Nap Time, what is that?

LittleLeahBee · March 2014

Okay, I need some suggestions, if you have any!

My son Mason just turned 5 months old on the 12th. We are really struggling with nap times. We have officially developed a real bed time, which is 8pm every night. Obviously at JUST 5 months, he's too young to use the CIO method, so we've never done that. If he cries, we go get him out. However, he usually chills in his crib for about 20 minutes happily cooing or just looking around, and then suddenly, he'll be asleep--just like that. Nighttimes are going well. Of course, he wakes up to eat around 2 or 3 AM, and then he's up for the day around 5 or 6AM. Works for us. However, we're REALLY struggling with nap times.

He usually takes 2 naps per day anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour long each--but there is no method to the madness, and it's causing him to be REALLY cranky during the daytime. He won't do the same thing for nap times that he does at night--if we place him in his crib, he will cry quite a bit to get out. There is no particular timing that he starts to get "sleepy eyes" so I never know what to do as far as establishing a nap time routine, or at least making sure that he's getting the correct amount of sleep regardless of whether or not there is a routine to it. I feel bad, because he is clearly tired during the day, but he won't fall asleep in his crib until nighttime, and when I try to walk him around like we did when he was younger, he just wants to sit up and look around the whole time, and becomes too distracted to sleep. Infact, when he has eye rolling and exhausted sleepy eyes going on, walking him around almost seems to wake him up rather than put him to sleep. He is FF and has started on solids already--which he LOVES. I don't know if that will help with suggestions, but figured I'd throw that out there.

I feel like I'm losing my mind! Is this normal around this age? Any advice or suggestions for things to try would be amazing. We'll try anything at this point! Poor kid is totally exhausted, but just can't seem to get himself to sleep.

StephandMatt2012 · March 2014

I don't have any super awesome advice except I've been there too !! My guy is just four months old though but napping was horrible only cat naps and only if I bounced him for twenty minutes or so ... My body and mind couldn't take it anymore after speaking with a gf who used a sleep consultant that's the route I took and I am one happy mommy now!!! She doesn't believe in the CIO method and using reassurance often to get the baby napping better and he went from doing 3-4 catnaps a day to 2 1.5 hour naps and a 3-4 nap about 45mins-1 hr long, only wakes twice to feed overnight and my baby is so much happier now we also follow a pretty strict routine so baby knows exactly what's going to happen each day he goes to bed at 7 and wakes at 6:30 for the day! I've learned his sleepy cues are yawning and after an hour of being awake he goes back down once I see his cues and he's getting very good at putting himself to sleep, although naps can take a while to put into place ! Hang in there it will get better ! Best of luck

DahliaFlower · March 2014

We have a somewhat similar situation. DS is very consistent with bedtime. Usually between 6:45-7:15 pm he is clearly ready, we go through our nighttime routine and he goes down pretty easily. He gets up at night to eat (EBF) and generally goes right back to sleep.

"Naptime" is all over the place. We look for signs of fatigue such as staring, sleepy eyes, yawning and then make a move to get him down for nap. He sometimes sleeps for 30-40 mins, sometimes for 1.5 hours or more. Some days we can't get him to nap for anything!

I just try to create conditions to encourage napping at the appropriate times and definitely when I see signs of fatigue. But I don't beat myself up over it if he won't sleep. The words of one expert I remember reading, "You can force wakefulness on sleep, but you can't force sleep on wakefulness."

Basically, I would just try my best to have good sleep conditions at times you believe are appropriate for napping (i.e. don't have LO in Target). Hopefully he will eventually fall into a better pattern.

bnan · March 2014

I may not be the best person to offer advice since I'm working on a similar problem, but I did have some thoughts that will at least give you some things to try. Since your baby isn't able to fall asleep on his own for nap time yet, I'd first just try soothing him to sleep with singing, patting, rocking, or (my LO's favorite) bouncing on a yoga ball. He may need a dark environment with white noise if he's a very alert baby so he doesn't get more excited and stimulated by looking at everything (my LO is like this, too!). Hopefully this will help him relax enough to sleep. Then later you can work on teaching him to fall asleep on his own for naps (which I don't know how to do yet, but I'm working on it!), but at least he'll be used to napping during the day at that point so you'll at least have a starting point. As for timing, if you are having a hard time identifying his early tired cues, try getting him to nap after about 2 hours of awake time. If he seems too awake or too tired, adjust more or less awake time accordingly. Hope this helps and good luck!

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