Ferber for naps?

withabandon

So we have had pretty decent success using Ferber the past couple weeks for LO's nighttime sleep. Rather than fighting bedtime and waking up 5-8 times a night, she goes down fairly easily and wakes up only 2-3 times in 11 hours.

Her naps are still pretty bad though. I can only get her to sleep by nursing, which is fine but causes her to wake up after only half an hour. Sometimes I can nurse her back to sleep but sometimes not.

SO, for those who've used Ferber or something similar (please don't flame if it's not your style), what do you recommend for naps? I really don't want to do the controlled crying because I'm afraid she'll cry longer than at night and have more trouble falling asleep. But I don't know that I have any better options and I'm willing to try it if it will work. I just haven't seen as much posting on naps lately as on bedtime....

coffeeandbooks

Here is what I do:  sorry, there is some crying but not a lot.  (it is my own version of sleep training.)

I usually give LO a bottle, if he falls asleep I put him the crib and all is fine.

If he doesn't fall asleep, after I put him in the crib, I will go in comfort him after a minute.  I am liberal with how I comfort at this juncture.  I offer the bottle again, rock a bit, carry etc.., if he cries after I leave again, I then wait 2-7 minutes depending on the instensity of the cry.  I go in to comfort him again by placing my hands on his back and shhing.   He normally then falls asleep.

My theory on this is that sometimes LO needs to cry down a little and let off a little excess energy.   He has only cried more than seven minutes a handful of times, and in that case, I call it a nap fail.  I don't think it is worth having him cry more than that during the day.

If it is a really tough nap day though...usually a walk in the carrier will do the trick.

flyliceandcoffee

so we Ferberized for bedtimes like you, but we can't get it to work for naps at all...she flat out refuses to take naps longer than 30 minutes most of the time and if you put her down she will wake right back up. If I put her in the crib to take a nap while she's still awake, she'll cry for 2 hours, sleep for 10 minutes then wake right back up again so we don't even bother...I'd rather she take even a short nap instead of screaming for up to 6 hours a day (if we try to do 3 naps) and only sleeping for a total of 10 minutes each time.

drhibbard

crazycoffeegirl said:

so we Ferberized for bedtimes like you, but we can't get it to work for naps at all...she flat out refuses to take naps longer than 30 minutes most of the time and if you put her down she will wake right back up. If I put her in the crib to take a nap while she's still awake, she'll cry for 2 hours, sleep for 10 minutes then wake right back up again so we don't even bother...I'd rather she take even a short nap instead of screaming for up to 6 hours a day (if we try to do 3 naps) and only sleeping for a total of 10 minutes each time.

This is us exactly. Worked awesome at night but no dice during the day. She fights the nap with all her might.

Schell2013

The longest nap she has ever done is and hour. Most of the time they are 30-45 minutes so I have no suggestions on making them longer. Some babies just don't need as much sleep.

I will let LO fuss up to 20 minutes as long as its not a hyperventilating cry. She just takes a bit longer to go to sleep then the average so to a certain extent I let her CIO. If she wakes and it's been half an hour at least I get her if its been less than that I wait 20 minutes to see if she goes back to sleep and sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. It depends on the day.

ALP514

Once A got the hang of putting herself to sleep at night we did the same for nap. If she cries for more then a few minutes I go back in make sure she didnt poop, comfort her and start again. Usually she goes down pretty quickly then.

withabandon

Yeah, I agree that it's not worth it for her to cry for an hour and then take a short nap. It's just that our current situation is unsustainable. It's hard to get her to sleep and hard to get her to sleep long enough that she doesn't wake up cranky. Maybe I'll try letting her cry a bit but be more "liberal" with my comforting than at night, as mslaurats says. Cause I think the biggest issue is the nursing to sleep making her wake back up, so if we can get away from that, that will be a big step.