Naptime frustration

MrsBlayne

Ever since B learned to pull up in her crib, naptime has become a huge battle. Our days go something like this. She will act sleepy in the morning like usually, we do our normal routine and put her down for her 9 am nap. She will be standing before I get out the door. Regardless of whether I go in and lay her back down or ignore her for an hour, she plays (mostly) or cries (a little) for an hour until I decide to give up on the nap. She hasn't taken a morning nap for me in over a week. Sometimes she makes up for it in the afternoon, sometimes not. Yesterday she took one 45 min nap all day and was down for the night at 5:45. I think she is too young to drop the morning nap and she sure acts like she needs it. She also wakes up several times a night and stands up, so I have to go nurse her back to sleep. Before she would mostly go back to sleep on her own and was only waking to nurse once a night. Anyone fought this battle? Does it get better?

DreamsBride411

Just sending some ::::hugs:::: I obviously have no idea what to do to get her to sleep without you. Dr. Sears would tell you to lay down with her even if it's not in your bed - like on the couch or even a floor bed in her room. I have a friend from Israel who is a major naturalist. We met at gymboree. She believes that no matter what you have to do to get your kid to nap during the day, you just have to do it to set their "body clock." Her son loves to sleep outside. She will do whatever she has to do to be outside for his naptime just so he gets a full TWO hour nap twice a day. He didn't start off napping that way - she adjusted him into it by doing whatever he wanted to sleep! Anyway, point being, she claims that the better a baby sleeps, the more intelligent and the better the brain develops. So, as parents, it's our duty to do whatever we have to to get our kids to sleep. I'm not saying she's right (although she probably is, she's absurdly smart - like genius smart and so is her son), but I do think she's onto something. So, how will B nap? What will you have to do to get her to go down? Rock her then crib her? Stroll her? Wear her? I'm almost afraid to say this, but since I've been following her sleep beliefs, Mari has been sleeping a bit better by day. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting in the car with her now because she fell asleep after Christmas shopping and I refuse to wake her up. Sorry about the formatting - I'm obviously on my phone. And sorry if this is scattered, I find it really hard to express myself when I'm on my phone - my brain goes much faster than autocorrect and thumbs. ;-)

MelVic

Oh the standing up in the crib...I know it all too well!!! G does this ALL THE TIME!!! She does take 3 naps day but they are usually only for 30 mins or so in her crib unless she is sleeping on you and then she sleeps so much longer...for naps what we so is always put her to sleep first and then lay her in her crib...we usually rock her on our knee and she passes out then we transport to hercrib...not sure if that is an option for you...at night G will stand up usually once or twice a night and sometimes I can just lay her back down and put the pacifier in her mouth and she is out but other times I need to rock her for a couple of minutes and then she passes out again and I put her back in her crib....g has not eatten at night since she was 4 months old so feedi G her is not an option for me...I hope this helps alittle! But I do know exactly how you feel

Jennifer43

We are going through this, but with C rolling over. Once he gets to his belly he will play around a little and then usually gets really mad because he can't roll back over so when I go in to help him roll back over, he just rolls right to his belly again before I am even out of the room. So far I have been able to loose swaddle him and it keeps him on his back, but it doesn't always work.

Hopefully you two can come to some agreement soon and she starts napping better for you! I know my baby and he gets way too cranky without his morning nap.

dani_girl08

Jennifer43:

We are going through this, but with C rolling over. Once he gets to his belly he will play around a little and then usually gets really mad because he can't roll back over so when I go in to help him roll back over, he just rolls right to his belly again before I am even out of the room. 

That's exactly what we're going through with Reese.  I have started just staying in the room trying to soothe her on her belly until she finds a comfortable position, & then she pretty much stays on her belly the rest of the night.  Like you said, if I try to flip her, she rolls right back over.  The weird thing is that she doesn't move an inch when I put her down for a nap during the day. At night, she does 360 turns, rolls to her belly, etc.  And it starts immediately when we put her down.  Strange how it's different than naptime.

Oh, and Cris, we did end up borrowing the Angel Care monitor from our friend, & it has been INCREDIBLE peace of mind with her on her belly.  Thanks! 

 Blayne--when she stands up in the middle of the night, is she happy or angry?  Will she eventually lay down if you leave her, or does she just stay standing until you go in?  That's tough.   

ETA: What if she had something in her crib that she could "play" with that would help to soothe her back to sleep?  I was initially against any kind of entertainment in the crib, but I'm realizing it may be something to consider.  Maybe it would lure Briley to lay back down.  Just brainstorming... 

MrsBlayne

Cris- I haven't figured out yet what she wants to get to sleep. She doesn't fall asleep nursing unless she is exhausted and she does not like me to rock her. She doesn't like laying down with me either. She is just so busy that it seems like she wants to be playing unless she is just dead tired. When she skips her first nap it is no problem to get her down for the second, I just nurse her to sleep because she is so worn out by that point. I have not tried outside, but isn't it cold? How does she do that?

Dani - when she started this I took everything out of her crib, hoping she would be bored and go to sleep. My mom suggested the same thing though, so I think I will try it.

ludyjanboltz

We would just lay her down again and walk out.  You might have to do that several times, but it would eventually work with us.  You could even try rubbing her back or belly or patting it to soothe her. 

With Caroline, we have a pretty short window to get her in her crib once she's tired if we are going to have any luck in her sleeping.  If I take her up too early, I can usually tell within 30 minutes of this and then I'll just get her up and we'll play or eat and by then she'll have sleepy cues again.  Usually it works the second time around.