I have a 6 month old and she refuses to nap anywhere unless she's being held. Then she will easily take a 2-3 hour afternoon nap no problem. As soon as I put her down anywhere, she will cry and wake herself up. I've tried putting her down while awake and she will either just start playing with her paci or start crying and wind her self up so much that she won't sleep. It's making for a very tired mama and baby
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I would say start developing a nap routine and then stick to it. Decide where you'd like her to nap and then put her there when it's naptime. For example, you want her to sleep in her crib. Kiss her and lay her down, pick her up and settle her when she cries, lay her down again. Repeat for a certain amount of time and don't feel guilty about days where you eventually scrap it and end up holding her. If you keep putting her there, eventually she will get the idea that that's where she should sleep. It's not a quick solution, but it does work. It's really about being consistent, not just going straight to holding her some days and trying to lay her down other days.
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@kiddosc: thank you so much for your input!! When you say routine, what would that include? At night she sleeps in her crib, I normally nurse her, she'll fall asleep and I set her in there and she always stays asleep.
Also I bring her to the baby sitter on Wednesday and Thursday, do I tell her to try the same thing with putting her down?
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@MrsBrewer: I'll wall you
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@LBee:
Thank you!
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@MrsBrewer: Our nap routine at that age was sleep sack, paci, rock and sing a song, and then lay him down. But if you want to incorporate nursing/bottle, I don't think that's a problem. I would keep it consistent with what the sitter does. The sleep sack became a big sleep cue for us. So I would try to find something that signals it's bedtime for her. The big thing is just putting her in the crib every day, even if she doesn't always end up sleeping there.
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how many naps is she taking? 4 still? Are they on any sort of "regular" schedule? I recall at that age LO would need to go down about 2 hours after waking from her last nap. If I waited too long, wham, overtired and wouldn't go down. She would nap in the swing, however, and I gradually starting turning down the swing until she would nap in it without it on. Then I started putting her in the crib awake for naps. She falls asleep now for naps and nightime when I put her down awake.
It will get better. I hate the phrase "she needs to learn" but they sort of need to be coached sometimes where they are supposed to sleep!!
and yes, whatever you implement at home try and have the sitter do the same. -
@Littlebit7: she's really only taking 2 naps a day, normally a morning one after she wakes about 1.5-2 hrs later. It's normally a short 30-45 minute nap. Then an afternoon nap that's about 2-3 hours. She will sometimes take a nap just after dinner, but normally not anymore.
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@MrsBrewer: right there with you! All of a sudden naps end as soon as she is laid down. Let me know what works for you! We are trying the lay down awake method next week.
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Our nap routine is sleep sack, pack, sing a song and rock, then go in crib awake. We did nap training around 5.5 months - a few naps with tears but within 2 days she was putting herself down for naps in her crib every time. totally worth it for us. No tears for naps or bedtime ever now and usually asleep within 5-10 mins for naps and 5 mins at night. We did the Ferber method. If recommend work on getting her to soothe herself to sleep for both naps and bedtime. It's an important skill.
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@MrsBrewer: so she's getting good day sleep which is good. I guess it depends which route you are comfortable with. We did let her cry a bit. We checked her often though. I did try for a "crib hour" even if it was a crap nap she still stays in the crib for an hour.
Stay strong. Promise it will get better. She is able to sleep in the crib so that can be a huge motivator for you. She is physically capable of it
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I agree with what @kiddosc said. Just being consistent with a routine will go a long way. For us a big cue sleep signal is the white noise machine. Is there something at night you do that could be used as a signal to incorporate for naps? I would try to talk to the sitter too to stay consistent on a routine with what schedules are like there. Daycare helped us with getting into a good nap routine since DS is there 5 days a week. We are now doing something similar for sttn and it's starting to improve.
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We nap trained and sleep trained all at once with CIO so some crying was involved for a week or so. We do the same routine for all sleep - sleep sack, dark room, white noise machine. We rock and pat while we sing two songs (always the same ones) say I love you and leave. At 6 months, DS was taking two 2 hour naps in the morning and afternoon and was put down awake. Sure we had days when he woke up early but we usually left him in there for 20 minutes and usually he would resettle and go to sleep. If he didn't, we would try to soothe him and pat and sing the same songs and try leaving again. Then we give him another 15-20 try sleeping again. If he has a fit both times we give up and move on with our day, but if he's quiet but awake in his crib we leave him in there until naptime is over.
@kiddosc has a much gentler approach but those methods just did not work our son. I would say try the gentle methods first and work your way through. We unfortunately had an extinction CIO baby on our hands but it was worth it in the end.
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