Hellobee

@mrsbee: how old was Charlie when you started anp training?

@miranlee – he was 4 1/2 months

Great guidelines

I also nap-trained and sleep-trained at the same time (at age 4 months). I tried to make my routine as short and simple as possible so that other people (dad, grandparents, etc) can easily duplicate it when they babysit — Make the room dark, rock her in my arms while singing “Rockabye Baby”, then place her in the crib and say “Go to sleep, baby-girl”. Same routine for nighttime sleep except preceded by a bath.

Nap training was definitely tougher than sleep training for us ’cause the book I referred to said to scrap the nap if she cried more than 30 minutes. I’ve got a pretty stubborn little girl with a healthy set of lungs so I had to scrap naps a few times. The books, however, didn’t address how to deal with an over-tired cranky infant ’til her next nap. We survived but it was not fun. I’d love to hear how others handled the scrapped nap so I can be ready for future attempts.

She was fully sleep trained by day 4. Unfortunately, on day five, I took her to a function with kids and she caught a cold, which completely derailed the training. I couldn’t bear to let her cry it out while sick so I reverted to my old methods. We attempted training again four weeks later after she was completely well and when I had nothing major on my schedule to interrupt the training. Training was much longer (7 days) and even more difficult the second time around. It was like she knew what to expect from the training and was determined not to give in, lol.

If I had to do it again, I would definitely keep her away from large crowds for at least a week after the training to lessen the chances of her becoming ill and to give the training a chance to really take hold. Despite the fumble, sleep training still rocks!

Wow, sorry for the essay. Didn’t realize I had written so much, lol.

I’m not sure if we will nap/sleep train or not – it’s not something my husband & I have yet discussed. it is really helpful to have this information on hand, though, for when we do get ready to talk about it

Our Charlie is six weeks old, and has set her own schedule, unfortunately. Some days there’s absolutely nothing I can do to get her to fall asleep, sometimes she’s awake for 6-8 hours straight and happy as a clam! Which is kind of nice, since those nights are the ones when she sleeps in 5-7 hour chunks. No idea how she got this way, I just let her sleep when she’s sleepy or play when she’s alert. Then other days she’ll have a regular sleep/wake pattern and sleep in 2-3 hour chunks. I’m not sure yet if I’ll try and regulate her, or let her regulate herself. I’m a big believer in “body knows best”, so unless she gets super cranky or irritable I’ll probably let her set her own sleep/wake times

@Killer B – I think that is very normal behavior for a newborn. I basically parented the same way, for me the toughest time sleep-wise was between 4-6 months but it does get better (my son is 2 now). I just put a super long comment in the “Sleep Training, Part 1” post!

My daughter is 7 weeks old and similar to Killer B’s Charlie. She would go 6-7 hour stretches during the day without sleeping. At first I was worried but since she was a happy baby and sleeping well at night I left her alone. However, this week she started showing classic signs of being over tired and its now affecting her night sleep. In the past 4 days I’ve tried to read every sleep book i could get my hands on, but like Mrs Bee said, there aren’t too many books on how to get your child to nap. I’ve tried the no-cry method with no success and today resorted to the cry out method, something I said i would never do :(. after today I decided she’s way too young for that. any pearls of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

@Tlee – When my son was really young, he had very subtle tired cues. If I missed them, it was a lot harder to get him to nap. One book that I read that was helpful was the “90-minute Sleep Solution” – no need to buy the book, as the basic premise is that babies are on a 90-minute cycle, so just before the 90-minute mark, do your nap time routine. If you miss that window, then try again at 3 hours, or 4.5 hours, etc. Make the room dark, do your routine, turn on white noise (the best $0.99 I ever spent at iTunes) or a lullaby as your cue sound, etc.

If I recall correctly, up until 4 months my son’s tired window for his first nap was 45 minutes (half of the 90-minute cycle!) after he woke up. Most baby books say to not let your child be awake for 1-2 hours, but I’d missed the signs since it was so soon after he woke up. Try looking for sleepy signs then. Sometimes the signs are so subtle they are easy to miss. And then, as soon as you get good at reading the signs and figuring out their patterns, they go a change their pattern as they enter a new developmental stage!

