Need nap advice - long

brideinsummer04 · September 2013

We had sleep trained DS at 14 months and he was STTN in his crib at 8 nights. It was rough obviously so we postponed nap training. Up until now for naps he either nursed to sleep with me on my mattress on the floor or when with DH or my mom they stroll him to sleep. He is now turning 20 months in a few days. I've read that motion is not supposed to be good quality sleep and I'm going back to work. The past five days I've been trying to nap train him in the crib and it is way harder than night time training. Every day the crying is getting longer and the sleeping duration is shorter. Today the crying when I put him in crib was 52 min, then sleeping for 30 min, then crying 25 min, sleeping 40 min, then I gave up so when he woke again and stood up calling for me I took him out before he started to cry. I don't know if I can handle it much longer and I only have a week left before work. My mom will be watching him and does not believe in CIO so she will not continue the training if he's not done by the time she starts. Wwyd - continue training or give up and if so, do you have any unconventional nap ideas? She has tried laying with him on my mattress giving him a bottle of bm but he just laughs at her and plays around on the mattress. I don't know if there is a way for him to nap there with her or if there is something else we can try I'm not thinking of. If you got this far reading thanks - sorry it's so long!

brideinsummer04 · September 2013

I can't seem to ETA (mobile)... I forgot to mention that when I nap with him he will sleep 2.5-3 hours. In the stroller he'll sleep 40 min - 1.5 hours on a really good day. Also he has been exhausted since this nap training started. He has huge bags under his eyes that won't go away.

KaylaC0514 · September 2013

I will give this a shot. As you probably know, any habits that continue past 12 mos are harder to break. And the longer they continue the even harder it will be so its good that you are starting now rather than later. I have a hard time with CIO too. Honestly my son (12 mos) doesn't seem to respond to it like other babies do. I dont think it works with all babies. Sounds like yours isn't benefiting from it either. I could be wrong but i think Its only supposed to take a couple nights for the CIO to work. U said uve been at it for over a week? My son was refusing to sleep anywhere other than our arms being rocked so after many sleepless nights we did some research. I don't remember what site I found this on but its like a gradual transition of getting your LO to learn to fall asleep on his own without any rocking, bottle, etc. It seems to be working well for us so far. 1st step is getting them to fall asleep without the bottle. 2nd is no movement. So u just sit in a chair but don't rock him. 3rd is no sitting. U just stand holding him (I skipped that one. I'm 8 mos pregnant and its too much for me to hold him for very long). 4th is lay him in crib and keep laying him down anytime he stands. And keep your hand on him while he's laying down until he gets drowsy for added security. 5th is standing next to crib but not touching him. And lastly it leads to just being able to put him in his crib and walk away. Each step needs to be completed when drowsy but not to the point of falling asleep completely. And its for parents who don't believe in CIO and would rather put in the time and effort to have as little crying as possible. Each step could take up to 20 tries.were on step 4 but it usually doesn't take long at all for him to fall asleep. There are other factors that make some nights easier than others and he still isn't sleeping through the night all the time but its a start and I'm happy with the progress. Hope that made sense and is helpful to you!

brideinsummer04 · September 2013

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. It sounds a little like what we did at night "Sleep Lady Shuffle" by Kim West. It is a bit different though and worth a shot so we will try it out! Thanks again.

vamomtobe · September 2013

CIO for nighttime worked great for us, but did not work for naps at all. For naps, we did a similar process to what's described above, but we started in the crib. We held his hand until he fell asleep and sat next to the crib in a glider throughout the whole nap to reassure him if he woke up as the first step. He cried a lot even with us being right there with him, but eventually he got comfortable with that. Then we started minimizing contact with him, but still sat right next to him during the nap. Once he got comfortable with that, we were able to rub his back for a minute until he falls asleep, then leave the room for him to nap. We went from 20 minute naps and a cranky miserable LO to 2 hour naps, on average.

The key to any approach is consistency, so just be sure your mom is willing to stick to the plan, even if it means enduring some tears. That's the hardest part. Good luck!

brideinsummer04 · September 2013

Thanks for the response. I know what you mean about consistency bc that was key when we did the nighttime training, but my mom said she won't let him CIO. So I'm faced with getting this down pat fast bc she won't continue the training if it involves crying. I understand where she's coming from, CIO was a last resort for us when he was waking hourly at 14 months. I knew nap training would be harder than nighttime, but never anticipated it would be as bad as it has been. Also I thought since nighttime CIO worked, nap time CIO would too but it doesn't seem to be the case bc it is still getting worse each day. I'm looking into some other unconventional ways but am torn. Thanks again it gives me more ideas to try!

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