Ferber and naps

[cestkaren]

We've started Ferber for both naps and nighttime for our 10-month old. I skimmed Ferber's old book (that's what the library had) but I'm confused on naps. His nighttime seems to be going better. If DS cries for an hour, Ferber says to get him up. So what do you do if DS cries for an hour for both naps and doesn't get a nap? He's not the type to just fall asleep while playing (which is what Ferber said might happen). DS did fall asleep for 40 minutes at 9:30 this morning, but that's the only nap. Should I do the nighttime first and then naps, or is both together ok? This much crying is killing me, plus he is hoarse after 1.5 days.

Thanks

[Riley's mama]

We went through the exact same thing!! We ended up just waiting a little longer to use Ferber for naps. She responded so quickly to the bedtime routine and falling asleep on her own that we were very confused as to why she was so fussy at naptime.

I don't if this would work with every baby, but what worked for us was just waiting an extra month (actually a little longer - maybe 5 or 6 weeks) before doing Ferber for naptime. So at night she had her routine and went to sleep on her own without a pacifier and during the day we kept doing exactly what we had been doing up to that point (including a pacifier!!). Then right after her 6 month check up we took the pacifier away for good and did a shorter version of her nighttime routine for naps and it worked pretty quickly.

Maybe she just needed to get used to the idea of falling asleep on her own for a while before she was comfortable with it during the day? I don't know, but that's what worked for us! Hope that helps!