The other thing that worked for me was that my son fell asleep very easily while being held, and since I work from home, the easiest and happiest solution for us was for me to wear him in a baby carrier (I loved The Portable Baby woven wrap) while he napped. Even though I broke all the “rules” on sleep training he naps fine now at 2 and doesn’t need to be held to fall asleep. There are many paths, try several and see what works for you and your daughter!

I follow our night routines and LO is excellent at Night. Bath/ Book/ Nurse and put down drowsy and will roll over and sleep.

For naps, I have no idea how to handle. Once I lay down, LO immediately rolls over and stands up! I know LO is tired! Then the crying begins… and can’t do it, when it goes over 20mins.

I will then scrap the nap and try again later but then get sucker in and nurse to sleep in our bed. I know I should be consistent, but it is tough.

It took LO 1 day to sleep train — cried for 52mins. Day 2 was 2mins and Day 3 was 1min.

Suggestions? LO was slept trained at 8 months and now 8.5m.

@EmmeBaby: the only thing i can tell you is to be consistent. it took charlie weeks…. maybe a month before he was going down for every single nap without crying. i also didn’t let him cry more than 20 minutes, but i was consistent. it was much harder for our nanny actually.

i know it’s tough, but charlie has been a truly excellent napper post nap training. we pretty much have to wake up him from every nap because he can almost always sleep 3-4 hours+ if we let him.

stay strong and i promise it will be worth it!

Hello. I have 12 week old that is having trouble napping, but sleeps well during the night. I’ve been trying to set her on a set schedule but it has been tough, I need to be more consistent. Thanks for your tips and experience, will have to try your method. Do you think it’s too early to start letting her cry it out? My intent was to start sleep training at 6 mths, if need be. Thanks.

@babyaudrey – here’s an article from Psychology Today against CIO – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201112/dangers-crying-it-out

Having given you that, I like this blogger’s advice: http://www.askmoxie.org/2011/05/infant-sleep.html
I recommend listening to yourself and your child. Does she show signs of overtiredness? Is there a way you can both get sleep that works for you both? (e.g., my son would sleep contentedly in my wrap baby carrier and I could get lots of work done online; at night I started brushing my teeth as part of his bedtime routine so that if he took a long time to fall asleep and I feel asleep with him, at least I knew I had done MY bedtime routine, etc.) There’s a difference between CIO and a child that needs to release tension before bed – I know that CIO would have never worked well on my child, but you need to trust your instincts/inner voice.

@babyaudrey – there is no generally agreed upon age when you can start nap training. most pediatricians i’ve spoken to feel that 3 months is ok. but my daughter is almost 4 months old, and i don’t have the heart to nap train her!

like mrsnarbonne mentioned, you can try putting her on a schedule first — that may improve her sleep. also check out this recent post i wrote on things you can do to improve your baby’s sleep:

http://www.hellobee.com/2012/01/18/2-tips-to-help-your-baby-sleep-better/

even though i’m doing everything “right”, my daughter’s sleep is still getting worse as she gets older and more aware. some children are good sleepers, some get better as they get older, and some need our help. i hope your lo is in the middle category!

Hi, I know you posted this a while ago, but I am also nap training my 3 month old and wanted to know what did you do if your baby takes a short nap (less than 1 hour). Did you end the nap or keep trying for about 30 mins and end the nap if he couldn’t fall back asleep.

@sandra – you can do either. i never tried to lengthen naps because they instantly became longer when we started nap training. but i know that some people try to nap lengthen by leaving babies in the crib until 1 hour is up, and sometimes they fall back asleep.

once your lo is used to putting themselves to sleep, their naps should naturally lengthen because they won’t wake up after 1 sleep cycle.

Thanks Mrs. Bee, my LO is slowly taking longer naps. Since he can only stay awake for about 1.5 hours each interval, I’m finding it difficult to take him out without interfering with his naps. Did you go out with Charlie much after nap training? If so, how did you do it?

