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How do you get your babies to nap?

21 replies

muddylettuce · 15/12/2013 10:06

Just that really. DD needs two naps a day. When I say need, I mean she's a real pain in the arse whinger unless she has a 40 minute nap twice a day. I don't understand why she fights sleep?!
She used to nap in her bouncer or fall asleep cuddling me. Now she is bigger, 7 months, and we have replaced the lovely bouncer with a rocker, she is a bugger to get to sleep. I can't cuddle her to sleep like I could when she was small and getting her to sleep in the rocker is traumatic. She screams and twists and vocalises for ages until, sometimes she falls asleep. Other times I relent, take her out and power through until her next feed when she might fall asleep on me or I go out with the pram or jump in the car. We have no issues at night, she bf's, sometimes falls asleep but mostly she goes down semi awake, we sit by her cot until she falls asleep and she will then sleep through.
I've never been able to get her to nap in her cot and to be honest that wouldn't be ideal. Daddy works nights and often has to sleep during the day. The nursery is next to our room and if there were hysterics up there like we have down here it would wake him. Having said that, if it meant she would sleep after a bit of 'training' I'd try it.
Would love to know what you guys do at naptime?

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haloflo · 15/12/2013 12:52

She might need quiet to nap & to be away from her toys. In your shoes I'd take her for a walk twice a day and park her up when home and enjoy the rest. Eventually you will probably find a pattern and that she needs less and less motion to drop off.

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muddylettuce · 15/12/2013 14:39

Haloflo, we usually do just that. I time the dog walk around her and if I can any outings in the car. Most days it works but today, I feel awful with a cold and I don't particularly want to walk round in the rain! In the end I bf her to skeep then carefully put her down in the rocker. That's one out of the way and daddy is about to take her our for walkies so she can have nap number two and so I can rest. I guess I wondered how other people do it and why babies fight it when they are obviously tired!

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muddylettuce · 15/12/2013 14:39

Skeep, what's skeep?! sleep.

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sebsmummy1 · 15/12/2013 14:43

See I was going to suggest napping in a cot but can see that won't work for you, would a travel cot downstairs in a quiet room work? Or would your husband still be able to hear?

If you're asking for personal examples then I got into a routine with my son where he had at least one good nap in his cot, usually two, but sometimes we are out and it'd not possible.

For me if he was exhausted but nothing was working I would pop him in his Ergo and go for a walk. He would always drop off and at least I knew he would get about 30 mins. This was perfect in the very early months when he was on three naps a day and would fight that last one like mad!!

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muddylettuce · 15/12/2013 15:43

sebsmummy I could try it when daddy wasn't on nights so if she screams the place down it won't affect him. Is that what you do?

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sebsmummy1 · 15/12/2013 19:20

Hi muddy.

My son always cries himself to sleep but it's not screaming, it's more grumbling for a fee minutes then he settles and starts singing to himself.

Consistency is important so if I was advising you without the complication of your husband sleeping in the day. I would say a pop her down for a nap around 2 hours after she wakes in the morning, then another nap after lunch. My son has been in the same routine now since about five months old, maybe four. He has his first nap at around 9.30am and his second about 2.30pm.

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sheeplikessleep · 15/12/2013 19:28

Watching with interest and marking my place.
Ds3 is 16 weeks old and catnaps a couple of times a day.
He is tired, but every time input him down (asleep) he wakes up within minutes. Then he gets so tired, that he won't let me put him down to play (screams), but won't sleep on me.
Agh!!

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sebsmummy1 · 15/12/2013 20:22

Sheep I definitely didn't have a routine at 16 weeks, they are just too little. DS would feed around every three hours in the day and in the evening was still cluster feeding till about 10pm when we would both go to bed together.

It was at around 4 months that I was able to start popping him into his cot at 7pm and then we would do two or three feeds in the night. In the day he was generally sleeping in his pram, car seat or sling.

I would get myself stressed as he really didn't nap that well by comparison to other babies we would socialise with. But nowadays he sleeps beautifully. So what they do in the early stages is certainly not indicative of how they will be later on.

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justsodamntired · 16/12/2013 06:58

I found the inbetween age really difficult too but I think the cot might be best bet. I tried putting DS down for a nap in his cot once every few weeks or so and one time he just went for it and was fine from there on in. I suppose what I'm trying to say is its easy to not try something cos it hasn't worked in the past but it'll suddenly just happen.

