what's your nap time routine

RachelCA29

I'm so frustrated with this whole nap thing. I've read 3 books on baby sleep and have 3 more waiting (I'm halfway through "No cry nap solution").

How do you get tyour baby to sleep for a nap? I feel like an idiot for not knowing how to do this after 6 months. Right now he will only nurse to sleep and will only nap on me. No matter how long I wait or how alseep he is, as soon as he touches the crib he wakes up.

At night it's not a problem, I nurse, he's half asleep when he goes in the crib (around 8 pm), he usually goes 4-6 hours, I feed MOTN and he sleeps until about 8 am.

I'm trying to establish a nap time routine but fail when it comes to putting him down. I try to get him upstairs as soon as he shows sleepy signs, (usually after 2 hours) but then he doesn't sleep. I just got him alseep for his first nap, a full 4 hours since he woke up.

I'm at a loss and feel like a hostage to nap time. I'm about to give up on naps entirely because I'm sick of being trapped under a sleeping baby. What am I supposed to do?!

usernewname

We must have similar children.

For starts. I tossed all those damn sleeps books. I tried a CIO and couldn't do it. Not for us. And even my husband who was all for it said it's not the way to go.

I nurse DS to sleep and he used to be able to only sleep on me. I found laying down with him to nurse to sleep gets him used to lying down on a bed to sleep. Or I could nurse and put him down on my bed.

Once he got used to it I would nurse in my chair and transfer to his floor bed.

His nights are the exact same like you. Nurses to sleep. Wakes up to eat and goes back to sleep no problem.

I've learned to focus on the steps rather then the fastest route to the result. It's all a process and they do get there.

I want to cut out the nursing to sleep eventually but it works for us at the moment and I know he will fall asleep with DH if tired enough as he has before. Naps are still tricky as he's kinda all over the map. I'm trying to get a routine down for nap at 10 and 2 but right now he's like 9 12 and 2/3 for maybe 45 min to 1 hour each.

Hang in there

Edit. I found giving ds a blanket made a world of difference. He likes to be snuggly and cuddle it.

RachelCA29

Thanks all. I tried nursing lying down in our bed for a few days a couple of weeks ago, the issue is we have a sky light so it's so bright in there, it's hard to get him to settle. There are drapes and we put a dimmer on the light in C's room, so it is nice and dark in there, and i find if he's sleepy I can get him to nurse to sleep very easily. It's really just the timing and putting him in his crib. I don't think he should go 4 hours before his first nap, but as I said, I am very aware of his sleepy signs and it seems the normal 2 hour thing just doesn't do it for him.

So frustrating! But I guess I just need to stick with it! (I've pretty much decided I am way to impatient to have children, I don't know why I ever thought I could actually handle this).

usernewname

RachelCA29 said:

Thanks all. I tried nursing lying down in our bed for a few days a couple of weeks ago, the issue is we have a sky light so it's so bright in there, it's hard to get him to settle. There are drapes and we put a dimmer on the light in C's room, so it is nice and dark in there, and i find if he's sleepy I can get him to nurse to sleep very easily. It's really just the timing and putting him in his crib. I don't think he should go 4 hours before his first nap, but as I said, I am very aware of his sleepy signs and it seems the normal 2 hour thing just doesn't do it for him.

So frustrating! But I guess I just need to stick with it! (I've pretty much decided I am way to impatient to have children, I don't know why I ever thought I could actually handle this).

I have little patience with sleep. I always have to remind myself to stay calm and relax.

spacepotatoes

We have somewhat similar nap issues. Night sleep used to be much better but that has recently gone belly up as well.

Our nap routine is sort of an abbreviated version of bedtime. We'll have some quiet cuddles, sometimes with a short book, when I know nap time is coming. Then diaper change, into the sleep sack, and walk/bounce to sleep. If the timing is right, she's out in 10 minutes or less. We try to get her back down 2-2.5 hours after the previous wakeup, depending on her cues. 

Unfortunately, she does resist being put down (Pantley Dance didn't work for us) and she is a chronic shot napper lately (cycle blending only works when we hold her). We typically wait about 10 minutes, usually by then she's out enough that we can put her down and she won't wake up, or at least will resettle easily. Once she wakes up, as long as she's content on her own, we leave her be.