@sandra – if you register, you’ll get an email whenever i respond to one of your comments.

after nap training we stayed home for at least a month. it sucks, but they have really have everything down. after that he’d fall asleep in the stroller and was still able to sleep well in his crib.

My son is 4 months. Sleeps great at night but his days are terrible. We started sleep training in the last day and he has done pretty good with it. My question, this morning he woke up around 7:15. At 8:55 was sleepy so I put him down for a nap, he cried for 8 mins and I went to turn him to his back once. He feel asleep for 45 mins. Then he woke up with a very full diaper. I changed it but then before I knew it he was falling sleep in my arms. So I put him down in a infant vibrating seat. When I put him down he woke up but then went right to sleep. Should I have out him back in his crib and let him cry it out more? I felt I should change his diaper!

@natalie – no you could have ended the nap after 45 minutes. it wouldn’t have been fair to let him cry it out after he slept one sleep cycle and then you changed his diaper. at that age though, i wouldn’t change a diaper. would he have gone back to sleep if you didn’t change his diaper?

@mrs.bee I’m not sure if he would have went back to sleep…. But he did sleep another 50 mins in the chair so he was still very tired and I knew that… I didn’t want to try I keep him awake. This afternoon we put him down for a nap at 12:30, he cried for a full hour and when we picked him up he feel asleep in our arms. I’m just not sure what to do when that happens. He is so tired from crying of course he wants to sleep so besides trying again later for his next nap I’m not sure how to avoid him falling asleep in our arms. I know he can fall asleep on his own!

What about waking between sleep cycles during naps? We have a 6 month old girl who has no napped well in 3 months. She fusses when she goes down but puts herself to sleep just fine. But, like clockwork, 30-45 minutes later she pops back up and is ready to be done when we know she is still tired. We have to go in and pat her back to sleep if we want a longer nap. If we leave her to cry she does not stop and then is up for sure. Any advice on how to get her to put herself back to sleep after those sleep cycles? At night she sleeps ok with only one wake up but the no naps are affecting her night time sleep too with a crazy early wake up for the day time of 4:45am today (when she went to bed at 7). Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

@mrs.bee – My 7 MO went through sleep training last week (CIO without checks). It went great. First night cried for about 25 minutes, night two about 12, night three less than 5. She now is an expert night sleeper each night sleeping 11 – 12 hours straight. Now we’re moving onto naps. She shows tired signs after 2 hours. I’ve started to follow a same routine each time (3 times a day) of dimmed room, noise machine, sleep sack, nursing and putting her into the crib drowsy but awake. She immediately starts to cry and it takes her about 20 minutes each time to fall asleep, and usually wakes after 30 minutes. I almost buckled yesterday and put her down asleep, but I can’t even pull that off anymore! Am I doing something wrong?

@allison — can you do an earlier bedtime than 7? you might be surprised that going down even an hour earlier can make a big difference. if she is taking short naps in the day, 7 might be too late of a bedtime for her.

many babies naturally start napping longer as they get older. i know that some people have had success nap lengthening after one sleep cycle using the shush/pat method, but i never tried that since both my kids slept beyond one sleep cycle. if that is working for you, you can continue it, or maybe wait a little bit longer and see if her naps lengthen on their own. olive’s sleep improved when she was 8 months old (7 months adjusted).

@erin – i would not nurse her before her nap. my little one would get mad too if i nursed her before her nap and then put her in her crib… understandable since they’re all nice and snuggly! an eat, play sleep schedule is best when you are nap training so they don’t associate nursing as part of the sleep routine. can you nurse after waking up, or at least not as part of the nap routine?

@ mrs. bee – I can certainly try dropping the nursing before the nap! That will help with my husband putting her down for a snooze too. I’ll start that pronto. Do you suggest putting her down drowsy or just awake? Not sure how I’d get her drowsy without nursing. Also, will sleep times eventually lengthen on their own? I’m hopeful we can get to a 2 nap/day schedule soon, but with such short naps it seems impossible. Lastly, how long does nap training usually take?

