Babies: 6 - 9 Months

Ferber naps

Man.

Alright, so Ferber was great for nighttime sleep. Sergio went from needing a 45 minute rocking session, waking up multiple times a night, and not being able to put himself back to sleep, to falling asleep after a few minutes of talking to himself and being able to put himself back to sleep in the MOTN with a few sucks of his hands. It's been a godsend, really.

Until we started trying it for naps.

I know the key to any sleep training is consistency and I know the first few nights of Ferber were rough (it took about 2 hours for him to fall asleep) and I know that in the end, it ended up being worth it. But, for some reason, I just can't stick to this thing for naps. He just gets so tired and then I give in and just let him nap in my arms because he's exhausted.

Ferber says to end the nap after 30 minutes of crying. We lengthened it, per some advice from the Parenting ladies, because he rarely falls asleep in 30 minutes, to an hour. I put him down for a nap after 2 hours of awake time, which is when he shows signs of being tired. I do the same exact thing as bedtime; fan, heater on, humidifier, white noise. Nothing is different.

He'll scream for an hour, I'll pick him up, and he'll be screaming in an hour to go to sleep. So, back down he goes, he'll scream for another hour, and then get back up, repeat again. We've been doing it for about 3 days and he's taken maybe one 20 minute nap and one hour nap on all three days. Today, I just picked him up and let him sleep with me because he was just losing it at 6pm when he had only napped 25 minutes since 10am.

Should I stop? Is he just not ready? What am I doing wrong? Halllllp!
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Re: Ferber naps

  • Girl, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this too. We have had such a hard time with little man trying to get him down for consistent naps during the day. Some days he'll pass out after being on the boob or bottle and sleep for 2 hours in the morning. Other times he's fighting sleep and will maybe take a 20 minute nap in the morning after an hour to an hour and 1/2 of fighting a nap.

    I remember babysitting for children who would go down for their morning nap from 9-11 and then go back down for an afternoon nap from 1ish-3ish. If little man has a 2 hour nap in the morning, we're lucky if he takes a 30 minute nap in the afternoon and vice-versa.

    On a positive note, he STTN without waking and has been since he was 8 weeks old. He sleeps form 8:30-6:30 consistently. I'm trying to be grateful for that when I get frustrated with his naps, but it's hard!!

    If you figure anything out, let me know! I'm interested to hear what other mamas have to say. It makes me less stressed to know I'm not alone in this. :o

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  • imagebrennarobbie:
    Girl, I'm so sorry you're dealing with this too. We have had such a hard time with little man trying to get him down for consistent naps during the day. Some days he'll pass out after being on the boob or bottle and sleep for 2 hours in the morning. Other times he's fighting sleep and will maybe take a 20 minute nap in the morning after an hour to an hour and 1/2 of fighting a nap.I remember babysitting for children who would go down for their morning nap from 911 and then go back down for an afternoon nap from 1ish3ish. If little man has a 2 hour nap in the morning, we're lucky if he takes a 30 minute nap in the afternoon and viceversa.On a positive note, he STTN without waking and has been since he was 8 weeks old. He sleeps form 8:306:30 consistently. I'm trying to be grateful for that when I get frustrated with his naps, but it's hard!!If you figure anything out, let me know! I'm interested to hear what other mamas have to say. It makes me less stressed to know I'm not alone in this. :onbsp;


    This is exactly our situation also! Glad to know we aren't alone either!
  • We used Ferber about a month ago at night with great success. He now sleeps 1112 hour with 1 MOTN wake up/feeding. Up until last Saturday, all of LO's naps were on me, my husband, or the nanny and were very short. He used to nap in the RNP, but even that stopped working.
    Since last weekend was a long one due to the holiday we decided to use Ferber to fix our nap problem. It was MUCH harder than nighttime. I have always believed in putting him to sleep after about 2 hours at the first tired signs but that was not working. I noticed when I would end a nap early because he wasn't sleeping that the next one would be so much easier so I decided to wait until he was more tired, which was about 3 hours. So even though it goes against what is usually recommended, it might be something to try. Today LO took two 75 minute naps in his crib with no crying. Amazing for him! GL!
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  • Have you tried lengthening your nap routine a bit to get him really good a tired? I found that reading a couple of books in our rocker, then patting him on my shoulder until he's really calm has greatly decreased his protests to taking a nap. (It ends up being about a 10-15 minute "heads up" that nap time is coming).

    I've also been using the Ocean wonders soothe and glow seahorse in his crib which he's really liked having. I put it on in the background while I rock him, then put him down in his crib next to it. It's something to distract him while it plays soothing music. Might be worth looking into something like that or introducing a "lovely" of some kind so they have something tangible to help them fall asleep by themselves.

    HTH :)


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