The biggest problem for us is that she can't put herself to sleep. She either needs to be bounced or nursed (which is what we do at bedtime). We give as many opportunities to self soothe as we can but beyond that, not sure what else to do. CIO is not option. Hopefully she grows into it?

spinsoffresonance

Nap routine you say? This is what we do. I set DD2 down in my bed. The 2 yo climbs in the bed and turns on Sesame Street. I lie down between the two of them and nurse side lying until DD2 is asleep. Any attempts at transferring her to the cosleeper result in an awake screaming baby. So instead I slowly roll away from her trying not to wake her. Pick up DD1, turn the tv off and leave DD2 surrounded by pillows. She isn't mobile yet so it works but I should probably get some bed rails soon.

Arinias

Our naps are all over the map. Sometimes he will take a long 3 hour nap sometimes it's 20 min cat naps all day. He typically gets one good one after DH gets him from daycare around 3 but on the random days I get him later on or if he stays home it didn't usually happen. He will sleep in the bassinet just fine when he's at dc but if he is home it's usually on me or DH. The second we try to transfer him he wakes up. Sometimes he falls asleep in his car seat if we're out but he wakes up when we stop driving. He is always a good night sleeper so for now we just kind of roll with it, but I know I should probably work on getting him to nap in his crib soon. I don't really intend to try and schedule naps until he's a little older, if he had his own schedule I would try and set up approximate times but he is different every day on when he wants to nap.

lrmrtn

We have no real routine. At DC he's a crap napper. On the weekends we try to get him down about 1 1/2 - 2 hours after he got up. He usually starts rubbing his eyes so we know it's time. We do something similar to bedtime - diaper, sleepsack, bottle. Sometimes he falls asleep on the bottle, sometimes not. We either put him in his crib or swing depending on his mood. He tends to sleep longer in the swing. We have no set schedule because he can sleep anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours which is kinda annoying.

momthatlifts

I let her sleep when she is tired. I have too many other thing on my mind than to worry about when she should and should not sleep and for how long. Nothing against those mamas who do. It seems to work for us though. She take about two naps. Her first nap is usually pretty long. It runs between an hour and a half to 3 hours. Her second one is about an hour. Sometimes it's the other way around and sometimes her second nap can be longer too and sometimes shorter. She still manages to go to sleep at a good time and sttn.

BeesKnees181

As long as both girls have clean diapers and have had a bottle, I can put them in their cribs, draw the drapes closed and they will go to sleep.  Some days they will fuss for 10 minutes, some days 15 minutes...but it all ends with them taking a nap.  We do the 2, 3, 4 nap schedule...first nap two hours after they wake up in the morning.  Next nap 3 hours after they wake from the first nap...bed time 4 hours after they wake from second nap.  Some evenings they need a quick 30-45 minute nap after their supper and before bath and final bottle time.

momthatlifts

Scotty138 said:

JKBMA2014 said:

I let her sleep when she is tired. I have too many other thing on my mind than to worry about when she should and should not sleep and for how long. Nothing against those mamas who do. It seems to work for us though. She take about two naps. Her first nap is usually pretty long. It runs between an hour and a half to 3 hours. Her second one is about an hour. Sometimes it's the other way around and sometimes her second nap can be longer too and sometimes shorter. She still manages to go to sleep at a good time and sttn.

This thread is about nap routines to help babies fall asleep. While it is great that your baby naps, not all of us are so lucky. We all have many things in our mind, but for some of us sleep is a big problem.

Sorry OP. I was tired and must have just looked over everything. I actually had a feeling after I posted it that that's not what you asked.

I wish I could help. What time does you LO go to sleep? I noticed as soon as I changed her evening routine by putting her to sleep MUCH earlier, she started sleeping longer stretches during the day. That's what I think it has a lot to do with it. What kind of stimulates do you use? Dd was not always this good. She slept for 20 minutes and it wasn't in her crib. She had to be around me. She was up at least 3 or 4 times a night and every other hour sometimes. And several time I had maybe 2 hours of sleep. I also believe going to my mom's helped a lot because she had no choice but to sleep in her pnp. We just rocked her until she was tired and when she would wake up we just did it again. Or rubbed her back.

Once we got her going to sleep in her bed, it was then trying to get her to go to sleep without us going in every 5 minutes to soothe her. We did this for about a week. I finally needed to just walk away for a minute. I had a head ache from it all. I gave her her paci and closed the door and took a 5 minute shower. When I got out she as out like a light. I did this the second night and the same thing happened. She either cio or that last paci did the trick. Then she learned to self soothe and that's how naps got easier. I think changing the whole night routine played a hugee roll.