Recently had my babysitter take care of my 10 month old for the weekend and now he has been suffering from separation anxiety which has caused such a disruption in his sleep at night and nap times. What I having a really hard time is his nap times. When he was in a routine he would go down at 9:30AM and 1:30PM. I can put his down for his AM nap which consist me of nursing and rocking him to sleep (which has always worked for me) and now for his second nap he will not go down at all. When I think he has fallen asleep and the moment I put him down in his crib he wakes up and starts crying and standing up in his crib.
I am starting to think I will need to let him cry it out. But for how long? I know at night time he needs to stay asleep, but I am confused about the whole nap thing deal. Is anybody going through what I am going through?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
It sound like you might have to quit one of the naps. My littlest quit taking her morning naps around that age. She now just takes one nap about 1:30 PM. I or her older sisters kept her entertain until nap time for everyone. Hopefully this helps.
Same thing w/ my daughter -- at about 10 or 11 mos she started wanting to drop her afternoon nap. Which doesn't mean that you can't still put him down for 'quiet time' in the afternoons, even if he doesn't go to sleep. Some days when my daughter gets cranky in the late afternoons I put her down for even 20 min and it seems to help. But yes, you do have to put them down and then just walk away for the allotted time. The message has to be, once I put you down here, you're going to stay here for a while -- and within two or three days they adjust to that. It may help if you put him down before you think he's asleep. At about this age my daughter stopped letting me rock her to sleep; now she prefers to be put down before she's even drowsy, and she's happier rolling around w/ her bunny and her blankie and putting herself to sleep.
As far as how to move his morning nap back, just keep him awake 20 min longer every day and eventually you'll get him to take one nap after lunch (no matter what time lunch ends up being -- my daughter eats 4-5 meals a day so 'lunch' may be at 10:30 or 11).
And don't worry if this transition seems to take forever; it does. :-) It was months before my daughter was taking only one afternoon nap consistently on the same schedule every day. Some days it was one nap, some days it was two, some days the one nap came before lunch, and on those days, some days she sat in her crib every afternoon at 'second nap time' and fussed for 20 min straight. The best you can do is stay flexible and do whatever you have to to keep them from getting overtired.
Hope this helps! Hang in there!
J.
My son started going through some sleep issues between 10 mos. and 1 year old, and it was because he was changing his nap schedule. I started trying to keep him up later and later in the morning until he went down between 11:30 and 12:00 after lunch until about 3:00. He might possibly be trying to change his schedule on you. Try doing that and see if it helps. By the way, I really fought him taking one big nap during the day, but I eventually started loving it. Hope this helps, and good luck!!
My son is nine months. When i was weaning him at 6 months he stopped taking his napps. i had to just put him in his crib and just let him cry it out. it was heartbreaking. but surprisingly he only cried for 10 minutes. it was a very long ten minutes, but now there isn't even a wimper out of him when it is nap time. Try it, and if he crys for more than 15 minutes, go back in there and calm him down. then try again. let me know how it goes :) good luck.
I started letting my daughter cry, it was really hard but worth it. I would put her down explain that is was nap time. I would let her cry for about 5 minutes go and check on her (dont pick them up) just lay them back down try to sooth them. You might have to repeat going in and checking on them every 10 to 15 minutes but they will go to sleep. It took about a week for it to work with out her crying but every onces in a while she still will. Hope this helps!!
