For weeks now, my 3 month old (actually, she's 3 & 1/2 months now!) has been refusing naps. Going to bed/night-time sleep is going great but naps are a struggle. She used to be able to fall asleep playing & then continue playing once waking, no problem.
Then as she became more alert she needed a little more help but she was still napping well. More recently though, naps have been elusive, resulting in bouts of all day screaming, even if I'm holding her, trying to play with her, etc. resulting in me feeling like its pointless (& exhausting!) trying to soothe her. But since she is so little I still don't feel comfortable with full on crying it out so here's what we've been doing:
When I notice her getting a little sleepy, I put her in her swing, if she protests, we go straight to bed, if not, I let her hang out until she gets fussy. Then, I take her to her bassinet (since that is where she sleeps at night still) & rock her & sing 3 or 4 songs. Then I swaddle her, give her kisses, lay her down, give her her paci & turn on her mobile & stay next to the bassinet until she is asleep (it doesn't take long.). Her first nap of the day is always the easiest (we've only been at it two days), with no crying, though she still is only napping for about 30 minutes. Her second nap today, she lays down fine but wouldn't sleep (no crying!) so after 20 minutes, I decided we would take a break & try again. After about 15 minutes of independent play, she began acting sleepy again so we went straight to bed. This resulted in screaming for about ten minutes though I never left her side. I then picked her up (she continued screaming) & let her cry another 5 minutes before she fell asleep in my arms & I could put her down; yielding another 30 minutes nap.
Any suggestions to help make our system more effective? Have you tried a modified version of crying it out? If so, what did/do you do?