October 2013 Moms
emmylou78
member
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Naps sans bottles
emmylou78
member
What do nap times look like for you? Bottles for us have been a sleep and nap time crutch. I think we are both lost without them 
. The past 2 days I've tried nap without them, and she refuses the sippy, even though she takes it other times just fine. Give her a bottle and Bam! Right to sleep.
Any tips?
. The past 2 days I've tried nap without them, and she refuses the sippy, even though she takes it other times just fine. Give her a bottle and Bam! Right to sleep. Any tips?
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Re: Naps sans bottles
So do you guys just do the sleepy but awake, straight into the crib? When is last bottle (or milk sippy)?
Our routine was that we laid down together in my bed, she had her bottle and falls asleep, then I move her into her crib.
LO then (2 days) and now (1 year)
He gets a sippy of milk around 10 or 11 am, and nap usually begins around noon (one nap a day, about 2.5 hours long). Night time routine: dinner at 6 (with water to drink in a sippy), bath, pjs, sippy of milk (6 oz) while sitting next to me on the couch, then he walks around, plays for about 5 minutes, and then I brush his teeth and carry him upstairs to his room. I rock him until he sighs and just barely closes his eyes, then lay him in the crib and stand there for about 5 min until he's breathing heavily then walk out.
TBH, it seems to me that you've got several sleep crutches here. One is falling asleep in your arms/next to you, one is the bottle, and one is being put into the crib totally asleep. My two cents is I would address one of those at a time and not try to do them all at once. Unless your kid is a magic sleep unicorn, she will probably be very confused and upset to totally change her routine like that (or mine would be, anyway).
He gets a sippy of milk around 10 or 11 am, and nap usually begins around noon (one nap a day, about 2.5 hours long). Night time routine: dinner at 6 (with water to drink in a sippy), bath, pjs, sippy of milk (6 oz) while sitting next to me on the couch, then he walks around, plays for about 5 minutes, and then I brush his teeth and carry him upstairs to his room. I rock him until he sighs and just barely closes his eyes, then lay him in the crib and stand there for about 5 min until he's breathing heavily then walk out.
TBH, it seems to me that you've got several sleep crutches here. One is falling asleep in your arms/next to you, one is the bottle, and one is being put into the crib totally asleep. My two cents is I would address one of those at a time and not try to do them all at once. Unless your kid is a magic sleep unicorn, she will probably be very confused and upset to totally change her routine like that (or mine would be, anyway).
I tried laying with her in bed without a bottle and she just plays. Or cries.
Maybe I need to freshen up on some sleep books.
If I were in your position, I would probably start with putting her down not totally asleep. Maybe start out giving her the bottle with her mostly sitting up (do you have a rocker/glider in her room? maybe sitting there?), then when she's done, lay her in the crib. Then you can eventually space the two things out farther and farther, until she's *full* from having had the bottle not long ago, but not actually nursing to sleep on the bottle, if that makes sense? And at that point, it probably wouldn't be too hard to transition her from the bottle to the sippy pre-nap/bed, because she really won't be tying the two things together in her mind? I am totally just spit-balling here, it's just how I'd probably approach it if it were me. I am *certainly* no expert.
I would imagine, somewhere along the line, you are going to reach the point where the time that elapses between bottle/sippy and going to bed is long enough that she's no longer really groggy from the milk, and you'll probably have to deal with teaching her to put herself to sleep or figure out a new routine that works for both of you. For example, I totally realize that me rocking Cam until he's drowsy is absolutely still a sleep crutch, BUT it's one that works for both of us for now, and I like the cuddles, so I'm fine with it. If it starts to become a problem for either of us, I'll have to teach him a new way to go to sleep, so I'll cross that bridge when I have to.