Naps For 8 Months Old - Is Driving Me Nutty

[jenny31052]

8 months old girl - here 3 full days a week - W-T-F - not on a routine at home, goes to bed between 8-10pm, and she is up at 6 or earlier, without counting the times she wakes in the middle of the night.


She gets here at 7.30am - I let her play, then a top-off feeding, change diaper and nap around 8-8.15am - she takes forever to fall asleep because she is used to be rocked to sleep - I don't rock to sleep but I cuddle them for a few minutes and put down awake, of half-awake.

So usually she doesn't fall asleep until 8.30-8.45 after fussing for the entire time (not crying, just fuss, rubbing eyes, yawning...) she usually wakes up 15-20 minutes after, not even "sleeping" for an entire sleep cycle.

I don't pick her up right away, to see if she goes back to sleep for another 20 minutes, but it is never the case, so she's still tired, awake, and fussy until is time to sit down for lunch, around 11.30am, and by then she's pretty much falling asleep on the high chair.

I put her down, because I don't have a baby sleep on the high chair, and she sleeps 2-3 hours.

By the time the other kids are ready for nap (between 12.30-1pm) she is almost awake, and ALWAYS awake while the others are still in the middle of nap time - this schedule is driving me crazy, because I can't put her in a different room, so when she wakes up in the middle of nap time she screams bloody murder until I pick her up ( I do it, so she doesn't wake the other kids and babies).

I'm tempted in letting her fuss after she wakes from the morning "nap", and see if she goes back to sleep until 10ish, so that she is ready for the longer nap when everyone is... but this mean letting her scream in anger...not even tears...

I honestly think that the "issue" is that she doesn't get enough sleep at night, and she lacks self-soothing skills so it equals to a very messy sleeping pattern during the day...

WWYD?

The family is not a routine- type family, and I tried to explain them the importance of having one with a little baby, but after 5 months, it is a lost cause...

[MamaBearCanada]

Do what works best for you especially if the parents are not going to help with a schedule. I do find the am nap early compared to what has worked for my kids but i know others do it that early. Could you try making the am nap a little later so that she is more tired before she goes down? Does she nap in the car on the way over? Perhaps try a 9.30/10am nap. Then she should be able to get through lunch even if she only sleeps 20 mins during that nap and then go down the same time as the others for afternoon nap. Afternoon nap is much more of a deal breaker for me than am nap.

[MsLaura529]

I agree with PP, maybe pushing off her morning nap a little later would help her stay awake longer through lunch?

I don't have any other advice for you though, as I'm dealing with a very difficult schedule situation with a 9 month old myself. These babies ...

[melilley]

I may be the odd one out, but I don't put babies on a nap schedule until they are close to 1 year old. I let them sleep when they want and they join in for meal times and whatever activity we are doing if they are up. I am only licensed for 6 and can only have 2 under 18 months, so this may be easier for me to do. Currently I have 2- 9 month olds and the rest are 20 months to 2.5 years old so they are on a nap schedule. Plus one of the babies is my own son and he does have a dinner time and a bed time, but not a nap schedule and I would rather have him sleep when he, well both babies, when they are tired so that they will get their sleep and I don't have to fight with them to get to sleep.
No, I rarely ever get a break where all the kids are sleeping, but I can let them play and keep an eye on them while I do other things.

[Patches]

I may be the odd one out, but I don't put babies on a nap schedule until they are close to 1 year old. I let them sleep when they want and they join in for meal times and whatever activity we are doing if they are up. I am only licensed for 6 and can only have 2 under 18 months, so this may be easier for me to do. Currently I have 2- 9 month olds and the rest are 20 months to 2.5 years old so they are on a nap schedule. Plus one of the babies is my own son and he does have a dinner time and a bed time, but not a nap schedule and I would rather have him sleep when he, well both babies, when they are tired so that they will get their sleep and I don't have to fight with them to get to sleep.
No, I rarely ever get a break where all the kids are sleeping, but I can let them play and keep an eye on them while I do other things.

This is pretty much me exactly

[caligirl]

Have you tried not putting her down for a morning nap?

[williams2008]

I have an 8 month old dcg too. It's a struggle getting her to fall asleep. Everyday she wakes the older kids up from their nap. The older kids here are lucky if they get to nap for an hour due to all the screaming:confused:

[jenny31052]

She is tired by the time she gets here, because she usually goes to bed late, and they wake her up early to get ready to head off to work. They live literally 5 minutes from my house, so she doesn't get to sleep very long on the drive; she always gets here either dozing off, or clearly ready to take a nap.

And it's kind of an hectic time, because between 7 and 8 I'm serving breakfast to the bigger ones, and feeding the 2 babies.

I'm not pushing a schedule on her, but she is obviously tired around 8-9am, and wants to sleep, but has an hard time doing it on her own I guess, and 15-20 minutes of sleep, are not resting her enough to let her arrive to the afternoon nap time with everyone else.

[Lavender]

None of my babies who get to daycare around 7:30 nap earlier than 9ish. Usually it is more like 9:45 when we are coming in from our outside time. They then fall asleep again between 12:30-1ish. If it were me I would probably experiment with different activities to engage her in the morning to try to keep her up a little longer and see how that goes.

[Cradle2crayons]

My 15 month old dcg gets here at 600 am on her days. She eats breakfast and goes down for a nap at 900.

I'm lucky I have somewhere to out her separate so that's not an issue.

But I did notice when I first started watching her I tried to hold off on her nap until later and she got so over tired she wouldn't fall asleep.

Maybe she's too tired ??