Advice needed: refusal to nap

sfbetht

Starting last week, DD will not nap unless she's in the car, stroller or carried around in the Ergo. Otherwise, even if she is dead asleep in someone's arms, she will wake up immediately upon going down in the crib. She does sleep at night for 3 - 4 hours stretches, but naps do not last more than 30 minutes - if at all. Afternoons are particularly heinous - yesterday she was basically awake from 2 - 10 p.m., dozing off here and there but refusing to stay asleep if put down.

Any insight/words of wisdom? I'm trying to keep nap routines consistent (swaddling, gentle rocking to get her sleepy, using the white noise machine) but nothing is working. I'm not looking for her to be on any kind of schedule, but having her exhausted and super fussy at 10 p.m. is no picnic.

MSC03

Well, my pediatrician just told me to not worry about naps being consistent until they're 6 months or so. Lilly will only take her a.m. nap and late afternoon naps in the crib now (just started last week) and the others are still pretty random--car, swing, arms, etc. She does have to be swaddled for the crib naps.

KoalaBear103

MrsSummitCounty:

Well, my pediatrician just told me to not worry about naps being consistent until they're 6 months or so. Lilly will only take her a.m. nap and late afternoon naps in the crib now (just started last week) and the others are still pretty random--car, swing, arms, etc. She does have to be swaddled for the crib naps.

This!!  R is a terrible napper (I'm talking 5 minute naps, 10 tops) unless hes being held or in the ergo.  Today I randomly decided to swaddle him and hes taken 2 30 minute naps!  R hated swaddling as a newborn, so I had just given up on it, but apparently now that he's a bit bigger he likes it.

sfbetht

I'm not looking for consistency...just napping at all when we're in the house and not in motion. Maybe the only solution is to keep her in my arms so she'll at least get some sleep.

grace_smith03

Mine is almost a year old now, and she wouldn't nap in a crib at all until she was like 6 months old. I'm sure she is the minority....she would sleep in her swing, or me and DH would be vegging out on the couch and hold her until she woke up....yep, spoiled, spoiled. lol GL!

 

swg2008

My DD was having a hard time with this too took me a while to get it on a good routine, but what worked for me is I would just cuddle her or read her a story, sometimes sing until she would go to sleep then I would lay her down once she was completely out, at first she would wake up right away and I would just comfort her but I didn't pick her up from her crib, it took about a week, but she's now sleeping great and wakes up smiling and cooing   hope this helps GL!