Just curious of everyone's nap strategies at this point. I had been holding Gunner and walking around the bedroom until he falls asleep and then laying him down. But that is no longer working and he'll only fall asleep in the car or if he's so beyond tired he'll fall asleep nursing. If I lay him in the crib awake he just stands up and screams. What are you guys doing??? I've got to figure something out....
Re: Nap routines.
takes a bottle before naps but doesn't fall asleep while drinking.
Once he starts closing his eyes we lie him down and he usually goes to sleep fine. Even when he's sick he usually naps decent. We do drowsy but awake but he is on the heavy side of drowsy.
Nighttime is basically the same, but darker. I sing to him while I rock him at night. There have been maybe only 5 times when I have been able to put him down wide awake that resulted in him actually going to sleep on his own. If he cries we go right in because we don't want him getting even more congested.
He used to take 3 naps a day, but now he's boycotting his last nap, which I think is normal since he's coming up on a year.
At bedtime, I'll nurse him before he goes to sleep. Sometimes he stays awake, in which case I'll rock him like I do at nap time, but sometimes (especially lately since he skips his last nap), he'll fall asleep while nursing for bedtime.
We have had one new set back. Over the last week or so he has started throwing his lovie out of the crib as soon as I walk out. I will go in and give it back to him twice and then after the second time he usually keeps it and goes on to sleep. But if he throws it again he will sometimes stand up and cry for it, but he never screams or gets hysterical and he goes on to sleep after 10 min or so. Sometimes if I can get to the monitor fast enough before he throws it-- I can talk into the monitor and say "no throws" if he looks like he is about to do it. That works maybe half the time.
He has not been throwing the lovie at night time, thank goodness.
I try to keep a similar schedule on weekends- nap around 10:30am, then around 5pm.
I'm lucky if naps last 45 minutes
I try to put her in her crib with her stuffed animal, white noise and rub her back a little. She's usually awake and tosses and turns and I might have to go back in and calm her twice until she's down.
But today she refused to sleep in her crib, so both naps required a short car ride to knock her out. Teething I think, top tooth is poking through.
DD will fight me for bedtime, especially if I miss her cues and she becomes over stimulated.
Naptimes are a bit easier, she loves movement to go to sleep, so a car ride, or a stroller ride will help to transition her to bed. She wanted to nurse to sleep, and naps will only happen in my bed. Bedtime, is in the crib.