Naps

Krissi0931

Ok my son just turned 6 months and I would love to get a scheduled nap in with him everyday. Is it too soon for this and should I still follow his sleep schedule for naps or should I start to take control and have him more on my schedule with naps?

meltoine

Um, no matter how hard you try, a kid who isn't tired isn't going to nap. I'm not sure how you'd go about getting him on your nap schedule. How many naps does he take per day? How long does he stay awake in between?

Krissi0931

If it were up to him he would be up and be cranky all day everyday instead of napping. He falls asleep in the car and on walks but thats about it. He does get tired and I try to put him down he will sleep for 45mins and then gets up and is ready to go for another 5-6 hours. I would like for him to take a morning nap and an afternoon nap, but I think I just realized my son is the type of kid that doesnt like to sleep unless its at night.

dsmithplus2

I will speak for myself and the experience I've been having with my 6 month old napping. He used to be the BEST napper ever. 2 hour naps at 9 or 10 AM and 2 or 3 PM. It was amazing! Now he is the worst. He fights every nap as hard as he can. 

I usually rocked him at the end of his bottle or with his soothie and he would be out. Now anything and everything he can do (squirm, kick his feet, scream) to make me give up. I usually get so tired of fighting him, fighting his sleep, that I let him play until he just can't stand it anymore. 

When I know he is exhausted, he is usually talking a lot or getting mad at every little thing, even when he has his favorite toy, Sophie!! He never gets mad with her. He also can't stand to not be held at this point.

But I do agree that you can't make a kid sleep if they don't want to... 

carinamarie77

Krissi0931:

 but I think I just realized my son is the type of kid that doesnt like to sleep unless its at night.

Yeah, but is he happy or fussy in those 5/6 hours? If he's fussy, he's probably overtired. I had a 45-minute napper this summer but Ferber took care of it: I let him CIO in intervals until he fell back to sleep. Now, he sleeps 1.5/2 hrs in the AM and afternoon. We're on the 2-3-4 schedule mostly. Two hours of wake time in the AM, nap at 9, 3 hours awake in bw AM and 1/2PM nap, and then 4 hours of wake time until his 6:30/7PM bedtime. He's a really happy baby! Good luck finding what works for you!