@erin – i always put both kids down awake. our nap routine was put on sleep sack, dim lights, read 3 books, shut off light, turn on white noise, hold over shoulder while patting back and singing twinkle little star, then into crib with lovey. the whole routine took 5-10 minutes.

sleep times usually lengthen on their own if they are going into the crib awake. with short naps, a 2 nap schedule is hard.

as far as how long it takes, it is different for every baby. charlie it took weeks though he went down for most of his naps without a fuss, he still had problems here and there. but after nap training his sleep was pretty perfect until 1 year (travel, sickness, walking, teething molars, affected it). olive it took a couple days. average is 7-10 days from most parents i’ve spoken to if you stick to it.

good luck!

thanks, mrs. bee! this is very helpful. i’m a FTM, so this is all a mystery to me. my LO Is a very mild-mannered and easy baby, with sleeping being our toughest challenge. i’m so hopeful that we can take the frustration out of the process and she’s well rested. i’ll try a new naptime routine and keep putting her down after 2 – 2.5 hours of wake time. hopefully she starts falling asleep more easily. just seems like torture for her to cry for 15 minutes or so for a measly 30 minute nap!

We are going to try nap and bed time training tomorrow, I think when I tried it last time he was a little too young. Our doc said it was fine to start now. My question is… If I put him down for a nap at noon and he just cries for upwards of a hour (which he has done before) when do I pick him up? If its after hour or two should I just try to keep him awake after picking him up? He has put himself to sleep several times in the morning but never in the afternoon… He has always fallen asleep in our arms.

@Natalie – I mean this in the nicest way possible – you are your little one’s mommy. Listen to what your gut tells you – you will find a path that is right for your child, you, and your family. There are many paths to an end.

@natalie – you can leave them to cry for up to an hour then stop the nap, keep them up for an hour, and try to put them down again.

but i could never let charlie cry that long. i capped it at 20 minutes and got him and then stroller napped him. that worked for us and he still became an excellent (truly, truly excellent) napper.

but what works for every baby is different. some parents cap crying at 15 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. You have to do what feels right to you and how your baby responds. Adjust here and there… sleep is always a work in progress.

Good luck!

I’ve started doing the nap training and it has made a big improvement in my LO (5.5 months old) being able to self soothe and put herself to sleep fairly quickly. Only problem is she still isn’t taking naps longer then 30-40 minutes. I’ve tried putting her down a little earlier to avoid being overtired and I tried keeping her awake time longer. Neither option seems to help with lengthening her naps and it has gotten really hard to read her sleep cues as the day goes on because she is always tired. Any idea what might be keeping her from lengthening her naps? I’ve thought about putting her on a more strict schedule but didn’t know if that would just cause more over tiredness as this point.

hi Mrs. Bee. I have a 5.5 month old baby who sleeps great at night. He goes down at 8pm and wakes up around 7am. He mostly puts himself to sleep, sometimes we just have to pat/shush.

He does fine for naps as well, sleeps 45 mins, sometimes even 2 hours, BUT we have to rock him to fall sleep, and I think it might become a problem since he is getting heavier each day.

Well, we started the nap training yesterday, and he complained for up 1.5 hour and then fell asleep, and slept for 2 hours. Today, he complained for 1 hour (we check on him every 5 mins), but then he stopped complaining and started the really crying, so we felt bad and went in, pat/shush so he fell sleep and is now sleeping for 1.5 minutes already.

Is that ok letting him for 1.5 hour before falls sleep? I’m worried it gets to close to his next meal time. Do you think doing the nap training might interfer on his night time, which is going so well? Am I doing anything wrong at nap training?

Thank you in advance for any piece of advice.

Can I just say, THANK YOU for this in-depth explanation on nap training. I’ve been looking all over for a more concise look at how to nap train, and I am so grateful I found this. Breaking-down each day to show how your son responded was also incredibly helpful. Thank you for sharing!

@marie – you’re welcome! glad that it was helpful!

@lbo1212: you can give her a little bit of time. notoriously short nappers often improve on their own after they’re 6 months old. some people have luck shushing and patting their babies back down after one sleep cycle, but we never tried that so I don’t have any personal experience to share.

