Hello! After one night of letting our almost 5 month old daughter cry it out, she finally will go right to sleep when lay her down in her crib for bed. However, when it comes to naps during the day, it doesn't work AND she does NOT get a nap in at all during the day which makes her extremely whiny because she is so very tired. Does anyone have any advice on getting her to take a nap?
By the way, I understand that everyone has their own opinions on letting babies cry it out. I for one do not see a problem in doing it, I did it with my first child, never had to with my second, & definitely did it with this one. I tried the rocking, swaddling, EVERYTHING under the sun and she would never go to sleep and it just made for an awful night EVERY night so crying it out of course was our last resort however I am very glad we did it!
Will she fall asleep in a swing?
In the car?
Listening to music?
Are you sure you're doing nap time BEFORE she is overly tired? They 're just agitated & wired if they're overly tired.
lay her down earlier. If she'll do it for the night time she should do it for the day time. Make sure her room is DARK, that helps. My guess is you are either laying her down TOO SOON when she isnt ready or TOO LATE when you passed that sweet spot.
I always recommend the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth for ANYONE on there with infant sleep issues!! It is the ONE book that I LOVED, and still refer to!! Good luck!! :-)
Our son seemed to be afraid he'd miss something while napping, so he always fought it.
More than once we'd all lay down with him on the big bed (he was a toddler by then), and we'd all end up taking a nap together. (I have some cute pictures of him and Daddy snoozing together.)
At 5 months - a car ride or a walk in the stroller had him napping pretty quickly.
For a long time - hay rides anywhere would have him sound asleep in less than 5 min.
Dad sometimes took him for hikes in his back pack baby carrier and he'd fall asleep for that too.
Will she nap in the car? I would do whatever it takes at this point to start the habit of napping. If she sleeps in the car maybe plan a drive 2 times a day. I know it sounds like a pain, but at least she would be napping. There is so much brain developing, when they are sleeping, at that age, she is missing.
Schedule. I had to institute a schedule and that led to consistent naps. Morning wake and bottle at the same time everyday, 2 hours later put her down for a nap. Next bottle is 4 hours after the first. So my day looks like this:
7am - wake and bottle
9am - down for nap
11 - wake and bottle
1 - down for nap
3 - wake and bottle
5 - down for short nap
6:30 - bottle
7p - down for night
9p - final bottle
Once I did that schedule for about three straight days - it caught on. Now of course there is some fluxuation, maybe a shorter nap, maybe a later bottle, but for the most part my day is very predicatable and our nights (and naps) are sleep filled. :)
