Not Napping!!

AmberCW

Ok, I wish there was a search option on here, because this has probably been asked a million times. My 7 month old son sleeps great through the night. He goes down about 8:00pm and usually sleeps all night until 6ish. My problem is that the kid will NOT nap!!! He'll sleep in the car and generally falls asleep just fine when I'm nursing him and will sleep for about 15-20 minutes before he wakes up. Most of the time, though, as soon as his head hits his mattress his eyes pop open and he starts screaming. I tried CIO yesterday afternoon, because he was exhausted! And he screamed for 40 minutes. The screaming continued while I was holding and rocking him. I just can't stand to see him like that and in all honesty, the no napping is making me a little crazy!! He sleeps 2-3 hrs at day care, but he's only there twice a week, and daycare's tricks just aren't working for me. Please please please!!! If anyone has any thoughts or magic tricks PLEASE share before I lose my mind!!!

JayandEmm

Do you have a carrier? Or maybe try walking with the stroller for one of the naps?

mylittlesunshine

No advice, just sympathy. DD2 is the EXACT.SAME.WAY!

catmtl

I don't think it's considered CIO if you're holding him the entire time...?
You need to put him down and leave the room. It sounds like he's overtired and needs to nap with less intervention from you.

AmberCW

Oh, I'm not holding him the whole time! I nurse him and then lay him down and leave the room. I've been letting him scream in intervals. 10 min then go in rub his belly, calm him, then leave I let him scream for 15 min. After the 20 min bout I usually try to rock him a little. I guess that's what I meant by he screams even during the rocking. One day we went through this for 2 hours before I just gave up brought him downstairs. Its breaking my heart to let him scream but I don't know what else to do.

danslilgrizzly

I know it feels awful, but we had to let my son cry in the crib for him to start napping well. He naps 1-2 hours three times a day most days now, usually without a problem. If he does cry, we leave him and he eventually falls asleep. I had to learn the hard way how important consistency is. Oh, and going in to check on him has only ever made it worse. Thank God for the video monitor! Good luck!

catmtl

Sorry you're having a hard time. Like PP I had to resort to CIO on just 2 occasions and found that extinction no intervention resulted in much much less crying. I've never heard of 2 hrs of crying with extinction. This has been my experience and I have tried both. Good luck!

AmberCW

Thank you all! Its nice to know I'm not alone. This past Thursday I didn't go into his room once and he cried for an hour and a half. He fell asleep for about 5 minutes and then proceeded to wake up crying again. Someone mentioned walking him in a carrier or in the stroller. Can't do either. He's 21 pounds now, way to big to carry around for 2 hours, and I'm in a very rural part of upstate NY where we are full of snowcoverd fields right now! I can't wait for it to get nice out so I can get out the hiking stroller!! He slept Saturday and Sunday but only because he fell asleep in the car. I'll try again tomorrow and hope that he eventually falls into a schedule. I'm actually considering using the bouncy chair with the vibration in his room to get him to sleep....