Power napping and other sleep issues

My little one was supposed to go to bed at 7pm ish and stay there. She used to sleep through til around 12, have a feed and back to sleep. Another feed at 3 or 4.

Her days have never had a sleep routine. Sometimes she won't sleep at all. But her nights used to be pretty good.

Tonight she had bath, feed, fell asleep feeding. I was carrying her and she woke again and fed from the other side and then fell asleep again. Took her down to her cot. 20 mins later, she was awake. Tried settling her in the cot but didn't work. Got her up again. She in now hyper and rolling all over the floor.

This is happening more often these days. i know she is tired. (i sure am)

DH thinks she is too reliant on me to get to sleep. She is certainly a Mama's girl at the moment but i think he doesn't try as much lately either.

I'm getting some 'advice' on controlled crying and even DH questioned today if maybe we should try CC. i haven't seen any reason for why i would want to try it, and 2) DD is quite strong willed and i think we would have to 'break' her will to get it to work and i don't want to do that.

However, i do need to do something cos its not working for me.

DD was sleeping in a hammock until recently. She would spend the first part of the night in that and then feed in our bed and either stay or go back to her bed.

She has started rolling and i wasn't comfortable with continuing with the hammock, i also wondered whether she might sleep better in the cot because she was starting to prefer the big bed to the hammock, even if we weren't in the big bed. So we moved her cot into our room. She has slept in it before for day sleeps when DH has been on night shift. Transition is not going well.

gotta go be back later to finish

DD went through a few stages where bedtime didn't end up being 'bedtime'. She would be awake 40-60 mins later and then go back down for good at about 9/9.30pm. It was something she just got over herself, all of a sudden she would be staying asleep, and there I'd be waiting for her to wake up instead of having a shower/getting ready for bed myself!

I never did anything to try and assist her (i.e. like leaving her in her cot..). I'd take her out, change nappy, sit in a room with the lights off until she was ready to go back to bed again. So it could just be a stage she is going through and will get over in her own time. DD was also a power napper during the day which did start to frustrate me (especially when people kept going on about her needing to have a 'proper' sleep) but eventually I realised that is what she was going to do and nothing I did was going to change that. I think it's much easier to accept their changes in routine if you accept that is what they are going to do, rather than what you can do to change them (hope that doesn't sound harsh, I don't think what i was trying to say came out right!), and get used to the mantra 'this too shall pass' ;)

Yeah i know but i can't be f**ked sitting in a room with the lights out whilst she screams or hits me or laughs at me for 3 hours. i don't want to go to bed at the same time as my 6 month old - so she will sleep. i want to be a big person and watch tv. i am so friggen tired and i just need me time and its not happening.

vent over

thanks for replying.

I will suggest my old standby - mattress on teh floor. That's what worked for us at this age (and for quite a while after). I lay down with DS, fed, cuddled whatever to sleep, then left him. He was fine alone (well, for an hour or two at least anyway). I had to sleep there too for a lot of time when this or that was making it hard for him to sleep.

Would she fall asleep on the couch with you while watching tv... just thinking multitasking...

I found a light show music thingy that projected onto the ceiling helped DD settle in the cot, have you thought about trying one of those? It settled her enough to get sleepy and drift off, some of the time. Certainly not every time, but I was grateful for the times it did. On the odd occasion it settled her back off if she woke during the night too, if I started it before she woke too much (if she wasn't due for a feed) I'm sorry I don't have any other suggestions, I really hope you both get more sleep soon.

:hug: hun, i have seen how alert and stubborn (in a good way) she can be, even when we take her for walks she's wide awake and taking everything in, most kids her age would fall asleep on a long walk.

I think it's a matter of do what you need to do, with Z i had a couple of stages where i would need to go and lay on the bed with her or tuck a top of mine under the sheet so she could 'smell' me, feed her to sleep in our bed and then slip out of the room.
It is a PITA and it's so very tiring but eventually it WILL pass, it's no comfort now i know but your trying and thats better than some.

Your always welcome here during the day but that wont help much at night... maybe you can get your OH to try giving her some expressed milk and a cuddle? get her a little more used to him and giving you a break?

Thanks for your replies and sorry for being a cranky pants last night.

I have found a few things that have helped lately, but then worry if i am creating more issues i will have to deal with later.

Feeding bub to sleep and then carrying her to bed rarely works anymore for naps. BUT feeding her on our bed to sleep and then sneaking out can allow her to have a nap (20 mins up to 60 mins) if she is really tired. I have her cot up against the bed and put pillows on the other side but she is starting to get mobile when she wakes and it is becoming unsafe.

My DH works shiftwork and so when i am not sleeping as well, the bed is not available (for safe co-sleeping). This morning i moved a mattress in to DDs bedroom on the floor, and she had a nap there (which was good!) after me feeding her on it.

I am concerned though that again i am setting up 'routines' that are difficult for others to follow so i am left with difficulty in being able to leave her with anyone else.

I keep saying 'this too shall pass' but wonder when that will happen.

Do i just say, well she needs a sleep and do whatever to make that happen or work on other ways of achieving sleep even though in the mean time it will be messing her sleep up? The difficulty is that if she has a sleep and then wakes (ie i feed her to sleep on couch and try to transfer her to cot and she wakes) she is then up for long time- there is no resettling.

When thinking about night times- the path of least resistance is to get her up again if she wakes (if it is sometime between 7pm and 11pm). She is happy to crawl around floor or play with me or DH. it is only if we try to get her to bed she cracks it. eventually she just calms down and shows she is ready for sleep again. I feed and she goes to sleep.

Human Bean- i have been looking for something that projects images on to the ceiling. I don't want noise, but stars or something gently moving across ceiling i reckon could kinda hypnotise her to sleep. Is this what yours did? Where did you get it?

ZF- Thanks. She is an incredibly alert little kid. I reckon i will be hiding the ladder in a few years too!

Don't worry about creating more issues - you're not, you're just doing what works now, whatever that may be.
Don't worry about how other people will manage - honestly, you'd be amazed. My little will-not-sleep would always go off with his granma. And she'd say "Well all I did is x, y, z" But that never worked for me! They're always better for other people.

I think path of least resistance is a good way to go - it's easier now and you're not creating anxieties or other issues that can arise if you try to force the issue. She will settle down and sleep well by herself one day. I can't tell you when, but it will happen. Just get by in the mean time.

:yeahthat: well said Marcellus

I bought a tomy star from Big W, but it does play music. Too loudly, so I put a few layers of tape over the speaker holes and it softened it quite a bit. It is battery operated and can either go on the side of the cot or stand by itself - I have stood it in many places to get DD to sleep under it ha ha.
I have seen a few led colour changing light display ones at Bunnings that are meant to project 3 metres up the wall/ceiling, and I'm 99% certain they don't have music. I think I also saw a Winnie the Pooh one there too, they and the led ones plug straight into a plug on the wall, works if you have a switch near the cot or your bed.
There are alot of colour changing night light animals too, don't project but change colour, and can capture their interest if put near the bed? My sister used to put a colour changing light at the foot of her son's cot, cause she swore that made him look down towards it making his eyelids droopy and sleepy lol hey there could be method in her madness? ;)

I've gotta drop by Bunnings this afternoon, I'll have a peek at what they've got if I remember!