Nap Help Please!
Anyone have any advice to help me get my 6 month old LO to nap? I am so frustrated by this. Some days, she shows her sleepy cues, we read a book or two, sing a song, and she goes down in her crib, no problem. Those days are great!
Other days, same cues, same routine, and she ends up screaming and I end up frustrated. I've tried rocking her to sleep, putting her down awake, a crib soother, starting earlier, waiting later.... We've also used the swing to help her nap, and it usually works, but I really want to move away from it as she's now getting bigger and is too wiggly for me to trust her in there if I am trying to take a shower or do something where I'm not around. I just don't know where to go from here. I think she and I both need some consistency, and I just don't know how to get there. She only naps for 30-45 min at a time as it is, so I am super frustrated when it takes me that long or longer to get her to take a nap!
Any ideas? Or books I can read about sleep training? Did you do something that worked? I'm not opposed to CIO or ferber or something like that if it works (although she may be a bit young for that??)... but, she is (usually) a great night sleeper, and I don't want to mess with that AT ALL. We don't have any problems getting her to go down at night. Sometimes she wakes up once or twice, but more often she sleeps right through. Thanks ladies!
Re: Nap Help Please!
You just described my DD at that age. Truthfully, we just used the swing if she wouldn't go down in her crib. As she neared the weight limit, we transitioned her to her crib full time for naps (around 11 months). It took me a long time to learn this, but if I put her down and she cried, I gave her 5 minutes. Many times, she would stop crying after 2-3 minutes and fall asleep.
Best of luck. I always felt DD was just as frustrated as I was. That always made me feel better.
Sometimes if LO is a great night sleeper they are not such a great napper - so sayeth Ferber and HSHHC from what I can tell. We also gave up our reliance on the swing and went to Ferber at 5.5 months. I posted earlier about our transition. We did nighttime & naptime Ferber at one go, waited two weeks, and started reducing night feedings too.
Could she be switching up her nap schedule? Between months 5 and 6 my DS has been going between wanting a short nap (45 min) every 3-4 hours to wanting one big morning nap (two hours) and then a shorter afternoon nap.
And I *think* Ferber says to give it 15 minutes and if he doesn't want to nap, get him up, and try again later. I could be wrong about this, but that's what I think...
With DS, I keep the nap routine to a minimum. If he's already showing signs of being sleepy, I get him into a sleep sack, bounce / rock him for about two minutes, and put him in the crib. I know that when he's overtired, napping is much more difficult. So I try to get him down before he shows real "sleep cues"...just starts acting a little quieter. Maybe you're waiting too long to get her down on those particular days? (I'm no expert; sometimes I put him down *before* he's truly ready and have to try again half an hour later).
DD and DS both had phases of only taking 45 minute naps and fighting daytime sleep, so it may just be something you have to ride out. If you want to be more proactive, Ferber was the biggest help to us - though we used a modified version more for nights than days. I have no problem letting DS CIO for naps. I *know* he's tired, and getting him up just to try later is only going to prolong the battle. Usually, if he's crying when I leave him, he's asleep within a few minutes...I think ten minutes of screaming is about his limit, then he passes out, and sleeps for at least an hour and a half. Most days he does a 2-3 hour late morning / early afternoon nap, and then I hope for another one lasting at least an hour in late afternoon / early evening.
That's my two cents, if it's worth anything. I definitely understand the frustration. DD took naps in the swing past seven months because it really was the only way to get her to sleep during the day. And by eight months, she was such a different baby and in a good routine...maybe yours just needs to get through this stage. In the meantime, look info Ferber if you're open to it...even if you don't follow the method to the letter, it can give you ideas to tailor to your DD.