nap time HELP

[Ruby2]

I am a little beside myself today...

I work full time away from home. My lovely 6 mo dd used to be a great sleeper and very easy to put down for naps during the day. She would fall asleep while having her bottle and be *fairly* easy to lay down in bed to sleep. At times her naps lasted up to three hours two times a day (this NEVER happened while I was at home of course!). Things have regressed horribly over the past three weeks though. She is so much more aware of what is happening around her and NEVER falls asleep while eating any more. Even at night when I'm home to nurse her, I've had to get out of bed (we cosleep) and nurse her standing up while bouncing up and down to get her to drift off. Even then I can't unlatch her and lay her down beside me without waking her back up. I have to let her stay latched on for a good 30 minutes before she's deep enough in her sleep to unlatch her.

When I'm not home, she's driving my mom to tears and the other babysitter crazy trying to get the child to sleep. She displays very obvious signs of being tired - rubbing her eyes, yawning, leaning her head against their chests - but when they try to bounce/rock/jiggle/sing her to sleep she fights them with every ounce of energy that she has. They try giving up and letting her play for another 30 minutes or so, but the same routine is repeated. I witnessed it this weekend when my mom tried to give me a break while we were visiting her. Dd cries SO HARD, and tries to sit up repeatedly. My mom says that yesterday it took 15 minutes of hard crying in her arms before dd finally gave up and went to sleep. Mom called me aftwards beside herself, she was so upset and didn't know what to do. She doesn't want to feel like she's torturing dd to get her to sleep, but she needs to sleep! She's down to only an hour or 90 minutes naps three or four times a day because even once she's asleep, she doesn't stay asleep as long as she used to. The entire day is starting to be centered around nap drama.

I don't know what to tell her! What can I do??? Should I be doing something differently when I'm home? How can I make this easier on everyone?

If anyone has any btdt words of wisdom, I'd love to hear them...I just feel so sad.

[NSmomtobe]

I'm sorry I have no words of wisdom. Lately my son has been acting the same way at night (I have to walk him, screaming and struggling, in my MT for 15-30+ min before he falls asleep). During the day, he falls asleep eating (on my lap) or in the car or the MT, but he wakes up screaming if we try to move him. ETA: He's asleep on my lap right now, so I am debating whether or not i need to get up and have breakfast.

I blame teething for most of the crying and give him Tylenol if it takes him longer than an hour to settle down. But I just picked up a naturopathic teething remedy yesterday that I will try the next time I have trouble getting him to sleep (surprisingly, he nursed to sleep easily last night for a change).

[SeekingJoy]

Originally Posted by Ruby2

... She's down to only an hour or 90 minutes naps three or four times a day because even once she's asleep, she doesn't stay asleep as long as she used to. The entire day is starting to be centered around nap drama.

For a 6 month old, two naps of an hour and a half naps should be fine. Is she not getting enough sleep at night?

Teething might also be the culprit if this is a sudden change.

[Addie]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

For a 6 month old, two naps of an hour and a half naps should be fine. Is she not getting enough sleep at night?

I thought this, too. Even this shortened schedule of "an hour or 90 minutes naps three or four times a day" seems like an awful lot, IMHO. From what I've read, a lot of babies around six months can settle into a routine of two naps - one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon. Maybe she's trying to tell you that she doesn't need as many naps?

[Ruby2]

Good point about the number of naps...she's only napping once or twice during the day. When my dh gets home from work mid-afternoon she's often ready for another one though. Just very obviously tired.

She does only get about eight hours of solid sleep at night though. This is something that we're trying to get better at, but we get up early (around 5) and she is almost always awake on her own at around 6. Even on the weekends when I'm it bed with her, she rarely sleeps after 7. We all go to bed around 9. Lately I've been laying down with her around 8 if she doesn't get that third nap because she's exhausted.

