CIO for naps

[shelbyann]

OK, after my boast in the randoms thread about DD STTN for the FIRST TIME EVER…I need nap help.

We kind of winged it with CIO for bedtime, started last week and it has worked really well. She cried for an hour (with progressively longer checks) the first night and ever since has gone down pretty easily, like 20 min or less of crying/fussing.

Naps however are another story. I've been trying the same technique for naps for the last couple of days and is just isn't working at all. I know ideally we would wait to CIO on naps but my hand is being forced due to some work that's being done on our house…I really need her to sleep in her crib. (Before she was napping either on a mattress on the floor in the guest room or in our bedroom and both of these are now in the construction zone.)

Yesterday, for her morning nap she cried for 90 minutes. I stopped doing checks after about an hour because it didn't seem to be working. Eventually she just slumped over in the corner and fell asleep and I felt like the worst human being on the planet.

Today is tracking the same. We are going on 1:15 of screaming. At what point do you give up? Or do I just have to let it ride at this point?

I would just sit in her room and hold her in the glider for naps for now but I have an interview with a prospective nanny at noon (I had hoped she would be done with this nap by then, I put her down at 10:15 and she hasn't even fallen asleep yet. Argh.) so I need to be "free." Plus the contractors are all up in my business with questions about shit so sleeping with her isn't an option this week.

Keep on until she passes out? Pull her out and try again in an hour? Help.

[shelbyann]

And now I'm crying too. This is awful.

[ktw]

I'm sorry . We did Ferber for naps at the same time as we did it for nighttime, because while I know "naps are different" and all that, I just couldn't wrap my head around rocking her to sleep for her naps and then at night letting her cry. DD took to it pretty well. I believe Ferber says to limit crying before naps to 30 minutes. If she's not asleep within 30 minutes, get her up for a while, and then try again. Or maybe he says to skip that nap completely, can't remember. I know the number was 30 minutes, and if I were you, I would get her up for 30-60 minutes, and then try again.

[shelbyann]

Thanks. We did end up giving up. It's now 2pm and she still has not napped today! Yikes.

Oh well, I will take no napping as a STTN trade off.