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View Full Version : How do I get baby to nap in crib?



ExcitedMamma
04-22-2013, 11:23 AM
DD is 7 mos old and thanks to wonderful advice here we transitioned her from nighttime co-sleeping a couple of weeks ago by putting her down asleep. She takes about 1-2 hrs to nurse and be asleep enough to hand off to DH for the crib transfer. At first she cried in his arms and he had to try putting her down and picking her up and rocking her a few times before she transferred well but now it's a pretty quick hand off and she's still asleep when he puts her down. She wakes up with a wet diaper usually around 2 now and comes back to sleep with me until 6 when she's up to go potty. She then needs about a thirty minute nap again between 6:30 and 7. Her morning nap somewhere around 9:30, then another nap around 12:00, then late afternoon nap around 3 and bedtime around 6. Her naps are all about 45 min and with me holding her in my arms and nursing her.

I need her to nap in her crib so I can spend quality time with DS. Unfortunately she is such a light sleeper that I can't be in the same room with DS because his playing wakes her up and if I try to read to him she wakes up. I nurse her to sleep in her room in the dark and we play in there too in hopes she will have good associations with her room. But if I put her down awake to play in her crib for a few minutes during the day while I try to put her laundry away she freaks out even though she can see me and I'm talking to her. She's ok if she's on the floor next to me.

When DS was this age he wasn't nursing himself to sleep anymore he was looking at me and the room so I could work on transitioning him to the crib awake and we Ferbered him. DD nurses to sleep and keeps nursing for awhile in her sleep. Tried to hand her off to DH this weekend for naps like we do at bedtime but she woke right up in his arms and when he put her down she cried and just started rolling around in her crib wide awake and was so tired looking from not napping.

How do I get her to nap in her crib? Ideally I'd love to put her down for her naps in her crib but hold her for her noon nap to cuddle her since DS is still napping at the same time but will that give her mixed messages and make it hard to get her to nap in her crib? Is it all or nothing?

If also love to get her down faster at night so I don't miss dinner with DH and DS and all of DS bath time and bedtime routine but I don't know what to do since she is nursing? She is so different from DS as a baby so I don't know is there an age that would work better?

She absolutely will not nap in the car no matter how long she's been up and she's hit or miss with napping in her carrier so I can't make it work that way. Please give me you recommendations!

ExcitedMamma
04-23-2013, 06:23 PM
Anyone?

amom526
04-23-2013, 06:32 PM
I'm with you :(

Ds is 5 months, and he's just having a lot of problems falling asleep. He doesn't usually nurse all the way to sleep, but I am still having a really rough time transitioning (he's been sleeping in the swing for naps most of the time).

I think you really need to break the nursing to sleep habit for naps if you want to be able to have her nap independently. Ds is also SUCH a light sleeper and I have a very loud 2 year old so I know how hard that is. I think it will be all or nothing for nursing to sleep for naps, but not necessarily for being held. You can look at the no cry sleep solution to gently wean nursing to sleep - I think at 7 months it is VERY hard for a baby to stay asleep if they fall asleep nursing in your arms and are then put down.

Does she take a pacifier> Maybe try nursing, then a quick diaper change or something to break the association between nurse and sleep. But if she falls asleep nursing and is then woken, it may be really hard for her to go back to sleep.

why is sleep so tricky???