Nap help!

mestokes

We have been doing the Ferber method for nights and naps for about 10 days now. Nights have gone great and LO only gets up 1x per night now - im perfectly happy with that! Naps, however, are still a constant struggle. I help him get drowsy, but he still cries hard 10-15 minutes before each nap and will rarely sleep more than 45 minutes. We have a nap routine and I only keep him up about 2 hours at a time. Any suggestions? What do your nap routine look like, and how long does LO stay awake? Thanks!! 

stephanienjer

My daughter takes a 45 minute in the morning, and a nap in the afternoon that is about an hour and a half. She will occasionally cat nap in the car seat on the way home from daycare, but otherwise, that's it.
We've gotten into the habit of putting her down between 7:30 and 8, and she'll sleep most of the night until about 5. 

denaeb

I have nothing to offer other than I'm right there with you. My LO will cry for up to an hour (which is my limit) and IF she sleeps it's for no more than 30-40 minutes. We are on day 5 of training. I'm being advised to just stick with it.  Hang tight momma, this too shall pass.
As for routine, she's usually up for 1.5-2 hours in the morning. I follow her cues and feed her to drowsy then put her down (cue screaming).  After this struggle she usually wants to sleep again after being up for about an hour. Start struggle again. Repeat every hour or two until approx. 7:00 pm when we do bedtime and I check out for the rest the night.
Sorry not much help. I hope we find solutions soon!

cali1710

Stick with it! For naps it takes my LO anywhere from 5 to 30 min to fall asleep. If I were you, I would just put him in his crib awake and let him cry it out if you're comfortable doing that. Part of sleep training is letting them put themselves to sleep. Don't put him in drowsy. Put him in wide awake and let him totally put himself to sleep. Stick with it!! Good luck! 

fishee333

We had the same experience. Did the Ferber method, nights got better quickly, but it honestly took weeks for naps to get better. But they got better!! Stick with it! So something that I think helped us is making her naps a bit more predictable. I got an app to track when she took naps, and I figured out some times to put her down. For example, she usually takes her first nap around 9 so beginning at 8:30 I start to look for signs that she's getting tired. If shes acting wide awake, I start our nap routine at 9 at the latest and just put her down wide awake. She now takes from seconds to fall asleep to 30 minutes, but rarely ever cries now. We of course have our bad days though, especially if I let her get overtired. I think it's harder to get her down if shes super tired actually! 

Cricket99

We are on an eat-play-sleep schedule still. Every now and then we will get one long nap in the morning and one long one in the afternoon, but the transition is slow to the two naps a day. I try to follow his cues and the minute he starts to get cranky I plop him in his bouncer for a nap. He's usually out within 5 minutes. LO is usually up for no longer than 2 hours before he needs his next nap. They also only last 30-45 minutes on average.

mestokes

Thanks for the advice everybody!! And it's nice to know I'm not alone

kaym6

Anyone else's baby still just like a nightmare napper lol tell me I'm not alone 

JanuarysBaby1

@kaym6 you're not alone! We were doing ok and by ok I mean 2 one hour naps and one 30 min nap. But lately I get 3 45 min naps if I'm lucky. I think it's because she's getting her 2 top teeth. Damn teeth! 

kaym6

@JanuarysBaby1 I am soooo over these teeth he's got 5 and is getting 6&7 currently! Haha glad I'm not alone! 

mestokes

LOs morning nap has improved a lot over the last week or so to an hour and a half but the afternoon nap is such a struggle! One day it was only 10 minutes and I couldn't get him to take another nap. That was a fun afternoon haha. I've played around with awake time but nothing so far has helped him lengthen. Most days it's 40ish minutes. I struggle with whether to give him a third nap or not some days because I hate putting him to bed at 6:00! 

nackie

We do ok on weekends, but when he's at daycare, he usually only takes one.  And then is ready for bed half an hour after I get home from work

kaym6

Ugh that all sounds exactly like what's going on here! The first nap is relatively okay on most days sometimes even long but he takes it SO early like 730/8am so then the rest of the day is just a wreck like will he take a second? A third? Who knows! Today he got so hysterical for his second nap he just cried and I went in to hold him and he screamed for over an hour until I nursed him and he passed out. Fun times! Lol