Does nap time suck for everyone?

HeartLikeMine3 · February 2014

Of course once they are asleep it doesn't suck but getting my LO there is a fight. He's pretty good at taking his morning nap but he fights me for 30-45 minutes every afternoon. Arching back, screaming, scratching, you name it. Somedays I just give up and let him stay awake until bedtime but then we have the dreaded devil baby all evening which is great fun. I am still rocking him for naps and am about ready to throw in the towel. He puts himself to sleep at bedtime without a peep, but for naps if I put him in his crib he either A.) plays and talks but never falls asleep or B.) screams like he's on fire. B is the one I mostly get but he's never once fallen asleep during the day on his own. He either sleeps in his swing for naps or in my arms but i'm ready to be able to put him in his crib for naps like I do at night. I never had to do any sleep training at night so do I just do CIO during the day? I'm so lost, where are your babies taking their naps and how do they fall asleep?

dmlk413 · February 2014

My daughter naps in her crib but it takes a loooong time for her to go down most of the time. It's a battle every single time we try to put her down. It's super frustrating because she is usually a good sleeper at night and tends to nap well at daycare. She just won't nap for me.

Cricket81 · February 2014

FFMC: I still let LO nap on me. It's the only way he will nap more than 15 minutes. The forced down-time is kind of nice too.

momofcatan · February 2014

Very similar for me, except she does go down awake. Afternoons are so hit or miss. I will let her cry, but sit beside the crib. Sometimes I need to hold down her arms/legs until she's a sleep. In the morning I just sit in the rocking chair (not near her crib) and she can put herself to sleep.

NicoleReed0324 · February 2014

Add us to the bad napper club. It doesn't take as long as you described.. Maybe 5-10 minutes but it is SO dramatic! The same arching his back, pulling my hair, screaming in my face. He isn't awesome at night either though.. So I have no advice haha

bexbarker · February 2014

Naps were okay for a little while. Lately, my girl has been just not wanting to nap at all. She gets tired--I see her cues--but when I put her in the crib, she doesn't want to nap. One thing I have found that seems to help some is soft music playing the whole time, rather than a toy that plays music for 10 minutes. It definitely helps at night. But today she took a 17 minute nap after fighting me for 20 minutes. Not worth it. Later in the afternoon she took an hour and a half nap (super rare) after not fighting me at all. It's just always a toss up.

BC&LM · February 2014

LO naps in the Pack and Play in the living room. We usually put him down in our arms and transfer him, though every so often he will put himself to sleep. (At one point he did it for almost a week straight, but not any more.) Sometimes he fights it, but not usually longer than five minutes. If he fights it for longer than that, we play or read some more and then try again a bit later.

amberdt03 · February 2014

What is this nap time you speak of?

HeartLikeMine3 · February 2014

Well I'm sorry all your LO's are doing the same thing because it's so frustrating. But at least I know it's somewhat common for his age. I tried letting him CIO around 6 months and I was a mess and he never self soothed. I guess I could try it again :-/

whitney2302 · February 2014

This is us word for word. LO is with my mom 2 days, MIL 2 days and DH 1 day while I'm at work. He doesn't fight them as much as he does me. But I'm ready to just lay him in his crib and he go to sleep on his own. Like you, he will go to sleep fine at night, so I don't understand why naps are so difficult.

My bff had a horrible sleeper (day & night) so when he was 8 months old, she talked to a sleep specialist. She basically started implementing a "nap hour". She would do the normal routine, then lay him in his crib awake. After 5 min, she'd go back in and soothe him. She'd pick him up if she had too. But once he was calm, she'd lay him back down and walk out. I think she went in every 5 min until he was asleep (this wouldn't work for me. LO gets even more worked up if I go in the room). If a whole hour went by and he still wasn't asleep, she'd get him up and then try again in another hour. She said this only happened a few times. Once he was asleep, if he woke up before the hour was over, she'd leave him in his crib and he eventually learned to go back to sleep and his naps got longer. She said it took a couple weeks, but he learned to go to sleep on his own and rarely cried anymore.

I've considered trying this, but it's hard since I'm only putting him down for naps on the weekend. I know my mom and DH would go along with the plan, but I'm worried about my MIL. I don't think she could handle listening to him cry.

sassygal29 · February 2014

dmlk413 said:

My daughter naps in her crib but it takes a loooong time for her to go down most of the time. It's a battle every single time we try to put her down. It's super frustrating because she is usually a good sleeper at night and tends to nap well at daycare. She just won't nap for me.

This

sparklemotion86 · February 2014

I hold DD for her 2 naps. During her afternoon nap, she sleeps for about 2 hours and so does DS. I watch a movie or play on my phone.

lioness13 · February 2014

She won't nap in the afternoon at daycare so some days it sucks to pick her up. But she naps fine for us at home on the weekends. We always get 2 naps a day. We just follow her sleep cues and put her down.

jennOK · February 2014

Mine is trying to cut down to one nap a day. I know he still needs two, and he is a horrible cranky pants when he just gets one. I have to force the second one. His grandmas, who watch him while I work, aren't good at forcing him to do anything, so I get grumpy baby when I get home. I either force him to take a short nap then, or I go for the earlier bed time.

Diana909 · February 2014

It seems right now every single day is different on how long naps are. Over the weekend his naps sucked and were 30min to an hr and half. Today he made up for lack of sleep over the weekend and took a two hr nap in the morning and hr this afternoon. Tomorrow I can guarantee you will be different. He naps in his crib and has been for quite a few months. There are days where I have to rock him and days where I can just pit him in his crib and ten min later he's out.

natalie115 · February 2014

We're in the crappy nap camp too. We have rock him to sleep. If we put him down awake he immediately flips over gets on all fours and either rocks back and forth or goes to the side of his crib and stands up....he'll do that until the cows come home w/o falling asleep. He usually let's us put him down after he's asleep but will not sleep for more then a half hour. If he naps on us he'll sleep 45 min-90 min. When he wakes up he almost looks like he's having an adrenaline rush, dead asleep to wide awake looking almost panicked it a second. It's weird. He naps great at daycare. She puts him down awake, he goes right to sleep and naps 45-90min.

cafecreme · February 2014

we've been having issues for a few weeks now. Most naps are a fight. Just finally got her down after 2+ hours of screaming and crying.

itsStackie · February 2014

Naps have always been a little difficult, we finally transitioned to two naps a day, but laying her down is a pain. She only takes good naps if she is in her swing watching a video, or in the car. It's hard right now because DH has her and she needs to nap and he can't carry her to the crib. Hopefully next week we can start a new routine though.

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