Naptime help

D&S724

Where is your LO napping these days? I created a monster and let B sleep in the swing from Day One.  Now that's where he naps all the time (unless we're out, then he'll sleep in the car). The swing isn't actually on when I put him down - I think he just got used to being in there.  At this point, he's getting too big for it, and I want to transition him to napping in the crib. Anyone have any routines or advice that they can share?

He STTN in his crib, and has no problem going down at bedtime.  It's just naptime that's tough.

sourpatchkids

You just have to jump right in and do it. How do you lay him down at night? Does he go down on his own? Nurse to sleep? Rock? Walk around with him? Try doing that during that during nap time. N goes back and forth between needing to be walked around with to get him to sleep for naps and going down on his own with his seahorse.

D&S724

He's great at night - I literally just put him down and he falls asleep on his own. Naptime is a different story.  When he does nap in his crib, it's only for like 20 minutes.  He'll sleep a lot longer in the swing.

bumpuser3155624

@D&S724- thank you for posting this! DH and I were sayig the same thing except we hold her for naps on the weekend. What was so cute initially is now not so cute. But I do love my monster!

jesselayne8

Be consistent. His naps will get longer in the crib if you continue putting him there.

Shoegal36

What I did to transition LO from the swing to the crib, was to do one nap at a time. She would always take really short crappy naps in the crib at first so I figured if I just did one, at least she would have 1 or 2 good ones in her swing. I started with her morning nap, and once she got used to it, I tried 2 naps...and so on. 

At first I would just nurse her/rock her to sleep and put her in there asleep. Then I tried putting her in drowsy and rocking her body a bit with my hand on her chest until she fell asleep. Now she goes to sleep on her own. Sometimes she fusses for a bit, but not too bad. 

Schell2013

I may be minority but for DD I did the sleep training at nap time too. At first I would make sure that she doesn't go more than 3 hours or she is over tired and cranky to put down.

Now if she is tired she rolls over and goes to sleep. If she isn't she plays with her lovey, stands and lays down and relaxed but doesn't always sleep. In that case I leave her for around 45-60 mins (if she is happy) for more of a quiet time and then try again in a couple hours.

Try to make a routine. For me it's bottle and nap. Pretty much every time she has a bottle it's related to needing to sleep next so she has started to clue on that she has to go to sleep after her bottle.