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neversleepagain · 16/12/2013 14:24

Associating their cot with sleep from early on is important IMO. Cot, dark room, comforter/cuddly toy = all associations with sleep if done all the time and from early on.

Cat napping means the baby never actually goes into a deep sleep and they wont feel refreshed and ready for the next part of the day. Also, poor day time sleep often results in bad night time sleep.

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muddylettuce · 17/12/2013 16:49

Tried the cot today when she started getting grumpy. Fail. I have the added complication of teething and a cold at the moment though. She did nap in her bouncer this morning and then again in the car so not all was lost. Will keep trying as she is usually a good sleeper in her cot.

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WhateverLove · 17/12/2013 17:47

Quick question! When you put them in their cot, what if they don't go off?

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LittleMilla · 17/12/2013 19:25

I'm now on my second little boy that doesn't nap particularly well in the cot - pushchair is the fave followed by car seat. He's now 5 months.

Having seen it with DS1 I am just going with it this time...I can assure you that it's better having a child that naps well in the pushchair vs always having to be home for a big nap! It means that we're much free-er in the day than many of our friends.

Saying that, I do try and do the first nap in the cot if we're not heading out. Although most days we are up and out for 9am as DS1 goes slightly mental if we're not! On his nursery days though I'll usually put DS2 in the cot after about 1.5-2 hours after waking. Found that feeding him first (if he's slept through and is ravenous!!) means he goes down better.

He also has a sucky/blankie thing and I sing the same song before he goes to sleep.

He will also grumble/moan a fair bit and I'd say we have about a 70% success rate [rate]

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santachristmas · 18/12/2013 12:52

Walk, walk, walk and walk some more, at least that's what I had to do, in all weathers, until DTs got to about 1 and magically learned to sleep in their cots!

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cantthinkofagoodone · 18/12/2013 12:58

Try a nap routine. I still used awake times at 7 months so an eat, wake sleep routine (kind of like EASY).

So, upstairs to bedroom, cuddle, book, sleeping bag and then put down to sleep and settle in her cot. Repeat at every nap that you're at home for.

If you're down to 2 naps then try the 2-3-4 routine of 2 hours awake, then nap, 3 hours awake, then nap and then finally 4 hours awake then bedtime.

It doesn't really sound as though she's getting enough sleep though and I expect that this is because she can't self soothe or is over stimulated and overtired.

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Cnix · 18/12/2013 17:25

My dd wouldn't sleep in her cot for naps until she was about nine months and we had to put up with a lot of protesting until she got the hang of it. Now she goes down no problem ( 16 months) and practically dives into her cot at nap time she loves it so much and I never thought I'd be saying that!

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muddylettuce · 19/12/2013 09:34

I read somewhere on here that a baby will only take 45 minutes to go to sleep. Utter rubbish! I tried nap in her cot this morning two hours after she woke up. She grumbled for 55 minutes before I relented because it was feed time again. Will try again later for afternoon nap...bah.

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muddylettuce · 19/12/2013 13:49

Scrap the afternoon nap in her cot. I'm cuddling the sleeping beauty on the sofa while she sleeps. This is because she looks cute she needs to be upright because of her cold. Poor sniffly coughing baby Smile.

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tinierclanger · 19/12/2013 13:54

Buggy or sling here! DC1 would only nap in a moving buggy. We all consider DC2 a much easier baby as you can just wheel her round the block and then park up inside. :)

I think DC1 started napping on sofa or in his bed from about age 2.

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minipie · 19/12/2013 16:54

2 hours seems quite quick muddlylettuce. I'm wondering if you need to give her longer awake time?

My DD is a sleep fighter and at 6 months old she would have a 30 min nap at 9am (2.5hrs after waking), 2ish hrs at 12.30 (3-3.5 hours after waking) and sometimes a short (20 min) nap at about 4.30/5pm. So definitely longer than 2 hours awake.

Always have had to get her to sleep using moving buggy though. She would go to sleep in the cot but would always wake up after 30 mins. for some reason she sleeps longer in the pram. When it's raining I rock the pram in the hallway.

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muddylettuce · 20/12/2013 19:20

I always wait until she shows signs of being tired, eye rubbing, whinging etc. Sometimes it's two hours after waking, sometimes more, today it was 3. I haven't tried the cot for naps today. I need inner strength for that and she's full of cold and not sleeping great at night so, taking the easy route for now!

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