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How old is she? And what's her schedule like? I agree that it's possible she isn't ready for sleep- or, you know, that's she's overtired and her awake time is too long. Babies are strange creatures.

I have a friend whose son will happily hang out in his crib for an hour before falling asleep (he is older, almost two). This has never been my experience- my LO is more like she will fall asleep or just will NOT fall asleep. But we did do CIO so I have no specific advice really other than to play around with her awake times.

My son is like this too, at 7.5 months. It doesn't matter how drowsy he is (he will only become drowsy after feeding or rocking), he will just wake right up as soon as I put him in the crib. He'll play forever or just scream.

I have given up on it now, since I got tired of being frustrated over something I thought I "should" be doing. It was making me frustrated with HIM as well - I don't want to be in a position where I am fighting against a baby!!! Not healthy.

Now we just do what works... feed then rock. I figure he's a little baby and he needs help to get to sleep since his brain is still maturing... falling asleep on his own will come with time. I'm not sure why our culture places so much emphasis on falling asleep alone from such an early age, given that babies' brains are nowhere near fully developed.

Sorry I haven't offered any actual advice; just thought I'd give you my take on it!

I found that the more we sleep trained for night sleep, the less we had to do for naps. As soon as my son could go to bed drowsy (or even not that drowsy) but awake at night, naps followed naturally, and we didn't do blockout blinds or anything - its like he just learned to settle himself down and associate the crib with sleep whether it was nighttime or daytime. 5 months is still pretty little! Good luck.

Didn't read all the comments so sorry if I'm repeating. But my pediatrician told me that even if he doesn't sleep, some quiet alone time in the crib is better than taking him out and keeping him up. She told me to leave him for up to an hour. And to be honest the few times he didn't just fall asleep, he did EVENTUALLY fall asleep. This morning he fell asleep after crying for 30 mins then playing for 10. He just laid down and went to sleep. (He's older but I do think it's good to start the habit early!)

@FaithFertility: between now and August is such a long time for a now five month old! I would try not to worry so much about that now, so much will change between now and then.

@FaithFertility: can I just tell you how much I understand how you feel? But a bit speedier... Cause I'll be literally back at work in 1 week! Ahh! But I felt the same way in recent weeks. Like if I just did the magic recipe for sleep and schedules he would be sleeping easily for anyone and me of course! It sucks. Cause at heart, my parenting style is not schedule oriented, no cry if I can help it, feed on demand, etc. But I need to get him at least drinking bottles and sleeping somewhat regularly!

So this weekend we had practice. Last night I went to dinner with a friend and left him with his dad. I nursed him to sleep and he napped well, needing to be rocked back to sleep a few times. But then when he woke up he cried for 2 whole hours. Refused bottles when he normally does ok. Just freaked out crying for 2 hours. And this is with his dad!
But today we went to movie and had a babysitter come. Who will be watching him 1 evening per week (I work 3-11 and dh gets home from work at 9). And he did great! He only drank 1 oz but he had a decent nap, Which she handled great with our weird instructions (hold him like this, bounce him on exercise ball, say shh like this) and he was playing happily when I got home! So there's hope.

Anyways, not sure what my end point was. But basically if we can do it, you can! I read a lot about sleep training and it's not for me. It just doesn't feel right for us. I worked too hard to get my healthy happy baby and bond with him and figure out how to keep him growing and satisfied, I don't want to suddenly flip flop everything to be all in my schedule. Until maybe this way isn't working for us in the future. Anyways that's my 2 cents.

Hee hee! I'm in the "my baby hates naps" club, too. I just worked a lonnng time for an afternoon nap.

Good ideas here--I'm going to focus on night time training and hope naps will follow. Do whatever it takes for naps. Try to do a modified version of night time routine (lights out, sleep sack on). And watching the clock to get her down in time. She's a happy baby, so I often don't pick up that she's tired until it's too late!

I also discovered that if I place her down in the crib somewhat on her side, not just on her back, she doesn't startle as much. Not fail proof, but something worth trying if your baby can safely do that on her own at this point.