What is your naptime routine?

[gibbinator]

Ds falls asleep one of two ways during the day. Either a nursing session lines up with naptime and I nurse him to sleep in bed. Or I pop him in his carseat and go for a walk/drive.

All other techniques (swing, rocking, swaddling him up in the crib, bouncing on the exercise ball....) involve a lot of crying before he finally conks out. By then he's over tired and sleeps all of 20mins.

So how do/did you convince your baby to sleep during the day?

[arch01]

We did "nap bootcamp" right at the age where your son is now. We did a bit of CIO/Ferber/whatever you want to call it... we change his diaper, turn on the sound machine, plop him in the crib with a paci and leave. The first couple days we were super strict with nap time were tough-we'd check at intervals and he'd finally go to sleep. We would mainly go in, pop the paci back in, but did not speak/shush.

Our big key was that we finally realized we were putting him down at the first signs of being tired (rubbing eyes, yawn, getting cranky) instead of anticipating it. We now rock the 2-3-4 routine, where nap 1 is 2 hours after his AM wakeup, nap 2 is 3 hours after wakeup from nap 1, bedtime is 4 hours after nap 2 wakeup. At first, we were going about 1.5hrs from AM wakeup to nap 1, but now we are doing well at 2 hours and can stretch it to 2.5 hours without any ill effects (if we're running late out doing errands, etc).

DS was nicknamed the No Nap Wonder. He was not a fan of naps. At all. After about a week of being super strict with naps, he is now a great napper at home (but not so much at DC).

[dcrunnergirl]

They key for us was making sure we were putting them down at the right time--as soon as they showed any of their sleepy signals. For us, that meant their eyelids would start to get a little red. Weird, but that's how I knew. If they started rubbing their eyes, it was too late.

Once I saw the sign, I changed their diapers and put them in their cribs and walked away. If I got them at the right time, then they just went right to sleep. I have never rocked either of my kids to sleep at all b/c I didn't have enough arms to rock them both at the same time, so they just learned to go down drowsy but awake.

[hannamaren]

I am no use. At that age, I was still doing bottle to fall asleep.

[karinothing]

Oct 23, 2012 8:35:23 GMT -5 hannamaren said:

I am no use. At that age, I was still doing bottle to fall asleep.

This but the boob. I would side lie nurse him in bed and then run away when he fell asleep ha ha.

[Deleted]

DD has sort of developed a schedule where she takes a nap in the morning around 9:30-11:30ish, 1:00-3:00, and 4:30-5 pm. She sleeps in her swing.

[gibbinator]

Oct 23, 2012 10:22:19 GMT -5 littlespitfire said:

I can't see sigs but am filing this info away for the future. How old is your DS, OP?

4.5 months roughly

[whitterbugk]

We either hold him while he sleeps or put him to sleep on his side, leaning toward his belly, in his pack n play.

I'm aware that both are a little flameful.

[pugz]

the swing usually does it, if not, I hold her so I can hold the paci in her mouth. Sometimes going to the nursery, pulling the curtains, and rocking her with white noise on works if she's fussy.

she naps out in the living room though, once she's asleep nothing wakes her.

[Ashley&Scott]

I'm no help, DS is almost always nursed to sleep. (day & night)

[Deleted]

I nurse DS and he often falls asleep, if he doesn't I rock him for a bit w/ his paci and he always falls asleep. Like PP said, I watch for his sleep signs very closely (crankiness, drops toys, rubs eyes, yawning) and put him down for a nap as soon as I see them. DS naps three times a day. I've never tried the whole "put him down drowsy but awake" thing. He goes down so easy with nursing/rocking and sleeps so well.

DS also sleeps really well after a bath, so if I need him to nap for a long time so I can get something done I do bath, then nurse, then rock.

[Deleted]

Pray she falls asleep. Always has been, always will be.

Signed, mom of the worst napper EVER.

[Deleted]

Sorry, my above reply is not helpful. But if it makes you feel better, seriously NOTHING we ever did could get DD to take a decent nap. I tried and tried and tried and no routine EVER worked. After a lot of agony I just gave up, put her down at around the same times every day when she started to show sleepy signs, and just took what I could get. She rarely took a nap longer than 30-45 minutes at that age. Now, at 2, she has maybe napped once or twice in the last month.

Some kids are just bad nappers. I hope you get some good advice in this thread and find something that works for you, but the biggest lesson for me with DD was just to learn to live with her particular napping style--not to give up trying, but to quit beating myself over the head and worrying about it because there was nothing I could do to force more, better, or longer naps.