Having trouble with naptime...?
My son is seven months old and probably for the past three months, I haven't been able to get him ajusted to a new schedule during the day--and have him stick to it. It is driving me crazy. He's so nice and smiley in the morning, he even sleeps from 8:30 at night right until about 7:00 in the morning. I feed lunch him at about 11:30 and then put him down for a nap at 12:00 or 12:30. With in a matter of a half hour he will wake up again. He'll be cranky--the rest of the day. I know all he needs is sleep but I just have no clue what to do? I feel like the rest of the day is blown because I'm just trying to make him nap--the whole day long! Today I tried to just let him cry it out--he cried forever! I try to comfort him and hold him before he goes to sleep--the minute I put him down he's awake again. I just don't know what to do...I feel I've tried everything! Any suggestions?
Answers:
Your question is interesting because your son sounds like he's an excellent night-sleeper but is having trouble with the naps. The 8:30 pm to 7am is great. At 7 months, he should definitely be taking a morning nap which would fall at around 9:00 for your son. If he takes a good morning nap (1-1.5 hours) he should go down for an afternoon nap at about 1:00 that lasts for around 2 hours.
Ok so the trick is how to get him to go to sleep. Tomorrow morning at 9:00, bring him into his room, turn off the lights, do your regular "sleepy time" routine, put him in his crib, and leave. If/when he cries, you can go in at progressively longer intervals (5 minutes, then 10 minutes, etc) and comfort him without picking him up (pat his back, tell him it's ok) and then leave. It'll probably piss him off more but he will eventually go to sleep. Do the same for his afternoon nap and after a few days he will learn to go to sleep at these times on his own. The key is to be ultra-consistent. It has to be the same every day.
Trust me on this- it worked like a charm for my little boy when he was the exact same age. I felt the same way as you- like I was spending the whole day trying to get him to go to sleep.
I got my information from a book called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth. The last thing you have time for right now is to read a book but it did give some great pointers and help me to understand the natural sleep patterns of babies. The better I understood it, the better I was at making daily decisions on when to put my baby down for a nap.
Sorry to be going on and on. This question hit home for me because I struggled with the same thing. I wish you lots of luck and I hope that both you and your baby are able to get some much-needed rest. Good luck!
Is he teething? My nine month old has/had some issues when new teeth are cutting. Also, are you wearing him out during the time that he's up? Not sure if he's crawling yet or not. Are you putting him to sleep in his crib every time or is it in different places? It should probably be the same place every time. Maybe his formula isn't agreeing with him? There are a ton of things. Babycenter.com is a great place to post/search for questions as most people there have young children and might have been through the same thing you are describing. I'm only one person giving my persepectives, but there are a lot more resources there. Good luck!
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