Any tips or advice for getting my baby to go down for a nap?

[Sunflower28]

My 5 month old is generally quite good at sleeping at night. She wakes up once or twice if at all......however, getting her to go to sleep in the first place is a bit of a struggle. She often gets overtired in the evening and puts up a fight but once she out she’s out. My real problem is getting her down for naps during the day......she seems to spend most of the day being tired & fighting sleep & then eventually gets one decent nap in the afternoon. She used to have a morning nap which varied in length, then a short one around lunchtime & longer one in the afternoon(or other way round) but lately it’s just impossible to get her to sleep & when she does she gets woken really easily! So she’s having 10 minute naps here or there! & eventually gets so tired she gets a longer one late in the day. Sometimes she falls asleep after feeding, sometimes she will go on her own if I leave her to whinge (I don’t like doing it but if she looks really tired & likely to sleep I let her whinge) but only for a few mins. I also usually play calming music which can be quite effective....but not always successful. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how the get her napping properly? Thanks.

[cmbxm]

have you tried blacking her room out? It might be because her room is too bright especially now it’s summer, groblinds are really good for this xx

[Sunflower28 in reply to cmbxm]

Perhaps I need to consider her environment a bit more. She doesn’t always sleep upstairs during the day. Thank you x

[Baypony]

Hi Sunflower, it sounds like you are doing everything right to me! I have a little one who is 24 weeks. We went through a stage very similar to what you describe at 18/19 weeks. She just would not nap during the day! Apparently is was a developmental leap or sleep regression as some call it. It lasted for about 8 days for us. Of those 8 days she would maybe nap 1 or 2 hours in the day if we were lucky, but her night sleep was fine with the exception of 2 nights where she woke for a 4am feed instead of sleeping through. She is now back to napping normally again but I have noticed she is a lot more alert during the day and is going longer between naps now, usually 2 to 2 1/2 hours, but her naps are longer again (yesterday she had a 3h morning nap).

I’d say keep the routine the same and if she’s not asleep within say 20mins of putting her down get her up again and let her play calmly, without too much stimulation, and maybe a small feed, until she sort of ‘zones out’ or goes quiet, then try for a nap again. I’m pretty sure she will be back to her usual routine soon. Good luck 👍

P.S. mine does the whinge to sleep thing too, it’s usually when she is overtired and needs to wind down. It’s not like proper crying, more like she’s shouting for attention. She’s not really distressed when she does it either. If I go in to her she stops straight away and grins at me!! If I leave her (I watch on the monitor) she usually calms down around 15 minutes and just falls asleep. My friends little boy also does the same so I think it’s pretty normal.

[Sunflower28 in reply to Baypony]

She is just coming through the other end of a sleep regression I think. She went from sleeping right through to waking 3 times through the night & not going back to sleep that easy. She has slowly progressed to sleeping through again & sometimes wakes up maybe once....perhaps the napping issue is part of that, I’d not really considered that.

I will try & get back to the old routine & maybe not put so much energy into trying to get her to sleep & I’m sure this stress probably doesn’t help.

Glad to hear the whinging to sleep thing is actually a thing.....she’s pretty much always done it but sometimes she gets a bit too wound up I think! She just doesn’t want to miss out on anything & constantly fights to stay awake! Thank you for you advice x

[MissEd]

No advice but my son, who is nearly 18 months was a nightmare to get to sleep. Once he went he slept through (from 10 weeks!). He still has days where he fights sleep now.

[Sunflower28 in reply to MissEd]

Glad to hear she’s not the only sleep fighter! 😂 x