Nap time troubles

smlowe9311

So baby girl will be 10 months on Saturday. When she was going to HDC the lady said she could put dd down for her afternoon nap and she would put herself to sleep and sleep for at least an hour and a half. She's never done that for me. She won't let me put her down awake and when she's asleep if I put her down she wakes up right away or only after 10 minutes. I go back to school in August so dd will be going back to HDC. And between now and then I would kill to have even 30-60 minutes to myself while she naps. We tried having her CIO and she just gets so hysterical and worked up even after a few minutes that there's no hope of getting her to sleep after that. We've also been trying to rock her to sleep and lay her down and when she wakes rinse and repeat for a week now with little to no progress. At bed time we rock her and lay her down asleep and she sleeps for 11 hours no problem. What has worked for you? Any tips or tricks to get her to nap in her crib?

michelle7482

Are you putting her down too soon? It's a fine line between putting them down too soon, and making them overtired. I would maybe push it back an hour and see if that helps.

redfallon

I always wonder when people say that the daycare is able to do something like this for naps that you aren't able to do at home if the daycare is really able to do that or are they just saying it. If so, then how? Or is it because she's with you that she won't? You know how children will sometimes act one way at home and another way somewhere else?

[Edit: You know what I just remembered that DH always had an easier time putting her in the crib for naps than I did, so I can see how daycare may be able to do it when you aren't able to. Always pissed me off a little when he'd say he just put her in there and everything was fine when I was still holding her for every nap.]

I'm SAHM so I don't have any experience with daycare, so I don't know how you check these things out.

I used to have to hold Emily for all naps. When she started moving around more (rolling over during sleep), then it was harder to hold her for naps. I don't remember specifically anything that I did, but eventually I was able to put her in the crib for naps. I just kept trying. There is a fine line of when I can put her down with it being either too soon and she wakes up, or too late and she's already trying to roll over in my lap and wakes up.

thedash

I agree with changing around the time you put her down and trying a bunch of different things. DS always liked white noise but DD prefers soft music playing. They both have a small lovey and small thin blanket for nap times too. I slept with her blanket for a night before I gave it to her the first time so it smelled like me. DD likes her room pretty dark with a small nightlight. Good luck!

krose0713

We had to try all different locations. She is starting to nap better in her crib, but she naps the best on our bed with my pillow and DHs pillow on either side of her (pushed up really close and touching her). We can only do this still though, because she isn't crawling and doesn't roll much on the bed.