Nap frustration. Advice anyone?

jac409

I will start out by saying that much of this is probably my own fault. LO was napping pretty well in her crib, and going down with no issues until early in the summer. At that point we went through some teething problems, bad colds and a few out of town trips which threw things all out of whack. Not surprisingly, I started having a really hard time getting her to just lay down and go to sleep on her own. I was also pretty exhausted from being pregnant, and so I caved a lot and started either driving her around until she fell asleep or I would time outings so that we would be coming home at nap time, and she would be asleep by the time we got home. I definitely let that go on for too long. Now that we are less than two months away from having a newborn to deal with too, I decided I had to get her back to going down in her crib on her own again. I started last week, letting her cry, but going in to lay her back down, etc. every 10 minutes or so. She did fine the first few days and only cried for maybe ten or fifteen minutes before she would go to sleep, but this week...not so much. The past several days she has screamed bloody murder for over a half hour every day until I finally cave and go rock her in the glider until she is out. I have tried pushing nap time back an hour because she hasn't seemed tired at her old nap time. At least I am not driving her around anymore, but this isn't going to work either. I think the separation anxiety we all talked about the other day is playing into it too. Anyway, I am kind of at a loss as to what else to do. Do I just keep letting her CIO for another week or so and see if it gets better? Do I stop going in to try to soothe her periodically? Anyone else having a really hard time with nap time lately?

jsoubel

Maybe try moving nap up a little?  My DD goes to daycare so I get a lot of help with their consistency, but at home on the weekend, we do the same thing every time: up to her room by 12:15, 2 books, kiss and hug, and mommy/daddy walk out and close the door.  I guess I'm just reiterating what @j3nnyb is saying.  Consistency and routine help a lot. Good luck!  DD#1's nap is a god send with DD#2 here. 

jac409

Yes, I agree with you both. I am doing things as consistently as I can...same time, books, rock in the glider for a few minutes and then in bed and I leave. For bedtime we did a Ferberish routine where DH and I alternated going in to rub her back, soothe her for a minute when she was about six months old, so I have been trying to do the same thing on my own during the day. Unfortunately, it just isn't as effective this time around. I don't know if it's because DH isn't here, or what. It is really frustrating though because I know I have a limited amount of time to get this under control.