@mitsue: i once read that if it takes your baby longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, they’re either overtired or not tired enough. but given that you’ve rocked your baby to sleep until this point, that might not be relevant since he’s used to going into his crib asleep.

leaving him in his crib for over an hour is a really long time. what is is schedule like now? do you have a strong nap routine?

Hi there,

First of all, I am happy to have found your website as I find many useful advice and comments.

As the article points out, my 3 month old daughter wakes up after 30-45mn and may sometimes reach to 1h. She’s doing great at night with one feed between 7pm and 7am and I have had her on a routine for 3 weeks. She first cried for 20min at nap time before finding sleep and now cries less than 5min, so I am very proud of her. Still her naps are short and she wakes up screaming.
Today I was driving and made an interesting observation. I started driving around nap time (she stays 2 hrs awake) and she fell asleep immediatly. 45min later I happened to stop by to buy some bread. She screamed for 2s and then nothing continued sleeping for another few minutes. Then again her face turned red and she started screaming (I could see her in the car seat). That lasted 1min and she even opened her eyes. As I went on driving she fell back sleeping. It’s completely disturbing for mummy to see her screaming out of the blue but it showed me exactly what was happening in her crib during naps. Any suggestions on how to tackle her naps? Thanks!

@marianne – at 3 months 2 hours awake time is too long. i would first try a shorter awake interval — an hour and a half at the longest. your daughter is probably overtired when she goes down for a nap which affects her sleep.

I know this is an older post, but I was thrilled to find it! So true, the books don’t address nap training. My LO is 3.5 months. I’ve been holding him for naps since he was two weeks old (FTM here, can you tell?). He’s getting big and I’m physically exhausted from the swaying him to sleep so we started nap training. Today is day 3 and he has not cried once… fussed for up to 30 minutes but no tears! He’s definitely doing the short nap thing though…. I’m going to keep going and see what happens. But in the meantime he went from one night-waking to three (when he wants to be fed) plus one more waking, usually one hour after going down from a feeding. So frustrating to lose our awesome nights due to him being overtired from nap training. Any idea if this will all even out? It just seems terrible to take away his good nights in favor of short naps that leave him tired all day long.

Im at my wits end with naps! I need help! My son has been taking very short naps in his swing, and in a month he is going to daycare. He is currently almost 4 months old. I started nap training last week and have had ZERO luck! I tried two naps today and the second nap he cried for almost an hour and half and then it was time for him to eat and of course he fell asleep in my arms nursing, i then placed him in the swing. He has been sleeping for almost 2 hours now in the swing because he exhausted himself in the crib. I dont know what else to do! I feel like he will never learn how to soothe himself. Ive been very consistent, but have pretty much scrapped every nap in the crib due to him not falling asleep on his own after an hour. WHAT SHOULD I DO!? im so desperate!

My DD is 9 months, going on 10 and we have been trying to change/implement a nap routine. She’s been a 2nap a day girl since 6 months and used to let me rock her to sleep on my shoulder with lights dimmed, white noise and a paci. Then my nanny started using a rocker (rock and play sleeper) and she loved it! Except, now she won’t fall asleep on me, stands up in her crib if I try it and I really want to stop the rocker – she is getting too big. Any suggestions?

I should also mention, we have been trying to transition her slowly (1 nap in crib, 1 in rocker) for a couple of weeks now with mild success. Except, out of the blue she hit us with separation anxiety. (She’s been STTN since 8 weeks, sleeps 11 hours straight at night now, no waking.) We are doing CIO (2 days in… only 5 mins crying last night.) So… Question #2 is should I wait to nap train until the separation anxiety is over?

THANKS in advance!

Do you even still check this??? Very helpful! Just wondering how old Charlie was when you nap trained him? Thanks!

Thank you!!! The book happiest baby on the block made my daughter a great sleeper at night. During the day was a completely different story. We would say,”well at least she sleeps good at night.” Finally her naps got to the point we would rock her for twenty minutes crying the entire time . Then only sleep for 30 to 40 minutes. I would have done never sleep training. Then I took a step back. She cries when we hold her why not let her cry in her crib. Now a month later she is napping great. In fact I am getting spoiled. I complained to my husband when she only slept for am hour and half the other day. Thank you!!!

