No cry nap solution

[cestkaren]

Has anyone tried the 'no-cry nap solution'? Does anyone have or had a baby that just sleeps for 30 to 45 minutes? My DS is 4.5 months old and I am trying to get him to sleep longer, but not having much success. I'm not a fan of CIO. I'm putting him down every 90 - 120 minutes and he falls asleep in about 10 minutes (playing ocean sounds and holding his hand), sometimes he'll sleep for 1.5 hours, waking up once. Mostly he sleeps for about 45 minutes. In the stroller, he wakes up after 30 minutes. He sleeps great at night usually 6 - 6:30 pm until 5:30 - 6 am with one feeding between 10-11. Thanks.

[amldaley]

Reading and working on it currently. She only gets the 1.5 hours if I lay with her.

[neeleymartin]

have you ever looked at the baby whisper materials. the book titled "the bw solves all your problems" suggests that short naps could be an indication of over-stimulation prior to nap time. borrow it from your library. could be as simple as too much talking pre-nap. sounded stupid at first, but we had the same issues when ds was younger. it really made a difference.

the book is great b/c you can go to the specific issue you are having. not just sleep either, although the majority. it really helped us. we now have a champion sleeper. we also swear by weissbluth.

[ray7694]

Highly recommend the Baby Whisperer as well as PP. The message boards are also great. I think the book states that short naps happen because of overtiredness. Are you watching for sleep cues. (rubbing eyes, yawning, etc) After first yawn should begin wind down routine and get down to sleep. Also keeping the same schedule/routine/place for sleeping every day helps.

[Riley's mama]

What is considered a short nap? My LO has been having short naps recently, relative to her normal. She will only sleep 30-45 minutes for her morning nap, and then it seems that the rest of her day is affected. And, for example she will only sleep for 1 hour in the early afternoon instead of the usual 2 hours!

I don't know what happened because she was taking 2 hour naps before and all of a sudden it changed!

Anyway, good luck to all of you. I might try doing something less stimulating right before her morning nap and see if that helps.

[cestkaren]

Thanks, I'll keep the Baby Whisperer in mind. My neighbor has a copy of her other book. I'll to work on a calmer wind down prior to naps. It is only DS and I at home during the day and I do not turn on the TV. We do have fun and he laughs often, can a baby just be an OS baby? I was watching for signs that he was tired, yawns and rubbing his eyes. I'd start walking him up and down the hallway until his eyes started to get tired...still 30 minutes. Now, he rarely yawns. I've started working on putting him down to nap every 1.5 - 2 hours. Still 30-45 minute naps. I've been trying to sleep with him and have got a 1.5 hour nap with one wake up for 15 minutes a few times. There are days when he falls asleep for the night at 4 pm.

[bugguy8]

Our biggest issue isnt naps at home, its at day care. She will only nap for 30 mnutes or less 1 time while at day care. Anything that can be done their. We cant watch her at day care so we would have to just make the suggestion to the care givers

[neeleymartin]

Our biggest issue isnt naps at home, its at day care. She will only nap for 30 mnutes or less 1 time while at day care. Anything that can be done their. We cant watch her at day care so we would have to just make the suggestion to the care givers

we had this issue also. it got better when he got to about 8 mos old. i can't remember exactly. but i think it was b/c i was in control for a vacation period (perhaps xmas time). we got the naps well established then. it could have been his age as well. we also invested in a pack n play mattress. made the pnp more comfy for him. that also helped. i'm not talking about the flimsy ones at bbrus, but we bought a 3" thick one on ebay. here is the one:
http://tinyurl.com/b9ezfl
it is a hair bigger than the one they sell at bbrus, means no gaps on the sides for dc to fall in. good luck.

[cestkaren]

I'm done with 'nap training'. After my third breakdown in as many days, I'm frustrated. I have a happy baby and if he wants to take 30 minute naps...so be it. Thanks for the posts.

[ThreeofUs]

Sounds like my DS2.

The only thing that sometimes works is picking him up right before he starts to wake and rocking him back to sleep through the waking period. That doesn't happen a lot, though, as DS1 is so high-maintenance that I can't get a quiet time to do this in.

I agree with your last post, though. If your son, like mine, is happy with 30 minute naps and gets great sleep at night, who cares?

GL.