I have asked a lot of sleep questions on here...so here is yet another...
My 6-month old son does not go down easy for naps- we have had several issues with this but the current one is that whenever I put him down for a nap, no matter how tired, he screams, cries, rolls-around and gets upset for at least 30 minutes. I know he is tired when I put him down because he has been up for an hour and a half, generally that is his wakeful time, his eyes start to look tired and he has yawned. He is not overtired yet, which is even worse. So why does this happen? I have tried many methods- rocking him to sleep (it takes about 30 minutes and then he wakes up as soon as I put him down), patting his butt and shushing him (after he is utterly exhausted from crying this will usually work), graduated extinction per weisbluth (he continues to cry, cry, cry and rarely will fall asleep on his own) and many other things. He has music playing, is in his crib, fresh diaper, teething tabs, so everything should be okay. It is heartbreaking for me to hear him cry so much even though I know he needs sleep. When he finally does fall asleep he will only sleep 30-40 minutes, an hour at the most. At night, he soothes himself back to sleep and generally sleeps from 6:30-6:30, getting up once or twice to eat (he is still breastfeeding). Any help or advice would be appreciated.
You mentioned Weissbluth so I wonder if you would consider seeing him for a sleep consult. We did, even though it's really expensive, when we had the same problem. The results were absolutely amazing! He works downtown. Just a thought.
Oh my, do I feel for you, I really do! I don't have any real advice, just words of encouragement. My 9 month old girl is exactly the same and we've tried just as many methods. All I can say is hang in there and give it time.
At 6 months my girl still wasn't sleeping through the night but CIO did help that. However that technique has proved useless for naps. So there you go, there's really no one-size-fits-all trick and we're still dealing with that. But I do have to admit that things have improved.
I think rather than things getting instantly better in 3 days as many people will attest to, it actually happens much more slowly. But it does happen. Don't let anybody tell you it happens fast, and for the time being stay the hell away from people who look up from their smiling infants and announce "He sleeps 12 hours a night and takes 3 long naps a day!" At least that's what I'm doing for now :)
My daughter (now 10) never liked to nap either -- from day 1! She did sleep 12 hours a night regularly, starting when she was tiny, so I stopped fighting the naps, even though she sometimes seemed tired during the day. She wouldn't even fall asleep in the car on long trips! (My older one would sleep at the drop of a hat.) How is he sleeping at night? Maybe he is getting enough sleep. (I know I really liked those naps too, but she just wouldn't take them.)
My son was a terrible sleeper until we started co-sleeping at 6 months. I swore I would never ever do that, but sleeping with him worked wonders, for both of us. After months of sleep deprivation, we both started getting plenty of rest. When I went back to work, everyone said oh you poor sleep deprived mother. But, the truth was, I was getting more sleep than I had gotten in years. Last week he started sleeping in his crib from bedtime until 2am. It just feels right...like he's developementally ready to sleep alone more of the time now that he's 16 months old. When he wakes up and calls me or fusses, I just go get him and we fall back to sleep. When we wake up he's so excited to see me...I love to see him happy when he wakes up.
