9 months old- Naps are such a struggle....

[Mummydownunder]

Hi There,

Can anyone offer any advise on why my LO has become so difficult to settle for naps? She is 9 months old and teething. She has been crawling for the last 5 weeks. When I put her down for her naps she really fusses. She stands up in her cot so we go through the whole stand up, lay back down routine but she just gets more and more upset. The last couple of days she has gotten herself so worked up after crying for about 30 mins that she has ended up sobbing which breaks my heart. At this stage I give in and let her fall to sleep in my arms!!.

Our routine looks like this:-
6.00 wake
6.15 bottle
7.15 breakfast
8.30 nap (anywhere from 30mins to 1 hour)

9.30 wake
10.15 lunch

12.00 nap -takes about 45 mins to settle her then she'll sleep max 1 hour

1.30-1.45 wake (depending on how long it has taken to settle her
2.15 bottle

4.30 catnap (30 mins max)

6.00 bath
6.30 bottle 6.45 bed (pretty easy to settle for bed

If we are out and about for her second nap she will sleep in the car or stroller for an hour no problem. Because she only sleeps a max of 2 hours over 2 naps I still try and get her to catnap for 30 mins late afternoon so she doesn't get overtired.

Thanks,
Victoria

[Mummydownunder]

Update- finally got DD to sleep at 12.45 pm - she woke up at 1.15 pm!!!! no chance of getting her back to sleep!!!!

[claires mum]

Hi Victoria

Teething and crawling are developmental issues that can really affect sleep routines.  So it could just be a phase. 

However after reviewing your routine, my initial impression is that your LO is probably OT by the time she's put to bed.  Do you think this could be the case?  At 9 months, most bubs still need 3 hours sleep per day (some more, some less - this is just an average).  It can be split a number of ways:

1) 2* 1.5 hour naps (9.30-11.00, 2-3.30, bed at 6.30/7)  This works for my DD who is 9.5 months
2) 2* 1.5 hour naps (9-10.30, 1-2.30) + an afternoon bridging nap (4.15pm for 20 minutes)
3) 45 min nap (morning and afternoon) + 1.5 hour lunchtime nap

I also started to re-swaddle my DD once she started crawling - more as a sleep training device - just to keep her still in her cot so that she could fall asleep. 

Another tip I've picked up is to try not to feed your LO before 6.30 am - as their bodies start to prepare for this first feed one REM sleep cycle prior (ie. 40 minutes before 6.30am).  So if you're feeding at 6.15 - then your LO will be starting to stir just after 5.30am.   

This is my routine:

6.30 wake
7.00 BF
7.30 Solids
Activity
9.30 Sleep for 1.5 hours

11.00 Solids and BF
Activity

2.00 Sleep for 1.5 hours
3.30  BF
Activity

5.30 Solids
6.30 Bottle and Bedtime

My DD was a terrible day time sleeper - but this routine has really helped day and night sleeps and she doesn't fuss/scream when I take her into her cot anymore.

Hope this helps...keep us posted on what's working/not working for you.

Claire's Mum

[mommy2mason]

Hello,
My lo's almost 7 mo. so I haven't been through this age yet...but the only thing I thought of when you said she isn't settling for naps is that maybe she's ready for an increase in Awake time before her nap?
My ds has never been a great napper (chronic 45min napper). We've recently increased his A time to about 2h 45min. and got rid of the catnap and it's working great. His naps are 1.5-2 hours....I never thought the day would come!

[Layla]

I was also going to say that maybe its time to increase A times & get rid of the catnap so aim for:

6am - wake
9-10.30 - am nap
1.30-3pm - pm nap
6.30pm - bedtime

Try adding 15mins every couple of days.

Good luck!
Layla

[Mummydownunder]

Thank you ladies for all your advise....definitely OT, DD was up at 5.25 am today!!! I managed to get her to snooze until 6.00 am. She had her morning bottle at 6.30 and breakfast at 7.20. Will aim to keep her up until 9.00 am.

However, if I start to increase her A time will that not make her even more OT? Do I need to ensure she is getting 3 hrs nap time a day before increasing A time to make she we have gotten over the OT???

How do you settle your LO's for naps.....I have to rub my DD's back until she is asleep....does this mean she is unable to independently??? Once she goes down at night I rarely have to resettle her.

