Question for those who have overcome nap problems...

boxerluv

My DD is four and a half months old. She will only take a good nap if she is held. We have a nanny who does not mind holidng her for naps and our pediatrician actually said that holding her for naps is fine bc it is more important that she get good sleep during the day. On the weekends though it is hard to hold her for naps bc it is really the only time I have to get stuff done, it is just not realistic. Somehow, i have done it for four and a half months but i am getting frusterated with it and its not sustainable. the wierd part is she is fine in the crib for her first nap - i rock her to sleep and put her in the crib with no problem. Sometimes she opens her eyes for a minute and then falls back to sleep and sometimes she doesnt. If i attempt this for any other nap during the day, she immeidately opens her eyes and starts wailing. I dont know how to fix this problem. I have read lots of books but nothing seems to answer my question. FWIW, her night sleep is great. I nurse her, rock her, and put her in her crib. If she wakes up at any point she usually puts herself back to sleep quickly.  Help! TIA!

anna7602

DD also only napped while being held until she was about 4 months old. Around 4 months (or maybe 4 & 1/2??), we started consistently trying to put her down as soon as she fell asleep in my or the nanny's arms. It was hard and we never never never let her CIO, but we just kept doing it every time and keeping her in the crib for as long as possible before picking her up again. A few things that helped were swaddling her for naps, then gently rocking her in the crib (just putting my hand on her belly and jiggling her a little while I used my other hand to stroke her forehead) and also playing white noise. once we were able to get her stay asleep, we moved into "phase two," which was not waiting until she fell asleep on her own before putting her down. as soon as we see the tired signs, we now try to get her in the crib right away. this has been working better and better lately. GL!

Capbride

DS had extreme sleeping problems for the first 4-5 months too. He was so fussy and wanted to be held all the time. He would scream if I put him in his crib and it would take me forever to get him to sleep.

I finally saw a baby sleep consultant who corrected my baby's problems. Turns out that I was the problem of my baby's sleep problems! She told me that babies LEARN how to sleep. Because I always rocked/nursed/held my baby to sleep, he had learned that this was the only way that he could sleep. I was also inconsistent -whenever I would put him in his crib and he cried, I would always go back into his room and pick him back up. So I never really gave him the opportunity toproperly fall asleep in his crib.

I now give DS a routine for his naps - close the blinds, put him in his crib, sing him 1 song and then tell him it's time to sleep. It took 2-3 naps and persistance/patience on my end, but he gradually learned when it was naptime for him in his crib. DS also did alot of protest crying at first too. But now he sleeps without even a whimper.

Good luck