If you’ve followed our story, you know that Sweet P had a rough few months with colic, reflux, tongue and lip tie and a dairy intolerance. Along with these issues came a lot of crying, screaming and not sleeping. Getting to the bottom of it all was not fun for anyone. We spent so many hours a day trying to soothe her, get her to sleep, get her back to sleep, etc., and it was exhausting.

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I just had to add in a sweet picture even though it has nothing to do with sleep training.

In my attempts to research colic and baby sleep as much as possible those first few months, something that I read in “Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child” really stuck out to me. Weissbluth shared how statistics show that in the long run, most colicky babies end up sleep deprived because after the first 3 months their parents are so terrified of hearing their babies cry that they continue doing everything possible to keep their baby from crying, and the baby doesn’t learn how to sleep on his/her own. Weissbluth recommended starting sleep training at 4 months once the colic has passed. I kind of dismissed the idea after reading it because I absolutely hated the idea of leaving her to cry for any amount of time. But as 4 months got closer and her sleep got worse and 45 minute naps turned into 30 minute naps and then 15, I decided we had to start nap training.

By that point we had eliminated dairy from her diet for a few weeks, so she was no longer having tummy issues. I definitely didn’t want her to cry-it-out if she had an upset stomach. I’m so glad to say it was a whole lot easier than I anticipated. I referred to the Weissbluth and a bit to the “Sleep Easy Solution” and set up some “guidelines” to help nap training be as smooth as possible.

First of all, I set aside 4 full days where I could be at home all day and we could just work on naps. This was so important because it set up consistency for her. It also allowed me to do the exact same routine before nap each time so that she would learn that naptime was coming. I also decided that because she needed to eat every 3 hours and she had a 1.5 hour ideal wake-time that her naps needed to be 1.5 hours long. So, if she woke early (like she always did before) we would cry-it-out for her to fall back asleep as well. I said a lot of prayers and mentally prepared myself for her to cry through several entire naptimes and that we would all have a very rough 3 days of constant crying and screaming, but I was pleasantly surprised when she seemed to get the hang of falling asleep on her own by the end of Day 1!

A few keys that I think were important to us making it work, and me feeling more comfortable were:

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1. The naptime routine – Before each nap I turned on her sound machine, swaddled her, rocked her and sang one song, then laid her down in her Rock & Play and said ‘Night, night Sweet P. It’s naptime,” patted her and left.

2. I went in on intervals to give her the pacifier, pat her and say, “It’s ok Sweet P. It’s naptime.” I went in after 5 minutes of crying the first time, then waited 10 and then 15 minutes after that. I know many people do extinction crying, but I just wasn’t comfortable with that for us.

3. If she woke early from her nap I would again let her cry for 5, then 10 minutes. But, I never let her go longer than 10 minutes of crying after an early wake-up. And if she had gotten to the 75 minute mark of naptime and still hadn’t fallen back asleep, I would just get her up and feed her since I didn’t think trying to get her to sleep for those last 15 minutes would be too important.

4. She still needed 4 naps at this point, but the last nap was just a 30-45 minute catnap, so I still held and patted her to sleep for this nap as I pretty much just needed her to get in a long enough nap to help her get to bedtime without being too fussy. So, no nap training for the 4th nap of the day, just the first 3 naps.

.  .  .  .  .

It went so much better than I ever would have thought! This was a baby who I had never once laid down awake before, but she never cried for longer than 30 minutes! I’m so grateful that we now have a pretty predictable routine going. I was kind of afraid of getting “off” of the routine once we got this nice schedule, but we have since gone on outings or the doctor and she has been able to be fairly flexible for one nap of the day. Of course her naps are still best at home when she is put down within her ideal wake time, but after a week of staying at home, I’m glad we have a little bit more flexibility.

Another huge benefit of the nap training is that she sleeps much, much better at night now. Within a few days of doing nap training she was down to just one night feeding when previously it was at least 2-3 times. And other than having to give her the pacifier once in the night, she actually sleeps through the night more often than not now (less than 2 weeks later) without any nighttime cry-it-out! But, to me, the biggest benefit is that she cries far less for naps than when we were soothing her. When we do her nap routine she knows her nap is coming and although she might fuss a bit for 5 minutes or so, she goes to sleep pretty easily and either sleeps the full 1.5 hours, or she wakes early and falls quickly back to sleep. She’s also even more smiley and happy because she is well rested now.

I logged exact crying times those first 4 days of nap training because I found that reading how much other babies cried encouraged me that the crying wouldn’t last forever, so I will share that with you too. Don’t be discouraged if crying increases after a few days of success. We had more crying on Day 4 than on the previous 2 days, but it’s rare that she cries much at all these days and it’s usually more fussing and crying, and I do think there is a difference. So, be encouraged if you see regression. It won’t last forever.

D A Y 1

Nap 1
9:30-10am- Crying
10:00-10:23- Sleeping (hooray!)
10:30-10:50- Crying
Ended nap early at 10:50

Nap 2
12:30-12:35 Crying
11:35-1:15- Sleeping (Oh my goodness! Just 5 minutes of crying for this nap!)
1:15-1:25- Crying
1:25-2:00- Sleeping (I had to wake her up for the next feed.)

Nap 3
3:37- 3:40- Crying
3:40-4:25- Sleeping
4:25-4:30- Woke briefly without crying
4:30-5:00 Went back to sleep

D A Y  2

Nap 1
9:45-9:52- Fussing
9:52-11:30- Sleeping

Nap 2
1:05-1:10 Fussing
1:10-1:45- Sleeping
1:45-1:55- Crying
1:55-2:30- Sleeping

Nap 3
3:48-3:58 Crying
3:58-4:32 Sleeping
4:32-4:58 Crying
4:58-5:15 Sleeping

D A Y 3

Nap 1
9:15-9:25  Fussing
9:25-11:00 Sleeping

Nap 2
12:40 Fell asleep right away and slept until 2:10

Nap 3
3:43-3:50 Crying
3:50-4:30 Sleeping
4:30-4:35 Fussing
4:35-5:10 Sleeping

D A Y  4

Nap 1
9:35-9:40- Fussing
9:40-11:00- Sleeping

Nap 2
12:30-1:00 Crying
1:00-1:26 Sleeping
1:26-1:38 Awake and Calm
1:38-1:44 Crying
1:45 Ended Nap Early

Nap 3
3:27-3:30 Fussing
3:30-4:00 Sleeping
4:00-4:15 Crying
4:15-5:00 Asleep

Did you ever do nap training for your little one? Was it successful?