Really annoying baby habits

[Emski]

Can anyone offer me any advice, or tell me how long these highly frustrating habits might last? Baby Emski is 10 months and causing me much trauma by:

1) Generally refusing to sleep more than half hour at nap time.

2) Being increasingly difficult to put down at nap time, crawling around cot and pulling herself up on the sides.

3) Bashing the spoon out of my hand at mealtimes.

4) Eating bits of dust or any tiny thing she finds on the floor.

She sleeps really well at night, and isn't a fussy eater. I give her finger foods as well, and am just not sure whether, when the bashing starts, she's eaten enough or wants something different, or what?

The naps will occasionally last an hour, but not often enough. I read Snowboarder's thread a while ago, and am following the 2hrs, then 3hrs between naps pattern, which generally seems to be when she starts getting tired. I know she can sleep longer, but she hardly ever does! And she won't go back to sleep once she wakes as she's sitting up in her cot, playing, by the time I get there.

Grr!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, or promises that these are short-lived phases!

[snowboarder]

Gah these babies....well I can report change in the nap dept - the 2/3/4 thing never really worked for us. Maybe she's not tired enough? At 11 months we started a new regime where babysb goes for a nap at 9am and 2pm. He wakes at about 5.30 (ugh) so it's a good 3.5 hrs till first nap - and he has started having an hour (plus sometimes!) then, and then 4 hrs or so till next sleep. It sounds really regimented, but it is somehow working. We also do a pre nap routine of nappy/story/bit of milk then I put him in his cot and leave - so he can mess around all he likes but he is getting the message the best idea is just to go to sleep! I also don't go to him straight away once he wakes up but yeah, he rarely goes back once he's really woken up.

As for the dust and spoon issues, sadly this only seems to get worse. I found a button in his nappy yesterday, so clearly he's not only eating dust. Spoons fly everywhere here - he also has an obsession with wooden spoons, and food and water beakers are flung around the kitchen with gay abandon.....I don't expect this to improve for some time but am trying not to show how much it annoys me!!

[snowboarder]

ps - with the nap improvement it has taken a LONG time (8 wks!) and consistently doing it every single day...boring but beginning to be worth it....

[Emski]

Thanks SB - glad there's been a dramatic improvement for you.

Baby Emski seems tired - yawns, rubs eyes, gets ratty - after the 2hr and 3hr active periods. I shall try leaving her longer, but was worried about her getting over-tired, and therefore even more tricky to get down! Gah indeed...

She does eventually go to sleep if I leave her, but we never used to have to go through this...

[EDmummy]

Did similar to SB about sleep, worked for one, not the other. The dust etc is baby behaviour.....and it is just the start. Enjoy it rather than being worried about it and make sure the house is baby proofed (no small mouth size objects but lots of spoons and other objects that he can put in his mouth). Baby proofing doesn't tend to work when you have more than one but make the most of it now.

[sunbob]

And she won't go back to sleep once she wakes as she's sitting up in her cot, playing, by the time I get there.

Hi Emski

If you have a monitor then make the most of her being relaxed enough to sit on her own and play. When I hear my little one wake up this chilled out I leave her to it and do an extra 10 minutes or so of whatever chores or relaxing need doing, whilst listening in to make sure she doesn't get distressed.