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by Ruby2

Good point about the number of naps...she's only napping once or twice during the day. When my dh gets home from work mid-afternoon she's often ready for another one though. Just very obviously tired.

She does only get about eight hours of solid sleep at night though. This is something that we're trying to get better at, but we get up early (around 5) and she is almost always awake on her own at around 6. Even on the weekends when I'm it bed with her, she rarely sleeps after 7. We all go to bed around 9. Lately I've been laying down with her around 8 if she doesn't get that third nap because she's exhausted.

I agree with the PP's that she is probably trying to drop a nap. I would focus on just having her take 2 naps a day. My DS was always a sleep fighter, blackout curtains and white noise worked wonders for getting him to sleep. You say she is getting a solid 8 hours at night? Does that mean she sleeps an entire 8 hour stretch? Or is it only 8 hours total she is getting? If she is sleeping a solid 8 hours, that is amazing. My DS just started doing that recently and he is almost 2. At 6 months (and all of his first year+) he was waking every hour or more all night. If it is only 8 hours total, maybe try putting her to bed earlier at night. Skip the 3rd nap, put her down around 7-8 for the night.

[Ruby2]

[QUOTE=LadyCatherine185;15600681] You say she is getting a solid 8 hours at night? Does that mean she sleeps an entire 8 hour stretch? QUOTE]

Ha! No, she has never slept more than about 4 hours straight in her life! :-) When she does wake in the night though, it's not truly waking up, just tossing and turning to find me and nurse, then we both go back to sleep. Usually this happens three time or so during the 8 hours.

[Knitting Mama]

I would highly suggest trying to get her to go to sleep earlier, like 7 or so. If she can sleep for 11-12 hours she'll have a lot happier time during the day when she only takes 2 naps.

[cristeen]

I agree with the pps - 2 naps a day should be fine, but get her to bed earlier. My 9 mo goes to bed at 8, and is up by 6 most day. But there have been days when he's gone to bed as early as 6 and still is up at 6 (that's about dawn here).

As for the fighting sleep thing - you kinda have to find what works for you... although I agree that teething may be contributing to the problem. Does she/will she sleep in the car? While being worn in an upright position? While teething, the actual act of laying down is painful, but if they can be supported in an upright position, the pain is less and they can often fall asleep easier (if it's really bad, ibuprofen can also do the trick). If that doesn't work - right around that time I had to start swaddling my DS for naps again. Just because life was so fascinating (and it still is at 9 mos, but we've managed to get past the swaddle). I'd swaddle him tight, lay down with him and give him his bottle to get him to sleep. Sometimes even that wasn't enough, and stroking his forehead in a downward motion stimulates the eye closure reflex. Doing it repetitively can convince him to keep them closed. Sometimes I had to lay my forearm across his eyes. Sometimes I had to employ all 5 "S's" (Happiest Baby on the Block).

If nothing else works, I either put him in the car and go for a drive, pop him in the stroller and go for a walk, or put him in the MT on my back and go for a walk. He will invariably be asleep before we get home - and I just take it to mean that he needed to get out of the house for a bit, get some fresh air/change of scenery.

[texmati]

is there some sort of naptime routine. Our naps are terrible, and we don't have a routine, but it's the advice that's most often given to me.

dh does try and read the same book 'baa, baa, bedtime' just so ds knows what's going on (I'm trying to put you to sleep!)

[dahlialia]

DD1 was a terrible napper around that age. What ultimately worked was to go for a drive in the car. DH would take her for a drive on a bumpy dirt road, then pull over and nap himself, or work, when she fell asleep. IIRC we did that for a few months! She wouldn't fall asleep in the stroller either, but I know that works for some.

If it were me I would consider whether her nighttime sleep needs to be longer. Both of my kids have slept 11-12 hours of nighttime sleep at that age. If she is waking around 6 or 7, she could need to be having bedtime somewhere between 6 and 8. My kids never slept later in the morning, even if they needed the sleep.