Attachment Parenting

transition a one year old to nap alone

edited June 2015 in Attachment Parenting
Hello,
I know this has been asked in various ways before, but perhaps there is advice for my specific case. Daughter is 7 months old. I will be returning to work part-time when she is 11 or 12 months and my mother will care for her 2x /week in my home.
She cosleeps for naps and nights, nursing her down and between sleep cycles for her longer nap. She will nap for up to 40 minutes in a carrier or the stroller.
My mother is worried about naps when she begins taking care of her. She wants somewhere to safely put her down. She has suggested we start working on getting her to nap in the pack n play. I'm not opposed to this - she is doing us a huge favour and I'd like to make it as easy as possible for her.

But how do I do this? Minimal crying, please. I dont even know how she will even begin to associate the pnp eith sleep...

Edited as my phone autocorrected "I'm not" to "Inuit".

Re: transition a one year old to nap alone

  • wintersongwintersong member
    edited June 2015
    Does she already enjoy being set down and playing in her pnp?

    I am transitioning my son to sleeping in his crib all night... Long story short, he wears a brace, and I am ending up black and blue! The first step was to get him comfortable there. We played in it a few times a day so that he wasn't nervous being in there without me. Next, I had to bite the bullet and keep putting him back in his crib. (Think: Lay baby down, baby starts fussing, baby cries, pick baby up right away, do the last part of our night routine again, repeat three or four times!) This is particularly frustrating since I know if I just take him to bed and side lying nurse I will be asleep in ten minutes, tops. I don't know if that's the best way, but it has been working so far. I can lay him in the crib now drowsy and he is okay. (knock on wood...he is four months next week, and we ask know what that means for sleep!)

    Do you have a routine for your long nap? Maybe some kind of cue that you can introduce now as you cosleep so that you can use it as the same cue in the pnp.

    I wish I had some more earth shattering advice! I'm working on a nap routine, too. So far it consists of saying (and eventually signing) "nap-nap?", putting him in his sleep sack, signing his three nighttime songs and side lying nursing/cuddling.

    FWIW, ds is pretty high need, too. He is extremely content as long as I hold him ask the time, and he still nurses every 2-3 hours for twenty minutes or so, even at night. Nighttime in his crib is really the only time he lets me leave him alone and awake for any length of time.

    ETA wow, sorry for the novel!
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • edited June 2015
    We had a routine at about four months, but it stopped working. So we don't have a routine or schedule. If she seems tired we side lye nurse and she sleeps. I will try to introduce a story or something. The only thing is sometimes i misjudge and she doesnt sleep . So if I'm adding a story as a cue, I better make sure I'm positive she'll sleep . She doesnt love to sleep...

    She doesnt mind the pnp to play, but Im leaning towards making it only for sleep so as to have it be a cue of sorts.

    Thanks for your suggestions. Good luck with your transition!
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  • Thanks. Some nights are better than others... Tonight, for instance, it took about thirty thousand choruses of you are my sunshine, but he is finally asleep. Good luck to you, too! :-S
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • My kids sleep totally different for caregivers than for me. If it's working for you, I wouldn't go and change it. Your baby WILL figure out how to relate with grandma and nap. It may take adjustment and creative thinking, but it's doable. Wearing, pushed in a stroller, lay together on a floor bed then grandma sneaks away, driving around, etc. are all options.

  • My kids sleep totally different for caregivers than for me. If it's working for you, I wouldn't go and change it. Your baby WILL figure out how to relate with grandma and nap. It may take adjustment and creative thinking, but it's doable. Wearing, pushed in a stroller, lay together on a floor bed then grandma sneaks away, driving around, etc. are all options.
    Too true! It takes me forever to get LO to sleep, but when we visit my mom he falls asleep on her chest within fifteen minutes of rocking. Makes me so mad!!
    BabyFruit Ticker
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