in the night having previously been sleeping for 11-12 hours and refusing any kind of a daytime nap. Before hitting the 6 month mark he would reliably have about 2 hours in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. Overnight this went down to about 10 hours at night with 1-2 wake ups and no daytime naps at all. He's been able to cope like this for about a month but it's beginning to take its toll now and he's increasingly bad tempered and screamy as the days go on.

I spoke to the HV about it and she suggested that the night time wakings could be about him waking up and being so alert that he needs to go through the whole bedtime routine again (up, feed, back in cot, tucked in) to get back to sleep. This made sense to me and I'm attempting to tweak the bedtime routine so that he can get himself back off to sleep without me having to get up to him (this tweaking has taken the form of giving him a teddy to have in bed as his sleep prop, I hope that will be enough!). However, it doesn't solve the refusal to nap problem. Should I try to instigate a nap routine for the days? Will it pass on its own once the phase of furious mental development is over (he's learning to sit up and to crawl at the moment)? Any wise mums out there with words of wisdom or support? Please help as I'm about to go mad!

Thanks

Hello, I've just read your post as I am going through exactly the same thing with my 7mth DS. Did changing the sleep routine work (the teddy as sleep prop) and did you get better day time naps?

Just having a quick read. It sounds like the shortened night sleep and wake up are because DS isn't getting enough day sleep due to lack of naps. Also lack of naps make it harder to sleep properly at night etc etc.

When my DS hasn't been sleeping well at night I put him to bed an hour earlier than normal. I resettle him when he wakes at night (just pick up, cuddle and then back in the cot while I pat/rub his back. Unless he needs a feed). And I get him to nap by any means possible - so 90mins/2 hours after his morning wake up and keep him awake no more than two hours. The aim is to get him to catch up on lost sleep.

After about a week it gets better then naps and night sleep becomes easier and he doesn't need to go to bed early.

My DS is 7 months and has been more tired! There have been a lot of early bedtimes!

Hi, thanks for your replies. I think (hardly dare hope emoticon!) that we have fixed it for now. I realised that the whole waking in the night and refusing naps thing started at exactly the same time that I started messing around with his milk feeds (I moved them from every 4 hours with some food a bit later to mid morning and mid afternoon). When I changed back about a week ago he slept through the night. Immediately. I'm still putting him in with the teddy but he doesn't seem to notice it. I'll continue though as I'd like him to have a good sleep prop as it will certainly help with naps.

Naps are slowly getting back on track, I hope. He's had a cold which doesn't help and there have been a couple of days where I've had to take him out in the puschchair to get him to sleep. This morning I left him to scream in his cot and he went off to sleep after about 5 minutes. I knew he was tired and going in to him would just agitate him more. He's not the most cuddly baby and won't go to sleep on me, he seems to find the closeness to another person more stimulating.

Igglybuff, I think you're absolutely right about getting overtired, particularly as at 7 months they start getting more active (DS has discovered commando crawling and is determined to discover the whole world!) Sleep in the day certainly seems to help them be more relaxed at night. When DS wakes at night I just feed him which seems to work (I know they say not to do that but it works for us). As I mentioned before, as he doesn't seem to find cuddles relaxing I'm not sure how well that would work for us. Anyway, as his night sleep seems to have improved so much since changing the daytime milk feeds back to how they were pre-weaning I hope it won't be too much of a problem!

Great news fabulosa! My DS decided to wake many many times last night.... Kept finding him on his hands and knees - he too has discovered commando crawling!!

I'm finding this weaning a nightmare - messing with DS, making him windy and constipated and if he has something which disagrees with him, it really unsettled him.

Hi Igglybuff, sorry to hear that weaning's not going too well. How is he if you don't give him too much food and put the emphasis more on milk. As I mentioned in my earlier post this seems (for now anyway) to have helped put things back on to a bit more of an even keel. He still eats, not a huge amount, but seems to enjoy it.

How are your baby's naps? Are they affected too? I think that DS is getting horrendously overtired, particularly now he's more active, but is really struggling to maintain the whole nap thing. He's gone down this morning but I don't know how long for. He also won't nap in the afternoon: a quick snooze in the pushchair or car seat but if he goes in the cot he just screams! Perhaps this will improve once he realises that the world will still be there when he wakes up, he doesn't have to explore it all now!

Hi fabulosa! He's much better if I cut down on the solids - so I've been doing that and offering milk before any meal. I'll aim for him to start eating meals properly from about 9 months I think.

Yes his naps are terrible at the moment. The bags under his eyes are growing by the minute I have to put him to bed an hour earlier to help him catch up. I have a similar problem with the cot. He'll fall asleep on me (provided we're in a dark room) but as soon as he goes near the cot, he's on all fours checking things out He also wont sleep more than 45 mins! Although he did manage 90 mins last week as we had him in the sling. However he's far too heavy to do that every day. He doesn't sleep in the buggy or carseat for more than 20 mins.

Fingers crossed things get better for our boys! My DS is so nosy and loves checking out the world but being overtired, he just ends up moaning and wants me to carry him around to assist with his explorations!

Sorry, that was a long ramble!!

I think it must just be part of being the age they are - growing awareness of the world and ability to explore it, but still needing lots of rest just osn't a great combination. I'm repeating the mantra to myself, 'it's just a phase, it will pass' over and over again!