What do you do when your 8 m.o. baby decides he no longer needs to nap and hardly sleeps at night?

Question

My son used to be a great sleeper/napper until a few weeks ago right before the 8 month mark. He's always so wired, if I put him in the crib for naptime when he starts rubbing his little eyes, the second his head touches the mattress he's suddenly wide awake and clowning around in the crib, and then he starts whining after a bit and crying which turns to screaming. Even if I try to put him down for a nap with me in bed (someone suggested it was separation anxiety) he's wired and he wants to crawl around and play, not sleep. I always make sure he's clean and dry, and nice and fed, and try to stick to the same routine every time - the problem really seems like he just does not want to sleep anymore at all. I would say that maybe he gets 40 minutes to an hour of nap per day after struggling for five hours to get him to take even one tiny nap, and at night he wakes up several times a night now when he used to sleep all night long, and he's waking up earlier and earlier, no matter what time he goes to bed the night before. At this rate, he's getting about 9-10 hours of sleep a day!! I'm very worried about his health if he's going to be doing this, and I can't make him sleep, I can only provide many opportunities which he refuses to take. The only time he seems to fall asleep at all is in the car, but I cannot drive around for 3 hours so he stays asleep. The second you take the carseat into the house he's suddenly wide awake. I googled "refusing to take naps" and it is all about toddlers with, "Your baby used to take two naps a day, but now that they're over a year old..." Well mine's still just a baby, and he never took more than one nap a day, he always only took one nap, but it would be a long 3-4 hour one. Then it got shorter and shorter and now he just won't. Ever. I'm really at a loss and feeling so depressed and sleep-deprived. I just don't know what to do - if anyone has gone through this before, please help! Sorry if this is rambling and long, but I have no family in the area and my husband is at work all day so I'm just slightly falling apart here ><

Answer 1

I am also going through the same thing with my 7 month old. She takes about 5 naps a day each for only 10-15 min each which makes it impossible to get anything done. She&#039;s constantly tired during the day because she doesn&#039;t ever nap long enough and always cranky. She sleeps ok at night , about a 6 hour stretch before she&#039;s up for a bottle and then another 2 hours.  I wish I knew what to tell you because then I&#039;d know what to do..lol    Good luck and hang in there

Answer 2

I had massive problems with getting my 3 month old son to sleep.  He would just lie awake and cry for hours, then when he finally went to sleep he would wake every hour or two hours through the night and cry again!  Talk about pulling our hair out .... we were absolutely desperate for sleep!

It was a baby sleep audio program recommended by a friend that finally saved us. We followed the advice and began by creating a baby sleep routine which included bathtime, dimming of the lights, putting Paul into his crib, final nappy change and then lullabies. We also made recommended changes to his naps during the day and used some of the other recommended techniques. Within two weeks he was sleeping through the night most nights with just the odd night where he would just wake once!

Definitely start by creating a good baby sleep routine though and you could find that solves most of your baby sleep problems.

Good luck!

If you want to take a look, the audio program is at http://www.babysleepsolution.com

Answer 3

i think he is about to hit a major milestone..some babies do this instead of sleeping when they hit a milestone. sounds like you may have a routine already established with him. for naps, i would put him to bed at the same time everyday, definitely try to run him down before nap.

for nap i would put him to bed in his crib, and continue to check on him every 5-10 Min&#039;s, and keep telling him its nap time and lay him back down. don&#039;t speak every time you go in there..just relay him down and leave the room. after a few hours if he hasn&#039;t slept, just skip the nap. go on about the day. of course he will be tired, but bare with it. put him to bed at the same time each night at well..like 9pm and keep a routine. bath, bottle, cuddle/book, bed. keep room dimly lit and continue to check on him until he falls out. you can either give him one bottle in the middle of the night or not at all and give him a bottle of water to take to bed..when he wakes up simply reassure him and lay him back down and leave the room..DO NOT take him out of the bed unless you are giving him the one bottle in the middle of the night.

he needs to learn to put himself to sleep. but he also wants to be reassured you are there..he will cry yes, but your going to have to be strong and let him..sometimes they have to cry it out...but it will work...

Answer 4

Oh girl!  I can relate.  My 8 month old for example napped only 20 minutes all day today!  I find that if she gets too tired it takes a real long time to get her to sleep.  I end up feeding her and rocking her to sleep - but it takes for ever and she fights every minute of it.  She is teething now so her schedule is a little off.  We were going strong with a good routine but now not so much.  One thiing I&#039;m back to doing is the minute she starts rubbing her eyes, gets a little whiny or clingy - I will immediately bring her to the &#039;chair&#039; and rock her to sleep.  I find if I catch her before it gets too bad she won&#039;t fight it as much.  

The other thing I&#039;ve also done is when she just won&#039;t go to sleep - I  give up.  Instead of getting frustrated I just bring her back downstairs and play with her for a little while then try again.  

Is he teething?  Alli has been for the past few days and hasn&#039;t been sleeping well the past couple of nights.  Tonight I gave her some baby orajel and motrin.  We&#039;ll see how that works.  

I know it&#039;s different for everyone - but  I hope something in here may help you.

Good luck!