Look at this tired face! We have been struggling with naps for a few weeks now. Little Edward does not like to go down for naps and will not stay asleep for long. I am lucky if I can get him to stay asleep for 45 minutes.
He sleeps on his tummy and will often immediately push up when I put him down. Sometimes he will push up, look at me, and grin ear to ear!
Then he makes this face when he realizes I am leaving the room...
I cannot seem to break this bad nap pattern. After a brief rest, he will flip himself over on to his back which signals the end of the nap, as he is unable to fall back asleep on his back.
Now, I know we have come a long way from the old wearing him for naps system, but any suggestions from the veterans out there would be welcome!
3 comments:
Hayden did this for a while too! It is tough! Every little baby is different, but I would say what worked for us is that he had to be put to bed awake and let himself fall asleep...this does include crying it out alot. I know that is not what you probably want to hear, and that may not be true of little Edward, but for my babies, they had to learn to put themselves to sleep and then they slept longer and more soundly.
I'm not much help as we swaddled Carter for SOOOO long! He slept in a swaddle blanket until about 6 months usually on his back at night. During the day I'd put him on his tummy when I knew he was really tired and wouldn't fight it as much.
Maybe try stretching his awake time a little, so that he'll be really tired. Or I'm sure you've thought of this, but do the same routine before each nap and rock him some so that he knows it's nap time and calms down a bit.
Carter also went through rough patches of napping, so just try to stick with one thing and then in a few weeks it'll probably change.
I agree that if they can start to put themselves to sleep, it's helpful in the long run. I could not ever do the cry it out for more than 5 minutes and I would listen for just a wimper cry verses an all out I'm not going to sleep cry.
A sound machine might help or a sleep sack.
Good luck!
Hi Mary Liz! I don't know if you'll remember me (Katie Evans), I was a Pi Phi with you at Baylor! Congrats on baby Edward! He is precious! I had to comment on this post because I feel your pain! I have a 13 month old named Caden and when he turned 4 months old I (finally) realized that holding him for his naps throughout the day was getting us no where. We were really fortunate that he was a great nighttime sleeper but nap times not so much. The minute I put him down in his crib it was all over. So for 4 months I reconciled holding him throughout the day with the fact that he was sleeping through the nights and I'm sorry but how could you not want to hold those sweet babies when they sleep! Seriously! But that's not what you need help with... ha!
So... to the point! One day it hit me... I've got to do something about this... so Caden went to Mommy Nap Camp! I had a lot of advice from 'veterans' who encouraged me to try to let Caden cry it out. They said it would only take a few days and he'd be napping like a champ, so I tried it and for us it took about 1 month!! I know not what you want to hear, but it worked. It was SUPER hard to let him cry it out and it is not for everyone... and there were times where I thought that it wasn't for me, but I knew that it would be best for CADEN and so I stuck it out. After that VERY long month he was doing fabulously well, taking two naps a day. And still at almost 14 months he's napping twice a day. You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish during those naps!! :) Every Mommy needs her time!
If you want more advice on the crying it out method I'd be happy to share how we did it! But YOU seem to be doing a fabulous job being a Mommy so I have no doubt that whatever route you choose you'll have a happy, well-loved little man on your hands! :)
Happy Napping!!
PS: We also use the same routine for naps as for bed and we also used and still use a sound machine...
Post a Comment