Daytime sleep help for 5mth old

Ryan is nearly 5 months old and I'm having real issues trying to get him to go to sleep during the day, night time is usually ok as we read to him then turn on his glowworm, make sure the dummy is in and he's normally asleep for about 12 hrs.

Daytime is another matter altogether, he doesn't yawn anymore just rubs his eyes and goes quiet so that's usually when I put him to bed.
The routine is usually something like this: Say goodnight to Daddy if he's home, say goodnight to the dog and outside and close the curtains, a little bit of a cuddle then into bed, do up the saftey sleep, give him his dummy and soft toy, pull up the blankets and tuck him in, wind up the mobile say goodnight and pull the door closed (leaving it open a little so I can hear him).

Often when I lay him down he'll start to cry so I'll say shhhh and he'll stop. He'll chatter away for a while quite happily then start to grizzle, the grizzle will then usually turn into a cry so I'll replug him and usually do the mobile again. I keep repeating the process till he's asleep, usualy this takes about an hour and he'll only sleep for about 45mins then it's time for a feed again.

Of course the plunket nurse says he should sleep for longer during the day and she reccommended wrapping him (he hasn't been wrapped since he was 3 mths) and rocking his cot (!!) I'm not going to do either as that sounds to me like it will cause a problem rather than fix it. I would love to get rid of his dummy to but thats an issue for another time.

Does anyone have any tips? I saw that the library has a book called "the no cry nap solution" so thought of borrowing that tomorrow.

I second the fisher price mobile - works like a charm.

We also wrapped until about 7 months he just wasn't ready before that.

Have you tried keeping him up both longer and for less time. Sometimes its hard to know if they are not tired enough or over tired.

i do remember periods where settling them is just hard work, but it was phases and passed, so it could also be a phase.

However my DS was a 45 min cat napper from about 3 months until just recently and most his naps now are only 40 minutes but occasionally we get a longer one and we have tried everything going to get him to sleep longer, sometimes its just all they need.

could he be overstimulated going to bed? DS has no mobiles, toys or anything in his cot. he knows when he goes into his cot its time for sleep, maybe it would help. i know all kids are different so it may not but it may be worth a try. i wouldnt worry bout plunket. DS has been in a cot since 3 weeks without being wrapped. he sleeps 30 mins in the morning but about 3 hours in the arvo which is bliss. lol. that just seems to be his routine somehow. does he settle if you leave him to cry for a little while or does he just wind himself up more?

My DD was a very bad day sleeper but excellent night sleeper and I tried many things but what worked for us in the end was a 5 minute wind down routine consisting of a story and saying bye bye to the sunshine & trees, then in her sleeping bag, into her cot & safety sleep, give her blankie and white noise on (just a radio quietly on static) I took away the dummy and I also took away the mobile as I feel that when she woke after the 45 minutes it was then keeping her awake instead of her being able to go back to sleep and I wanted her to be able to self settle rather than needing multiple props to get back to sleep. I have the no cry nap solution book and there was good stuff in there, but I find its best to just try different things and give them a chance to work or not. Good luck!

For us once we got down to 2 naps a day her naps got even better and now we have more good naps than bad.

Well so far so good this morning, I've taken the mobile off the cot and took away the glowworm etc so he's just got the dummy and dog, had a little cry after about 10 mins so I put the dummy back in and he went to sleep!! Yay.

Hopefully this works then I can work on the dummy!

Today was a bit of a nightmare again too, I've got a book called "The No-Cry Nap solution" from the library so I'm starting to read that, it's been pretty interesting so far.

I think I'll try him on some solids tomorrow morning to see how that goes, he hadn't been really interested so far. Will try a few things to see what works.

Dana, that sucks!! Thankfully Ryan isn't quite up that long, don't know how you manage!!!