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How to get baby to nap in crib!
Please share with me how you get your LO to nap in their crib! We can't get her to take naps unless she is being held. She's getting heavy and I'm going crazy!!!!
I am pretty sure she would go to sleep in the crib if I let her cry for a couple of minutes first--she does this in the car in her carseat, screams for a minute or two, and then falls asleep. But I feel bad letting her cry b/c everyone says you can't do that when they're this young. But I have to go back to work and she has to learn to nap in her crib! I don't know what to do, I'm exhausted!
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Re: How to get baby to nap in crib!
This may be a stupid question (I don't have my own yet) but have you tried swaddling her before placing her in the crib? That is the only way my 3 mo old nephew will sleep in his crib. They say that cribs seem so big to them, so swaddling helps. Again, I don't know what you have tried, so this may just be something that doesn't work for your LO.
The only Easter Bunny I can get behind.
Maxwell Joseph 4/09 Lucy Violet 10/12
We have a hard time with naps too. I'm reading a sleep book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and it says that babies learn how to go to sleep on their own at about that age (6-14 weeks).
He says it's perfectly fine to let them cry and wait and see for 5, 10 or even 20 minutes, depending on what you are comfortable with. And if it doesn't work to try again at a later time. My son is still working on napping... sometimes he falls right asleep, sometimes he falls asleep after grumbly fussing for 10 minutes and sometimes he needs to be held the whole time or he screams (evenings are roughest).
The Author-Dude also says that there's a biological sweet spot for putting your baby down when they first get drowsy about 1-2 hours after they last woke up and that it's much harder if you miss the sleep-chemical window.
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Sometimes I let my dd suck on a pacifier for a minute or two while I hold it and even though she still looks awake I take it out of her mouth and she falls asleep right away.
Another way I get my dd to sleep is if she's crying her "ow" cry and it's her way of letting me know she's tired. I've put her down in her pack n play and she falls asleep right away as well.
I know a lot of people don't believe in the Dunstan baby language but it works on my baby and have heard my friend's baby, who is a week younger than mine, cry the same things even though she doesn't use the technique. It worked on her baby when I told my friend her dd was hungry. It took me half a day to figure out all the cries, though one doesn't work on my baby, but it has given me sanity to know what my baby wants from me.