[claires mum]

Hopefully you'll find that the extended A time will get your LO to sleep the 1.5 hours rather than the catnap.  I suggest that at 40 minutes you go into the nursery and just sit and watch your LO move from one REM cycle to the next.  If she starts to wake up - just put your hand on her chest and 'shh' to get her into the next REM cycle.  The key is to get her to have that 1.5 hour nap.  Then she'll be able to make it through the next A time and hopefully have another 1.5 hour afternoon sleep.

At this stage - I wouldn't worry too much about being a prop for your DD to sleep.  Just get her into that routine of 2*1.5 hour naps.  Once she's settled and sleeping better (give yourself some time!!) then you can start to work on teaching her to sleep independently.  But right now...don't worry about it...just get her to sleep however you can.

[Layla]

Personally I wouldn't be rubbing back until she's asleep cause you'll have to get rid of the prop at some stage & I think its better now than later.

Maybe try rubbing her back until she's calm & leave before she's asleep to see what she'll do. If she's crying for you to come back & shh & rub back again but again leave before she's asleep. So that way you're slowly teaching her that she can settle herself until eventually all you'll have to do is just shh & she'll return back to sleep

But I do think that you need to break the cycle of short naps & not enough A time. She doesn't HAVE to sleep 3hrs a day. Isabella never ever had a long morning nap. She slept 1hr in the morning & 1.5hrs in the pm but her nights were 12hrs... so if your dd has only slept 1hr & is awake & happy then go on with your day & do the pm nap 3hrs later. An hour is restorative enough. Sometimes 45mins is too...

Just my opinion though

[lyndsy_p]

I agree with Layla, as the rubbing is a prop that has to be reckoned with sooner or later. I rub or pat only if she goes down crying (sometimes there is none) or if she moves from a mantra cry to an "I need you" cry while trying to get to sleep. I slow down the pats once she is relaxed, and leave. If she starts up again, I go back in. My LO is 9.5months and this is her routine:
 
7am - wake
1015-11 - am nap
230-330/345 - pm nap
7pm - bedtime

She cut her daysleep to around 2hrs recently. It used to be 3hrs before she turned 9 months. She is sleeping 11hr30-12hrs at night.

HTH
Lyndsy

[Mummydownunder]

thank you so much for all your help and advise...

yesterday morning and this morning I kept DD up for three hours A time, when I put her down there was very little fuss  This morning I just rested my hand on her leg for about 30 sec sshh, sshh a couple of times and left the room. That was an hour ago and she is still sleeping.

She didn't have a catnap yesterday and fell asleep whilst having her bedtime bottle as she was so tired. I put her down at 6.35 pm and didn't hear from her until 6.00 am.

I don't want to get too excited but I feel so much better. 

[claires mum]

Good job!   Don't be upset if you have a day of regression somewhere along the line.  It takes at least 3 days for a new routine to become established...and then between 2-3 weeks before it becomes part of your baby's behaviour.  I made sure that during the transition there was no interruption to the routine for those first 3-5 days  ...  keep us posted on how you're going. 

Claire's Mum

[mommy2mason]

That's GREAT!! I bet it was nice to have her go down to nap like that!

[Layla]

Thats excellent news . An earlier bedtime is always a must with us with any transitions... the 3-2nap, 2-1 nap & now the 1-0 with dd1

Keep us posted!

[Raquelx]

Hi There
Can i gatecrash this board please cause i'm having trouble......again! I have a problem getting back on track and sadly don't have the support of my mother or MIL as they think my routine is too strict!
My little boy was textbook before christmas. Activity time 2.5hrs working on extending to 3hrs but he was sleeping for 1.5hrs morning and afternoon and we just got to drop the afternoon nap.  However he got out of routine at christmas and straight after that he got a cold and cut his first tooth (all in the same week)! Now i am really struggling to get him back on track.  He should for his age (just over 9mths) be having about 3hrs activity time i believe but i am stuck on 2hrs 30mins activity time, but he is now only sleeping for 40-45mins (once he slept for an hour and ten) yet when i try to extend it to 2hrs 35mins he only sleeps for 30mins.

what can i do?  I have started (yesterday and today) to hold him when he wakes after 40mins whilst he gets another 20-30mins as every time i put him down he wakes up and wants to play - yet he is yawning within minutes.
This is really getting to me and many tears have been shed.  It doesn't help that i am quite stressed as i'm starting my own business so am trying to juggle that and be a good mum and right now i feel like a bad mum cause i don't know where i'm going wrong or why.....

any advice greatfully received.  Sorry its a long posting.

XXXXX

[lyndsy_p]

Great work Victoria....as pp said there might be some regression. Happy everything is going sooo well .

Raquel please post your routine.