Naps

JGo517

How in the world do you get your LOs to nap?? We have tried everything.... She is fighting it like crazy!!! According to grandma..,Just like her mommy used to do. I guess this is payback!! :-(

JaysonandKristin

How old is your LO?

JGo517

Sorry... She'll be 6 weeks on Wednesday. I'd say its a growth spurt... But she's kinda always been a terrible napper. It takes hours for her to fall asleep. Then She will only sleep in my arms....wakes up the second I put her down.

JGo517

Yea. I played mellow country music for her before she was born. Hasn't really seemed to have a calming effect but I guess I could keep trying it.
I wish we could just put her in her swing while awake. She doesn't self soothe either. So she needs me to be rocking, walking or swinging to even calm her overtired self down!! :-/
Thanks for the suggestions.

Icarriedawatermelon

I'd watch your baby's awake time. It has done wonders for us and naps. From the moment your baby wakes up, that starts the awake time. They should eat, get changed, play, and be back down for a nap according to their awake time. Awake times change according to the age of the baby. It takes some trial and error to figure it out. Currently, my baby's awake time is somewhere between 1-1 1/2 hours. After that amount of time has passed since she last woke up, we start to wind things down - take her in the nursery where it's dark, rock in the glider, sing, etc. sometimes she doesn't look anywhere near ready for a nap but sure enough, she starts to yawn and fall asleep. It doesn't work every time, but it does get her to take naps during the day, something we struggled with before starting this. I hope this helps. Good luck!

barista411

I read this blog ( https://www.mumsjugglingact.com/newborn-sleep-recognizing-baby-tired-signs/ ) a couple weeks ago and have been slowly introducing the technique. Right now I have just been working on recognizing his tired cues and making sure I don't over stimulate him. As soon as I see his tired cues I swaddle him and put him to bed with music and mobile going. He's been taking 3 - 4 good naps during the day so far.

SharonB222

One sure way for my LO (5w) is to wear him for a 10-min walk - no matter how much he's fussing or crying beforehand, he is always asleep at the end of the walk. Hit and miss ways for my LO are rocking (including light dancing) combined with supervised tummy sleep. GL.

JGo517

THIS! GOOD LUCK! Also, Lucie's List has a great nap post/email blog that is sent out at eight weeks!

Oh...I guess I have that email to look forward to!!! Why in the world does she wait until 8 weeks to send it out though??!!!!! haha!!!

JGo517

Ok.  Looks like I am going to have to start logging her awake time too. Is there a typical amount of time they would be awake after eating?  I am FF and she used to go into what we called a "food coma" right after eating and would basically be so mellow she could fall asleep.  But that hasn't happened in a while. Anyone else FF and notice that as an indication to increase the ounces you feed your LO? We have increased the amount in the bottles, but she is very inconsistent with the amounts she will take at each feeding. So I feel like a lot of it goes to waste when she wont eat it. Sorry for the side tracking...so many questions.....but thanks for listening :-)

I guess I've noticed it being a little tougher the past week because DH is home for vacation.  He tries to help by taking her so I get rest...but then I haven't really been noticing her cues. The best thing is that he's gotten a much better idea of how tough it is being home all day. :-) 

ranaverde

What PP said - it's easier to put our baby down for a nap if she's not already overtired or overstimulated.  She loves people and looking at things so it's really easy for her to get into that state if we're not paying attention; it's best to start winding things down before she starts acting visibly tired.  What's nice is that if she has one good nap it sort of resets her for later naps being easier.

elroda

Thank you for this post! As always, someone else always seems to have the same questions. LO is 5wks4d and after this past week our nap schedule has gone out the window. I'm a first time mom and have never heard of growth spurts before, so I'm hoping all of his fussiness and feeding issues are from this. I'm def. going to look into a swing!!!

JGo517

Just a nice big shout out thank you to all of you ladies!!! I really watched the clock and made sure to monitor exactly how long DD was awake after eating.  Then (even without sleepy cues), I would rock her and sure enough we had a napping baby shortly after!!!! She is still giving DH a hard time about going down for a nap.  But I also have to remind him she's only 6 weeks old and shouldn't be awake that long.  He just wants to play and teach her things :-) 

Thank you again ladies....I have been able to get so much more done the past few days....maybe her announcements can actually be sent out now :-)

Happy New Year!!!

Jennybabe0706

I have to say thank you as well! I was struggling with naps and then saw this post and today we had a napper! Prior to this we only had several 20 min car naps a day and in was about to lose my mind!

JGo517

@JoeLies - it really only took a few days. I basically would feed her and not force too much activity/awake time stimulation. (I'm eager for her to start "playing"...but if she's overtired that's when the fighting naps happen.)  Then about an hour later I take her to her room, swaddle and rock in the glider.  Sure enough she's asleep within 20 minutes. Who knows if this is because she really hadn't been napping all along and now she's "catching up" on her sleep.  Or maybe it's her way of dealing with the growth spurt. Either way, it's getting her to nap!!!  

Does your DS wake up and eat right away? Turns out DD doesn't need as much awake time as I had initially thought.  She wakes up and wants to eat right away. So in short it's feed, burp, change, check cues, swaddle, sleep.  Her awake time is shorter in the am and pm.  In the late afternoon I noticed that she is OK being awake a little longer.

It is time consuming to continue to take her to her room and soothe her to sleep.  I'd love to be able to put her in her swing or have her self soothe....but I guess one step at a time :-)

So glad to hear this post helped others too.  I was afraid to ask....thought it was so common sense to get a baby to nap!!! Thank you to everyone again for allowing me to have a napping baby long enough to even reply to these posts!!!! 

>:D< >:D<