Daytime napping probs. w/ 7mth. old
Moms View Message Board: Parenting Discussion: Archive January-June 2005:
Daytime napping probs. w/ 7mth. old
Hi everyone,
I'll try to be as concise as possible with this! 7mth old dd: always slept well at night, no problems. Never been one that liked to be rocked to sleep during the day. Up until about a month ago, just walk and talk a little with her when sleepy, lay her in her bed or swing and right to sleep. BUT..for the last 3-4 wks or so her refusal to sleep during the day has gotten terrible to say the least. It's like she has an internal clock set for 25-30 min. and she's awake and unhappy because she's still so tired. FIGHTS sleep like you wouldn't believe, then sleeps such a short time and wakes up still unhappy and unrefreshed. Afterward she's whiney, needy, can't get satisfied with any toys for very long, and really grumpy in general. It's getting to the point now where she is just a mess for the most of the day it seems. It's really wearing me down! I know that babies change sleeping patterns at milestones and she is more mobile..not crawling yet but between rolling, turning, and scooting she gets where she needs to go for the most part. If she was napping so short and just wanting to play I'd be fine with that, but she's so unhappy when she wakes up and for a long time after. Sometimes she wants to be rocked, but often with me she doesn't anymore. My hubby can rock her to sleep in 5 min. however, and if she's held while napping she'll sleep an hour and a half or so and she's a wonderful baby again! Right now she is taking (3) 30 min. naps a day, one in the early evening (which hasn't affected her bedtime sleeping) but we have to cut her off and wake her up and that makes her grouchy, too. But if we don't give her the early evening nap there's no way to make until bedtime between 8-8:30.
My questions: Do any of you have this same prob. with yours close to this age? What have you done? Do you ever give early evening naps and do you think that's hurting more than helping? I don't want to hold her during naps but I'm getting to the point that I'll do it if it helps her to have a better more restful day!
Can you 'train' napping? Could I help to get in a better napping zone if I did hold her during naps for a few days or would I just make the problem worse? ANY thoughts would be much appreciated!!
Deanna,
I'm not sure but I think you are right when you say their sleeping patterns change. DS was sleeping through the night from 9 pm - 7 am up until about 7 months and now wakes up anywhere from 3:30 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. for a quick nursing session. Today he took a 1/2 hour nap and was cranky all afternoon.
I noticed that his sleep pattern seems to really be affected by teething, when he's teething he has a tough time and when he's not he sleeps well. How many teeth does your DD have?
Someone on another thread suggested a book called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. I have one of her other books called "Gentle Baby Care" which is a great book. I orderd the No-Cry Sleep Solution today, I'll let you know if it's good.
Check out the topic "Help - Need Advice" under Parenting someone else mentions sleep problems with a 7 month old and there's lots of advice there. Good luck.
She doesn't have any teeth yet and I know that she's teething. She sleeps from 8 or 8:30pm- 7:30-8am 98% of the time. Every once in a while she'll get up around 4am and need help back to sleep, but nighttime sleeping is good for her. The day naps are rough!!!!
You say she is taking 3 naps a day...what I would try doing is skip the morning nap. After lunch, (even if that means moving lunch up a bit in time)put her down for a nap and then see if that one might be long enough to end the evening nap and make bedtime earlier. I believe around that age, dd got up about 7am and then ate lunch around 11:30 and slept from about 12ish until about 2:30 to 3 and then bedtime about 7:30....
Unless you want to make holding her during naps a habit, I wouldn't even start it!! Just my opinion on that though!! If it is something you don't mind doing daily, go for it!!
Vicki- I totally agree about the holding thing, that's why I don't want to do it!
We have done a later nap like you suggested...around 11:30-ish instead of 10 or 10:30. She just won't sleep longer than 30 minutes. On those days, then she takes another nap around 4:30 or so which is only 30 min. again. On those days she only takes 2 naps, but she is a grouch most of the day because she's tired and you can see it on her face. I've tried keeping her up longer at a time, we've done music, rocking, dark, quiet...it just baffles me because she used to have no problems with day naps.
Have you tried Tylenol? If she's teething, she might be in a little pain. Rylee did this too, I think all kids go through it. I gave her Tylenol, and sometimes just with that she would fall asleep, but other times, I drove her around in the car and she fell asleep. Good luck, and I hope things get better.
I'm thinking along the same line as Rayanne. Could there be some physical discomfort keeping her up? Could a new food not be agreeing with her?
One of the first signs that my son's reflux was back was that he would lay down to sleep for only 20 or 30 min and would wake up screaming.
Teething, gas, heartburn - these little ones really go through a lot.
Hugs to you.
Ame
I bought the No-Cry Sleep Solution book and it was a wonderful book. I would recommend you buy you it. There are people in the book that have said that the author's methods have worked wonders. I am only half way through it so I have not tried anything that she has said. My daughter is also 7 months and having problems with naps and she still sleeps with us so I bought the book to try and get her in the crib. If you cannot find the book Amazon has it. I found mine at Waldenbooks. Hope this helps for you.
Check out the babywhisperer.com message board - some really good info on sleep. There is a natural awakening period at 30m.
Could your baby be overtired? A baby that is overtired has trouble getting to and maintaining sleep.
HTH.
Amy
For my 7 mo old, sometimes I have to "up" his food amount and give more solids. He also has needed a blanket/pacifier and we use this crib aquarium thing that seems to help lull him to sleep.
He has a nap from 9:15-10:30am and then again at around 12:30-1:30 and then 3:30-4:30 and (sometimes) he'll nap at 6pm-7pm which doesn't seem to upset his nighttime sleep.
You know, when they're tired you can't do much...you just let them sleep. My dad used to try to tell me that the 6pm-7pm nap was bad for his nighttime sleep. But I knew better...he just didn't like sleeping in his portable crib. He's a "mover" while he sleeps and bumps into the side quite frequently which wakes him up. He just loves his crib to sleep in.
Hope the beginning part of this advice helped!
Thanks a lot everyone...same napping probs as before this week, but not grumpy. Just mellow and low key because she's still tired. I DO think there were some teething issues last week (although still no teeth yet.)
She just has a 30 min. clock for naps...the days that somehow she sleeps more - like in the car from being out and about yesterday I left her in the car to sleep - she wakes up so full of herself and raring to go. I have NOT held her for a nap since late last week. 2-3 30min. naps per day is just hard because I don't feel like I get any breaks! When she was younger at night we did the CIO method and it worked well for her. I have tried that for naps and DOESN'T WORK, pick up/put down...I can get her back to sleep this week but as soon as she's down again it's 5 minutes and she's awake.
Someone mentioned something about being 'overtired' and that's a good point...For a while during all of this I waited until she showed me she was tired (rubbing eyes, whiney, wanted paci, etc.), then I went back to just trying to put her down after 3 hours regardless of the way she was acting. She's so stubborn! I'm hoping she outgrows this but she may never - yikes!
The website given above shows lots of people with the same problems so I don't feel so alone, but according to the site, average 6-9mth old sleeps 2-2 1/2 hrs per day and 12 at night. Mine is 1 hr/day and 11-12 at night, and has really tired bouts during the day.
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