7 month old napping

[EmilytheStrange]

at 7months we were still swaddling. Nighttime was always easy, but naps have been very hard.

I had to swaddle her and lay with her as she screamed and calmed down. I eventually started moving her into her crib after she was asleep and as she started waking up in there, she got better about being put in there during the day to nap.

[chandni3]

I have the same problem. Baby sleeps great at night but will only nap in my arms or the swing. As soon as I lay her in her crib or bassinet she wakes up and cries and cries and won't go back to sleep. If I pick her up, she falls asleep. I've tried her crib, her bassinet she sleeps in at night, music, mobile, a few minutes of crying it out (I got her once her fussy crying turned to more actual crying), music, standing beside the bed and calming her. Nothing works. I'm planning to transition from the bassinet in our room to her crib at night soon and I'm afraid it's not going to go well.

[EmilytheStrange]

Originally Posted by chandni3 I have the same problem. Baby sleeps great at night but will only nap in my arms or the swing. As soon as I lay her in her crib or bassinet she wakes up and cries and cries and won't go back to sleep. If I pick her up, she falls asleep. I've tried her crib, her bassinet she sleeps in at night, music, mobile, a few minutes of crying it out (I got her once her fussy crying turned to more actual crying), music, standing beside the bed and calming her. Nothing works. I'm planning to transition from the bassinet in our room to her crib at night soon and I'm afraid it's not going to go well.

go into it with positive thinking.

My 19month old has always been a horrible napper (with some spurts of awesome napping). but she sleeps great at night.

They're really more different than we think: napping and nighttime.

Right now, she naps 30 minutes. That's it. Which means I have about 5 more minutes :P but at night? easy peasy.

ETA: and given the choice? I take nighttime sleep over napping anyday.

[hbee]

Originally Posted by EmilytheStrange ETA: and given the choice? I take nighttime sleep over napping anyday.

Me too! I will struggle through naps and take the easy night routine.

[Hungry Caterpillar]

We have major nap struggles here, too. He goes down without a fight at all at night. I recently started to change him into jammies and stick him in the sleep sack for naps and he seems to have gotten the cue that those things signify sleep.

We have reflux issues as well and he has to be upright 30 mins after eating. I spend that time with him super majorly stimulating him as much as I can before I think he may possibly be tired. We walk around, we look at flowers in the backyard, we pet the dogs, we watch them wrestle, we go through the fruit bowl on the counter and touch everything... anything I can think of.

The other thing I did when he got more mobile was write down when he started to look tired, when he ate, when he actually fell asleep, and when he woke up. After a week or so of this, I figured out he was actually showing patterns and now when it's around 40 mins before I think he will be tired, we do a bottle, busy him for 30 mins, change diaper and into jammies, put on the sleepsack, and then go in the crib. It doesn't work all the time, but it does work some.

We also play the Lullaby Renditions of Pink Floyd or the Beatles from Rockabye Baby while getting him ready for sleep at night and now the nap routine, so I think he is picking up cues.

[hbee]

This morning she slept until 7:20 and when she rubbed her eyes I took her upstairs to nap. First one went well, 8:40-9:30. Then she started looking sleepy shortly... so we went upstairs and she did her sleepy screaming for half an hour before going to sleep 10:45-11:35. Now it's 11:45... we will see how the rest of the day goes. I'm getting ready to go out for the afternoon.

[doodah]

I would consider a more consistent routines and shoot for two longer naps a day, versus the shorter ones. It appears that she is doing the 45 min. thing where essentially she doesnt know how to get to the next sleep cycle on her own. Even though she is awake, she is still sleepy. She really should be able to be awake for more than an hour at this point.

If you want to try a routine, I would begin by picking a waking time. Try and make that as close to the same time every day....that way her naps will always fall near the same time frame and you can also easily schedule errands and activities around that.

This is what I put my kids and daycare kids on...
Wake up at 7, eat, then play
Nap from 9-11, eat, then play
Nap from 1-3, eat then play
Bedtime is usually around 7pm

Hope that helps. Routines can be done even with co-sleepers!

[hbee]

She was up until almost 3, but that's because we were out. Then she slept another 45 minutes on the way home. You might be right about the 45 minutes though, occasionally, I can rock her right back to sleep.