Hi,
Im currently trying to sleep train my 5 month old and truly appreciate all the posts on naps so theyre so seldom on the net. I reviewed your nap schedule and it seems like your wake interval varied from nap to nap. Its been 3 weeks and we still cant conquer naps…what am i doing wrong? DS cries for 20-40 min/nap and honestly, its torture. I put him down about 5-10 min after I notice his cues- yawning, rubbing eyes. This is usually about an hour and forty min to 2 hours after his last wake up. Please suggest something. Im honestly losing it. Thanks.

I started nap training my DD only at 10 months after I just couldn’t take it anymore. Up until that point she went down 2x naps in her rocker (a rock n play) and that was that. It had gotten so bad that I sometimes had to rock her for 40 mins to get a half hour nap. We decided to quit it after she grew out of the rocker. I recently read an article that kids should learn their own sleep cues and soothing techniques. Some rub ears, some enjoy specific pajamas or toys or pacifiers. Mine rubs her sleeves and uses a pacifier. I had to develop a really long routine that didnt involve me rocking or holding her in order to train her, but it worked after a couple of weeks. I started with lights low, quiet time for 5-10 mins (reading books) and then change diaper. I would hold her for 1 song (twinkle twinkle usually) and then put her down and leave without staying. Crying was normal for the first week and then i noticed no more crying, but instead she’d just play or stay awake for a while. Eventually she’d fall asleep. Now, it’s like clockwork. Sleep comes pretty much right away. Good luck!!

Hi,

My LO is a little over 6 months and we’ve always nursed or bounced him to sleep. At night he usually wakes just once to eat and then I can lay him down awake and he’ll put himself to sleep. During the day he’s being taking really short naps usually so I’m trying to train him into taking longer/not relying on me to help him sleep. I’m nursing him still, but trying to make sure he’s still awake when I lay him down, but I’m wondering if I should scrap that part because sometimes he still takes really short naps when I do it that way- he doesn’t cry when I lay him down immediately like he did before, but I wonder if I should somehow the nursing thing is getting in the way?

This was a tremendously helpful article! I tried skimming the comments to see if my question was answered or not… I was curious if you could let me know what Charlie’s night time sleep looked like – at least when bedtime was and roughly how long until wake up, and about how many night feedings when you were doing the nap training. I did a few days of night training before attacking naps – realizing I was waiting too long most of the time, but wondering when to wake from the last nap to keep from interfering with bedtime.

Thanks!

@Mrs. Bee: I know this is a really old post, but when you did this was Charlie still swaddled? We’re considering some nap training because I’m tired of 30-45 minute naps, but Sweet P is still swaddled and in a Rock & Play, so she can’t get to her hands or anything to soothe herself. Just wondering what you did.

I find your article so so helpful and encouraging! We started this with my 5 month old three days ago. Yesterday she did great and took longer naps than she has been taking. Today it has Been a whole lot of crying and only waking after 40 minutes and still being tired…. Any suggestions to help us get over this 40 minute mark…. I know she is in a developmental leap according to wonder week so I don’t know if this is just going to be how naps are but I’m desperate to get to longer naps. I feel like all my time is spent trying to get her to nap or keep her happy between naps that I do not get any time with my toddler help pleaee!!

Thank you sooooo much for sharing! I am so glad I found your article, I almost wanted to kill myself when I was trying to get my little guy to sleep…
I will try to nap train my honey starting from tomorrow!
(as i was reading your article, he fell asleep tummy down…coz he was up for 4.5 hrs…exhausted i guess…)

My daughter has become a horrible napper. She used to be a not great napper but now it’s awful. Her 45 minute naps have gotten shorter and then everyone once in a while she zonks out and naps for 2 hours (I feel like she’s making up for days of short naps). I may have to try this. She is nearly 6.5 months old.
Did you just pick two nap times that work for you? We have an older daughter and so I need to work around preschool drop off and pick up but we could do 8:30 and 1:00 or so for naps. How long did your kiddo stay awake in between naps?
We’ve got feeding pretty much down, it’s just naps that are horrible. She sleep so short that sometimes she has to have that third nap otherwise she’s a mess. Yesterday she didn’t sleep until 1:00 (after waking up at 7) and then took 2 30 minute naps. Something must be done!

