Monday, July 21, 2008

Naptime Sucks

The whole nap thing has me boggled and feeling like a failure...

C seems to be down to one nap per day. It's somewhere in the middle of the day. And it isn't for long. She spends much of the morning whining and crabbing and getting mad at her toys. So I swoop in and try to help her get to sleep. She thrashes and kicks and cries and sleep never happens - until sometime in the middle of the day.

She is not on a schedule. I used to think I can't schedule my response to her needs. Meaning she breastfeeds on demand and she sleeps when she needs to. This worked when she was 0-6months. Doesn't work - and hasn't for awhile - now that she is almost 10 1/2 months.

Somebody on my livejournal made some comment recently about how you have to schedule naps no matter what and if they cry they cry. I don't agree with the if they cry they cry part. I can't do CIO and I know my kid, if I put her in her crib at the scheduled nap time she would freak.

So what am I supposed to do?

4 comments:

bleu said...

I don't do CIO and never have either. With Bliss when his naps changed from 2 to one I had to try different times. I would experiment with trying different times, or even do the go for a drive thing. That was another way I could sometimes get him a nap during the day when he was over tired and wouldn't go to sleep.

It is hard mama, good luck.

Jude said...

Can you maybe lie down with her at set times and just have "quiet time" together for a couple of days and see if you can make naps happen? Maybe try 2-3 hours after she wakes up in the morning and then 2-3 hours after that, just have a little siesta with low light, soft music (ooh, sounds romantic!)... see what happens?

xoxo and good luck

Jen said...

we don't let her CIO either but sometimes, she will fuss a little when she first lays down. (i think moxie actually calls this FIO - fuss it out.) it bothered me to hear her fuss at first because i thought she was in distress - that is, until i looked in through the keyhole and saw that she was fussing with her eyes closed. :)

anyway, back on topic - i second the idea of laying down with her and getting some quiet time in. deven gets overstimulated sometimes and then has a hard time settling down by herself. laying down in a dim room and talking or singing softly will usually get her settled.

does C nurse to sleep at all? sometimes a little comfort nursing can put them in the right state of mind and calm everyone down.

lastly, i wouldn't beat yourself up too much about not having a schedule either. i bet C has one but it's just in flux right now...could be teething or other developmental things going on and making it hard to relax?

Anonymous said...

At 10.5 months, she's likely a bit heavy for it, but if she's open to either the sling or the Bjorn, you could try wearing her during the times when she *should* be getting sleepy.

When my daughter was an infant, she was powerless (powerless I tell you) when it came to the Bjorn. It always put her right to sleep. Taking her out and putting her in the crib was a whole different thing, though... so sometimes I just kept wearing her through nap time, either vegging out in the rocking chair or going for a walk.

Good luck! You'll hit a rhythym soon enough!