My LO has always been a pretty fussy baby and never a great napper. He has been STTN since two months, but hates to take a nap. When I do get him down, 45 minutes is a long nap. We had gotten to the point where I could rock and sing him to sleep and put him down for at least a while. This past week, though, he refuses to nap at all. I can tell he is tired and incredibly fussy because of it, but I can't get him to go to sleep. Any ideas? I've tried rocking him, putting him in the swing, and letting him cry. All of these result in a screaming baby. The only solution I have found is to nurse him but it is not meal time and I think that is a bad habit to start. Please help.
Re: No More Naps
We are so going through this. Lets pray its a phase.
She can't be swaddled at night because she is too big, but I figured since it's called a regression, the things that worked when she used to be a teenie weenie would work now - and *usually* they do. We swaddle her and put her in her leacho, or put her in her swing and tuck a blanket over her to keep her arms down, like a swaddle would. This works.
She hated being held like a "baby" at 2 months to now, and always wanted to be up, up, up, but now, she wants to be coddled again. She was very into toys, but now, I've taken most of them away for the greater part of the day and she is content playing with her wubbanub. I think it's because she is noticing the environment - it's a toy to look at in itself!
This probably won't help unless you have cats, but she really likes our 3. If i can get them to sit somewhere nearby her, the 2 of them stare into each others eyes and doze.
I'm sorry you're going through this, it's exhausting. Today was our 4mo and ped said it's very, very normal - and good luck.
Edit: one more thing - if you have a leachco podster or bouncy seat, somewhere where you can supervise LO, try swaddling, then rocking/nursing/swinging/paci/etc. My LO neeeds to be rocked, pat, and sung to (sigh) but it works. I do this because I've found if I don't swaddle first, she will be wide awake when I put her down. We have given up on the crib for awhile...
yikes. I can't imagine that, as my daughter still naps every three hours. But the naps have gotten shorter, 45 minutes tops.
From day one, we sang to her while she was laying down, and give her a sleep prop, right now its a washcloth to chew on. The room needs to be completely dark though. We have black out shades and black out curtains.
BFP#1 EDD 11/8/11 - MC @ 9w6d, 4/15/11 we said goodbye
BFP#2 DD arrived 5/7/12