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FAO EmmaA,Bedhead & karen 130770

Hi ladies

You were all kind enough to reply to my post recently about Maiya not taking her day time naps in her cot and me having to crawl round the house trying not to make noise while she napped on the sofa!!

she was 16 weeks yesterday and decided to get tough today. I was wondering if I could be cheeky and get some more tips please. Firstly how long do you keep trying to put them down in one session?? and if she goes to sleep what would you say is an acceptable nap length??

Have put her down this morning her her cot. took 3 attempts and so far she has been quiet for 20 mins. Everytime she has cried I have left her - first 3 mins and then 5 mins each. I have to pick her out of the cot and just hold her for about 5 mins to calm and re-settle her and then I put her back in the cot. Is an hour too long to keep trying at this age?? if she doen't nap do I jut bring her back down and carry on with the day (even though she is still tired?) and then try again after her lunch feed?

have cleared my schedule for the week (except her damn 3rd set of injections tomorrow). Is it a good idea to try and put her in the cot for all 2/3 naps?? if she has a long one at lunch she doesn't normally have one later as goes to bed at 7.30pm.

sorry that went on a bit!! I just really want to get this np thing sorted in day. night isn't too bad as sleeps 7.30pm to approx 5am. can seem to get her to sleep any later as she's starving and already takes 11/12 ounces of milk before bed!!

Thank again image)

xxxxx

Replies

  • Hi hun, hopefully by now she has already had a nice long morning nap in her cot!!
    When I was teaching Barney to sleep in his cot I started with one nap a day, normally his first nap as this tends to be the easiest to get them down for. I set a window of an hour which he was supposed to be asleep for, if at the end of the hour he hadn't slept I got him up and carried on with the day (although I think that only happened once). If he fell asleep and woke before the end of the hour I still left him in his cot untill he had been there an hour, although if neccesary I went and re settled him. If at the end of the hour he was still asleep I left him untill he woke and then got him straight up. For now I would just try one nap a day in her cot, once she is settling herself for that you can put her down again later in the day. For the time being carry on as you are for the other naps, so rock her to sleep, put her in the car etc, whatever works for you.
    Hope that helps, I got a huge amount of support from www.babysleepanswers.co.uk when I was sleep training my two (Barney is still a work in progress lol) so if you need some more help it might be worth a look.

    Hope that helps
    Kerry xx
  • thanks for that image) she did only the 20 mins this morning. I did try again at lunch but again only managed about 20 mins. Think i'll just plan it for the one nap tomorrow as suggeted. otherwise i think it'll end up disrupting her night slight as she'll be so wired without any day naps!!!

    have ordered the book off the website as thought it was worth a go for a tenner! thanks again.
    xxx
  • Hi hon

    Right, after a week we seem to have day time naps licked! Here's what I do:

    Firstly and most importantly, wait for the signs that he's tired. When he's yawning (first time) and grumpy - well more grumpy than normal I take him upstairs. I draw the curtains, hold him in a cradle position, sing a little song to him to let him know it's sleep time, put his dummy in and lay him down. Kiss him and tell him he's going for a little sleep and cover him with the blanket. I set his mobile off and close the door and come downstairs.

    I don't do the whole leave for 2 mins, then 3 mins thing cos I just confuse myself, but I set the oven timer for 10 minutes and if he's still bawling, I go up, stroke his head, put his dummy back in and go back down and set the timer again for 10mins. Of note, Reiss does not calm down when I go up to him, but I figure at least he knows he's not abandoned even if he's still screaming! The maximum time I've had to do this for is around half an hour. I just kept at it every ten minutes. Now he goes down without a peep the majority of times.

    Night time I do the same routine to get him down and although he goes straight off, he has started waking at 11pm, then after dummy replaced, sleeps til around 4am when I feed him, and is then up every half an hour until it's time to get up. Not sure what to do with that, tonight I am thinking of giving him a dream feed at 10pm and then if he wakes up bunging some bonjela on his gums as he is teething during the day.

    Let me know how you get on - especially with the book - good luck!xx
  • am exhausted. have let her crash on the sofa now and will try again tomorrow. I fear this is going to be a battle of wills - and i'm not sure mine's strong enough. hopefully she will get the message sooner rather than later.

    karen am so impressed you got it sorted in a week!! thanks for advice.

    xx

    i still think it's odd that she's happy to go in the cot at night and sleeps for 9 odd hours!!
  • Barney waa always exactly the same, no problem at night, he went in his cot wide awake, settled himself at night and slept great. Daytime was another matter completely and we still haven't completely sorted it! Barney is a lot like Reiss in that when I went in he got more wound up so I did the same as Karen, I went in every 10 mins to check he wasn't wet/upside down/covered in sick etc but I didn't check him anymore frequently than that.
    xx
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