Ava's always went to bed at 7 o clock since about 2 weeks old, she generally sleeps well and only wakes for a feed during the night, recently though she is getting tired earlier and is ready for bed at 6pm, resulting in rising at 5:30am instead of 7am.

I really cant keep her awake for that extra hour because she's so cranky when she's overtired, any suggestions?

one very tired mummy!

how many naps does she have in the day??? x

she really fights sleep in the daytime, she usually sleeps about 45 mins in the morning and about an hour in the afternoon.

thats the problem i reckon. Cerys went through a phase of this. A baby's sleep cycle is 45 mins and they will stir after that time and possibly wake up,. The trick is to try and teach them to fall back to sleep on their own. At Ava's age i think they recommend 1.5 hr in the morning and 2-3 hrs in the afternoon (but they're all different obviously). The more restful sleep they have in the day will help them settle better and sleep longer at night. I highly recommend Tracy Hogg's book "The baby Whisperer". She gives really good common sense advice on how to get round this. With Cerys, when she started to stir after 40 mins, i would just leave her in her cot, having a moan and fussing but over time she eventually just got bored and fell back asleep. Then she fell into that pattern i mentioned above xx

she sleeps nowhere near that during the day, she really fights sleep in the daytime and if i put her down in her cot she is hysterical so i usually let her sleep on me. i think i have that book somewhere, i'll take a look. thanks hun x

honestly it worked for me - just stick at it, remember you're the boss, not Ava x

Alfie tends to get sleepy around 6 so i give him a 15 min nap. He then goes to bed about 7.30 and sleeps through til at least 7.3 the next morning? Can u maybe try her with a little nap just before 6ish? x

I agree with Minimeg, From about 5-6mth old we've put Oliver down for naps in his cot and its worked a treat as he settled himself if he woke.
He was napping about 1.5hrs on a morning and 2hrs on an aft.

Now, at nearly 2yrs old he naps for a good 2-3hrs on an aft and 12hrs at night.

I would really try and get her to nap in her cot, then that way after the 45mins or so, she will learn to settle back to sleep rather than be distracted by whats going on around her, and it gives you some much needed free time to yourself too

maybe try and give her a half hour nap about 4ish?


we used to keep lewis up from 3pm onwards so he'd be tired by 7 for bed but he started getting cranky and sleeping worse at night so we added in a 4pm nap and he'd be happy until bedtime, settle well and sleep through until 7am

what do you do if you're out and about in the afternoon when its nap time, i'm out at least two afternoons a week. would you just put her down for a nap earlier or later than usual?

Alfie just sleeps in his pram if im out and about or thecar seat. Sometimes he will have two shorter naps rather than a long one x

see ava never sleeps when i'm out, she's too frightened she'll miss out on something!

i've always put a blanket over the kids and let them sleep in the pram...they've always been used to sleeping in the pram though

pinky Ava sounds just like my Tyler he would never nap when out. ppl were like "ooh just leave him he'll go to sleep" well he wouldn't he would scream hysterically because he was overtired and then i'd have a very cranyk and upset baby to deal with.

Eventually he just started sleeping longer... I would just try to get her to have a nap every 1.5hrs to 2 hours (you should see her sleep signs ) If it's only for 45 mins then she should get 3 of them a day and she should be ok to go up to 7 for bed time.

It's a bit of trial and error but we found the mroe Tyler slept int he day the better he slept at night!

updated

well the afternoon naps are going well, she's going down for around an hour and a half in her cot and sleeping around an hour on the morning, still getting up at 5.30 am though

^ i know someone else said it, but i would recommend tracy hogg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Top-Tips-Baby-Whisperer-Secrets/dp/0091929725/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1287578544&sr=8-3 it helped us loads - although eli is still a bit nocturnal and a bit rubbish at naps at least he sleeps now, its a really helpful little book

mari - wot does eli sleep now?x

hmmmmmmmmm well he still goes to sleep between 11pm and midnight through to about 6 for a feed then til 9

he has naps about 10.30/11am for 45 mins then about 2pm for a couple of hours if we are lucky then a couple of hours in the evening - by about 9pm it all goes to sh*t and i feed him for an hour or two til he goes to bed

an improvement but not perfection haha

Aimee started struggling with her sleep at night so I stopped her two naps a day and she has one huge lunchtime nap of about 2-3 hours.

She goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at anything between 6am and 7am... with the exception of this morning where she was up at 5am x

well its progress stick at it and i bet you all of a sudden it will all fall into place. she will find her own rhythm. For the 5.30am wake up i would just ignore her (as long as she's not screaming obv). That sounds like habit but if you leave her in her cot and see what she does. Cerys used to wake early and i would just listen to hear for 10-20 mins babbling away (i would put mobile on) and she would just nod back off to sleep. Again this is one you've got to persevere with xx

^ i would agree with that, elijah wakes at about 3am every night as he used to feed then when he was little - he just talks to me a bit and has a wriggle and goes to sleep so long as i dont get up/fuss at him, i just say 'hi, it's still sleepy time' and squeeze his hand then leave him to is and he goes back to sleep

she does babble in the night but we leave her, in the morning she screams and is inconsolable but is fine if we bring her into bed with us.

alfie tends to wake up at about 5 in the mornign and has a bit chit chat to himself and as long as he isnt crying i leave him to it and he tends to go back to sleep till about 8am. this morning i had to pop his dummy back in at 3.45 but id woke to go to the toilet anyway so didnt bother me really.

x

well progress last night, she had a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and didn't get up until 7am. not sure it it was because of the calpol I gave her for her teeth though!