Feeding tends to be a little off depending on the day. It’s usually 7, 10:30, 2, 5 and bedtime however that’s not always the case. If she has to eat at 2 then putting her down for nap at 1 (when we get home from preschool pickup) doesn’t work since I know she’ll be hungry way before we hit that 3:00 mark.
Any suggestions?

We have a 4 1/2 old daughter. We started sleep training her this past Sunday. She’s been getting better at night. But during the day it’s a nightmare. We have been trying to nap train her but it has been a fail. When I see her ques I put her down but she cries immediately. Sometimes the duration of her nap. I picked her up to find her all in sweat from crying poor thing. Afte that I go in to grab her after 20-30 mins. But after trying nap after nap it has not gotten better. She need to nap cuz she gets so frustrated she starts to fun her face like crazy and starts to fuss but she can’t seem to sleep. I put her down and she will wake up right away or in 30 mins. Any suggestions? Please need help for my daughter

What do you do when you’re baby cries for, say, 10 minutes then quiets down (but isn’t asleep) and then resumes crying? I know she’s tired. She gives all the cues. And she’ll sleep for 4-6 hour stretches in the crib at night but naps are terrible unless she’s in her swing.

I’ve been nap and night sleep training my 7 month old daughter for about a week. I just have a couple of questions. We have been doing “crib hour” (or trying to anyway). If she goes to sleep relatively quickly for a nap but only sleeps for 30 or so minutes, should I leave her in her crib until the full hour is up? She doesn’t seem to want to go back to sleep at all but I know she’s not getting enough rest. She seems tired again after about an hour of being awake after her nap. Should I be putting her down for a nap each time she seems drowsy, even if its more than 3 times a day? Thanks.

Thank you for your post. I’ve just about made myself crazy attempting to nap train my baby. However, your Charlie sounds like a dream! My darling will cry for over an hour, even when I watch the clock ‘like a crazy person’ and watch for sleepy clues. Harold just hates napping. However, I will keep at it even though I’m fairly certain under Geneva Conventions this is torture…

I realize this is an old lost but I am finding a lot of comfort in it.

I’m a stay at home mom who’s got a very active (she’s already bear crawling and sitting on her own), feisty, strong-willed 5 month old baby girl who has always been a pretty great nighttime sleeper but always resisted naps. We do not cosleep and from birth she’s always slept well at night in her own crib, with a full bedtime routine that involves her going down drowsy (sometimes a little fussy) at around 7:30pm after being fed and waking twice a night. But she’s always refused to nap in her crib, and really just resisting naps in general But it hasn’t really mattered what method I’ve tried; bouncing, rocking, co-sleep nurse/napping, black out curtains, and after she hit about 3 months nursing was no longer effective in getting her to sleep. All methods only produced maybe a 30min nap and that was after a tremendous amount of effort. And none of the methods prevented some sort of fussing or crying in the process. I’ve looked all over for advice that I could relate to that involved a child that isn’t necessarily in distress when crying, she’s just a very expressive and vocal little girl who is simply resisting naps in general no matter what I do. I’ve started allowing her to cry at nap time, and I never leave her alone as she does it, I sat in her room with her until she fell asleep, rubbing her back as she calmed down and started to fall asleep. Then I’ve left the room to allow her to sleep. I’ve done this twice and both times she slept so well and woke up really pleasant and seemingly very well rested. It breaks my hear to let her cry but it’s been so hard seeing her work herself into exhaustion every single day resisting rest. And it’s been a relief to see her get the sleep I know she desperately needs. I should add that I nurse on demand and do not ignore her when she cries for me at night. I always go to her, nurse and then she goes right back to sleep. Which is why I’ve struggled to find any info that I can identify with, since I’m not really implementing a full cry it out routine as it is not necessary at night.

