Hi Amy

Day time sleep is something I'm interested in too. I understand that all babies have different patterns (if they have them at all!), some are really good nappers, some are terrible, some sleep in only batches of 40 mins (one sleep cycle) and others will sleep for hours apparently. I've read it should be on average 15 hours sleep out of 24, with 10 at night and the rest during the day in naps. Obviously that varies by baby and day to day. Also, I've read that for some people keeping their babies awake longer works, but for others it just leads to an overtired baby and an overstressed mum.

How are we ever supposed to know if what we're doing is right?

I've spent a few weeks trying to track her sleepy times and all I can tell is that Freyja is one of the crappy nappers. She tends to sleep for 40mins IF you can even get her down. Some days, no matter how tired she is or how well you read her sleepy cues, she just will not go to sleep. I have had many days were most of it was spent dealing with a screaming, overtired baby who is hyperalert and still won't go to sleep.

Occassionally I will be able to resettle her. More often than not she will seem to be completely wide awake and playful when I go through, so I think, "ooh, she's had enough sleep for once!", then within a few minutes it becomes obvious that she is still tired and I have to deal with her being grumpy until I cam try and put her down again.

She tends to need to sleep after being awake for an hour and a half like you mention Grace does, but sometimes it's only 40 mins, others she can go several hours and these periods don't seem to relate to how much napping she's done. Although the longer periods do tend to coincide with us being out and about, or her daddy being home. Very occassionally, perhaps once a week at most, she will sleep for several hours at a time - it's bliss!!

I was told yesterday by another mum that her daughter was crap at napping until they upped her solids to 3 meals a day, including a big brekkie. Freyja had a big brekkie today, which she loved, but it made no difference to her sleeping. She woke up at 6am today and has only had two 40 min naps since, despite a cumulative total of several hours of trying to get her to sleep.

Also, since Freyja learnt how to turn onto her tummy, settling her day or night have been impossible. She will just be nodding off when all of a sudden, she turns onto her tum for no reason and then of course she starts howling. She also now seems to favour sleeping on her side - all the easier for turning onto her tum accidentally! At least it has allowed us to start patting her bum to help her settle (give that a go btw, I was amazed at how well it works), rather than allowing her to hold our hands to her face and pat herself on the head with them. She has a death like grip so you're there for the duration when she does that.

Problem is, no matter how good your baby is at napping or night sleeping, it all goes out the window when they hit a development point - I'm now convinced Freyja is having a 6 month long one!

Freyja is now going to sit in her high chair and watch mummy doing the housework because she is still awake. Perhaps I can bore her to sleep?