Author Topic: 6 month old won't nap!  (Read 6188 times)

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Offline bethi

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6 month old won't nap!
« on: November 10, 2009, 15:20:39 pm »
My DD has been giving me fits with napping.  She has been refusing her morning nap most days, which has of course made the afternoons difficult as well.  Here's my goal.

7:30  wake up/bf
9-9:30  down for nap
11:30  wake up/bf/solids
1-1:30 down for nap
3:30 wake up/bf
third nap if needed
6:00 solids, followed by bath some nights
7:30 bf/bedtime
10:30  df

Here's my problem(s).  First, she started "regularly" sleeping through the night late, about 5 1/2 months.  At 6 months, she started waking up to eat again at 4.  A week later, she's still waking up demanding food, although the time has been creeping back to 5-5:30am - which means she's not hungry when she wakes up.  When her eyelids start drooping, I take her in, rock her, and sing songs until she's good and drowsy, then put her in bed.  She starts fussing a bit, then usually stops within about 10 minutes - and starts playing.  She'll play for an hour or so, then start yelling for me.  She doesn't mantra cry that I can tell, she either fusses or screams like she's being axe-murdered.  At this point, I go in and try pu/pd;  usually it takes about 45 minutes of pu/pd, settling her, I leave the room, then within a few minutes she screams and we start over.  This pattern repeats whether her A time is an hour or 2 1/2 hours.  If she does finally go down, it's usually either in the few seconds/minutes that I've picked her up or she tries to latch on through my shirt so I feed her again, since she didn't get a good feed when she woke up.  Otherwise, I get sick of the screaming that starts whenever I put her down and give up on the nap and let her get up, since it's almost time for her next feed anyway.  By this point, I'm exhausted and most of the morning is gone.  She usually takes a semi-decent (1-2 hour) nap around 1 with DS, but is usually OT by this point so getting her down is a disaster again.  She rarely naps in the evening (unless her afternoon nap continues into evening) but usually goes to bed with fewer problems.  She's also learning to crawl, so most of her A time is floor time or playing with big brother (age 2) and his friends.

Any suggestions?

Beth

Offline chelled17

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2009, 15:52:55 pm »
Hey Beth, (((HUGS)))
Napping is tough on us, I would love to be a baby and sleep 3 times a day ;) But they just don't get it.

Not too much advice here. But have you tried to extend her A time for a few days.

My DS is younger than your LO and his A times are much longer, and I've got a feeling I'm gonna be extending them again soon ;)
His morning A time is 2 hrs 25 minutes, followed by his other 2 A times of 2 hrs 10 minutes.  You can generally tell it's a good A time by how "easy" it is to put them down for a nap.

What does your routine look like now? a lot of 45 minute naps or less?




Michelle
Nevaeh 4 years old
Lincoln 2 years old

Offline bethi

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2009, 15:59:21 pm »
Well, here's today so far.  Woke up at 5:15 to eat, nursed from one side only.  Awake at 7:30 when I went in to get DS up for school, bf at 7:40 and 8:20 (one side each, had to work around getting DS on the bus).  By 8:30, her eyelids were drooping, so we did wind-down.  She played until 9:15, then started the fuss/scream/play cycle.  I finally got her to sleep about 10:15;  now it's 11, and talking outside her room woke her up and she's fussing.  At this point, I'm struggling to get any sort of consistency, but she usually does well at the afternoon nap.

Offline Adaias mom

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2009, 16:04:12 pm »
I would say your A times definately look on the short side. At 6mths you should be looking at around 2.5hrs extending to 2.5 - 3hrs at 6.5mths - 7mths.

I would say try extending your first A time by 10 - 15 mins for 3 days and see if this helps. If it doesn't try adding another 5 - 10 mins onto the same A time. again 3 days later hopefully you'll see some benefit. Then you'll find his right A time and then extend the second A time in much the same way.

What type of baby is she....just that most textbook babies will show tired signs at their old A time. When she shows tired signs, try changing her scenery for a few mins, keep it low key to avoid OT, and see if you can extend it. Be sure to try and avoid OT though.

HTH

Offline bethi

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2009, 02:23:30 am »
You guys are absolute geniuses!  I kept her up a full 2 hours each A time, and the routine was smooth as silk - until 2 year old DS woke her up at bedtime (she'd gone down early, since she needed a catnap and didn't get one).  That was an hour ago and she's still not back down.  But I'm hopeful that things will be much better from here!  Thanks so much!

Offline chelled17

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2009, 03:02:03 am »
Good to hear Beth, I'm glad things are working out for you ;)
Michelle
Nevaeh 4 years old
Lincoln 2 years old

Offline Adaias mom

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2009, 10:34:13 am »
Yeah! Glad to hear things are improving! Hugs xxx

Offline bethi

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2009, 17:51:03 pm »
OK, I need help again.  She turns 7 months today, and here's a good approximation of our routine

7:30   bf
9ish  solids
10:30-10:45 put down for nap, screams for a while and falls asleep 11-11:15
11:45ish  wakes up, bf
1ish  solids
2:45  bf - either she falls asleep nursing or stays awake until 3-3:15
4:30-4:45  wakes up
6-6:30 solids
7:30 bedtime

She's now mastered crawling and pulling up, and wants to stand all the time so she can walk (holding on to our fingers).  This routine has been as good as I could get since we went to visit relatives over Thanksgiving.  (We got back last Sunday night.)  She's back at the 30 minute naps, so I've tried extending A time, with little or no success.  I think it's starting to look like she's ready to transition to one nap - but she's only 7 months!!!  Isn't that too early?  I also think she's starting to develop some separation anxiety, because she does NOT like it when I leave the room. Thoughts?

Beth

Offline Adaias mom

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Re: 6 month old won't nap!
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2009, 19:39:29 pm »
Hey Beth,

Hold on there with the thinking of the 2 - 1 transition. 30 mins naps usually mean OT, and if your lo has just mastered crawling then she is going to tire quickly now she is moving around more so i would try cutting back the A time by 15 mins and see how she gets on. I would say try putting her down at 1015, with lots of reassurance, and see how she gets on.

It is either that she is going down too late so is already OT, finding it mega hard to settle herself so taking so long that she is then mega OT when she finally goes to sleep, or she is going down UT, telling you this and then taking so long to settle herself that she ends up OT when she finally goes off.

I would try cutting back the A time for the first nap for 3 days, give it 3 days and see is she improves at all.

Remeber when they start moving A times can reduce due to how tiring it can be moving around.

What do you think? Hugs and well done to your clever LO. xxx