I’m sorry for such a long post, I guess I’m just hoping maybe someone else out there can relate to the struggle of the conflicting and lack of info that pertains to great night sleepers/poor nappers in reference to the crying.

I know this is sign old post, but I’m hoping you could help.

If baby naps for 10 minutes after crying for 35, do you count this as the wake up time for the next nap? We have been trying to do the CIO for a crib hour for first 2 naps. First nap was cries for 15 minutes slept for 50 minutes. Second one cried for 35 slept for 10 minutes. We then capped the time in crib for 60 minutes to which she had cried until the end. Took a 30 minute reset and tried again for 60. LO did not sleep this second try so we fed and gave emergency nap, meaning we did what we could to get her sleep…rock, pacifier.

Hi Mrs. Bee. I see that this is an old post so I’m hoping that you’ll still receive and reply to my comment! I love all of your guidelines and I’m hoping you can give me some advice about sleep training.

Our son is almost 4 months old. He has been a tough cookie since birth. His pediatrician diagnosed him with reflux (which he is now medicated for), and describes him as a “high needs” baby. He is exclusively breastfed, or gets bottles of pumped breastmilk.

At the worst of it he was up every other hour of the night, until one of us just conked out with him in the rocking chair around 3 am.

We have always had to either nurse, use the pacifier, hold or rock him until he was sound asleep and then transfer him into his crib. Then pray for the love of god he would stay asleep (which is usually 50/50).

Bed time and night time have gotten a lot better.

I know that putting him to sleep in this way is a no no. He definitely relies on a lot of sleep associations. Everyone says that we need to put him to bed “awake but sleepy” but he just SCREAMS. We pick him up, calm him down, back into the crib and he SCREAMS again. Round and round we go. He has always been a zero to sixty baby, and is purple, sweaty and hyperventilating within minutes.

Napping has been really tricky for us. I followed an “eat, play, sleep” routine with our first son and it worked beautifully for us. Not so much for this kiddo! I would love to see him settle into three naps that are all at least an hour, but no matter what I try I just can’t seem to make it happen. He loves to cat nap. I don’t know if it’s that hes not tired, too tired, hungry (he gets 30 oz. of breastmilk or more per day so I don’t think hunger is the issue, but you never know). This is the schedule he LIKES to follow:

1:00 am: Mom wakes up to pump. Baby usually wakes up on his own around this time and dad feeds him a 5.5 oz. bottle. Everyone goes back to bed.

6:00 am: Mom wakes to pump.

7:00 am: Baby awake for the day. Gets dressed. Feeds 5.5 oz. bottle.

8:45 am: Nap #1. Mom rocks baby to sleep while sucking on pacifier. Falls asleep within minutes. Awake by 9:15 am. Will sleep a little longer if staying in mom’s arms, but definitely no more than 30 minutes if put into his crib.

9:30 am: Feeds 6 oz. bottle.

11:00 am: Nap #2. Falls alseep same way as above. Will usually sleep until 12:30 pm. Mom pumps.

12:45 pm: Feeds 6 oz. bottle.

2:45 pm: Nap #3. Falls asleep same way as above. Awake by 3:15 pm. Mom pumps.

3:30 pm: Feeds 5.5 oz. bottle.

5:15 pm: Nap #4. Falls asleep same way as above. Awake by 5:45 pm.

6:00 pm: Feeds 6 oz. bottle.

7:00 pm: Bed time routine. Jammies, white noise, nurse and rock to sleep. Into the crib by 8 pm.

8:30 pm: Mom pumps to empty before she goes to bed.

.. as you can see he takes 3 cat naps a day plus one good nap. I have to use the pacifier and hold him until he falls asleep every time. Then hope he stays asleep when I put him down. I’ve tried taking away the pacifier but he just motorboats, cries, flails around in my arms until I give in. If it falls out of his mouth or he realizes I’ve pulled it out in his crib he almost always wakes up.

I guess I feel like he relies on so many sleep associations I don’t know where to start. I would love longer naps with less assistance from me. Any advice would be super!