How to get 4.5 month old to nap?

[Deleted]

She goes to bed at night great. Naps during the day only sometimes. And today is not one of those times. She's spent the last 30 minutes screaming in her crib, the 30 before that cooing until she realized she was being left there. 

Shes slept about 40 min in the last 5 hours. 25 min in the car and three hours later for 15 min after eating in my arms. She popped awake when I put her down. 

Shes laying on my chest now giggling and rubbing her eyes. 

Pretty sure 4.5 months old need more sleep than this. Hell, I need more sleep than this! How do I convince her?

[Deleted]

I don't know. The boys were not great nappers until about 8 months. It was really, really hard during those kinds of days.

I did find a naptime routine helped some -- snuggles w buddies (blankets) and stories. It helps transition. I think we started that around 4 months. Didn't extend the length of the nap but helped the getting down some.

...some.

[jaycee]

I try to put my almost 4 month old son down for naps after he has been awake for just an hour or hour and a half.

Maybe she is just overstimulated and can't settle down. Do you think that's a possibility?

Are you using a swaddle or loud white noise machine? My little guy loves both of those.

[eddy]

Try putting her down earlier? She might be overtired. Maybe avoid car rides in the morning if that is a place she falls asleep. It might be taking the edge off and then she isn't able to get a good restful nap.

[wkatie]

Can you let her nap in a swing? I have my 4.5 month old take some of his naps in the swing.

[eddy]

Oh yes with boy boys we never went longer than 2 hours max between naps.

[Deleted]

We have white noise, soothing piano music, stories read, diaper changed, not hungry

Circles under the eyes, yawns and rubbing eyes indicate to me a bit of a nap is needed.


Her blanket is apparently hilarious.

[jaycee]

Also, just wanted to add my sympathy. I can relate. DS1 was a crabby, crabby baby that didn't nap much. DS2 is a mellow, sleepy little guy. I hope this gets better for you.

[WOT?*]

Start drinking wine.

[iamgrace]

Spike the milk! Haha

I don't know. Clare is turning out to be a non napper. She is tired, though. I swaddle and nurse and walk and rock. If I need to hold her in the afternoon to get a nap in, that's what I do. She naps okay in the morning, not so well in the afternoon. She's 3 months.

[mnirishgirl]

I second the advice to try earlier. At 4 months we'd put DS down after he'd been up 90 minutes. Now at 6 months it has stretched out to more like 2 hours after waking in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. But at that age it was 90 minutes or he'd be so overtired he wouldn't sleep. We also had to have really loud white noise playing or he'd continuously wake himself up and result in 30 minutes naps. An infant's sleep cycle is about 30 minutes at that age so it sounds like your little one isn't able to transition from one cycle to the next. This is super common and the only other thing I can add is that our guy's naps got a lot better at just over 5 months.

[Alyssa]

You're in the 4 month wakeful, there is no answer to getting them to sleep, they will nap when they are ready.  My son came out of it at about 5.5 months old.

[CurlyQ284]

I think at that age he would only nap in the swing. I used the swing heavily for about 2 months and then he hated it but it was worth every penny for those two months.

Plus also he's in daycare so on weekdays it was their problem lol.

[eddy]

Sept 30, 2013 13:10:09 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

4 months is the worst age. The worst!

This is also true. So this might be a little hiccup in the napping regime.

[Deleted]

Well she's happy. She also looks like she's been on a bender.

I guess when she falls asleep I'll just hold her and read my book. Since I posted her eyes have nearly closed a number of times and she keeps jerking herself awake. Kid fights sleep like a champ. Much like the book I've pointed out there's nothing to miss, the dog is sleeping, the cat is sleeping, nothing to see!

[Deleted]

Sept 30, 2013 13:26:03 GMT -5 Alyssa said:

You're in the 4 month wakeful, there is no answer to getting them to sleep, they will nap when they are ready.  My son came out of it at about 5.5 months old.

Wrong answer! I was scared it would be something like this. 

I guess its it's better than the 8 week witching hour crying.