For those who have successfully used controlled crying - a question on naps.

[ImBarryScott]

Can I firstly add a caveat? I have seen the way some threads on cc have gone on this board, and I am not interested in getting into any sort of debate about cc. I have no sense of humour re my daughter's sleep and will simply swear profusely at any nay-sayers.

Anyway, day 3 of cc. Nights are going fine. Average 10-15 mins crying, not much night waking.

However, I'm finding the naps tricky. I put DD down when I think she's tired, but she then faffs around in the cot, and starts crying 20 mins or so later. The crying seems longer at the naps too - up to 30mins (though not this morning thank God). Anyone got any tips? And how long did it take before naps came good?

PS - we used to dummy and swaddle, and have gone cold turkey in the last 3 days.

[TheQueenOfQuotes]

Can you try spreading the naps out more - if she's sleeping better at night she may not be as tired in the day - how old is she???

[ImBarryScott]

Thanks QoQ.
DD is 6 months. That's not a bad idea. I hadn't thought about the fact that she's getting more sleep at night [thicko emoticon]. I get all paranoid about over-tiredness, but I guess I could gradually stretch the gaps between naps by 10mins each day or something.

[TheQueenOfQuotes]

I did CC wtih DS1 when he was 6 months old so I'm remembering back a long way (he turned 7 yesterday - not sure how that happened - me ending up with a 7yr old ). But I'm sure after he started sleeping better at night, and also just because he was 6 months old he didn't sleep so many times in the day. In these first few days she will be tired - even if she's not crying for long before sleeping at night/when she wakes it's still pretty exhausting for them. It's tempting to just let them sleep as much as they want in the day to compensate - but then you risk them not being tired enough at night IYKWIM. It soon balances out - especially if you stick at it

Right must go - DS3 I think has now decided he wants his milk

[Tutter]

afraid i have to report that cc never really worked with naps for us like it did at bedtime

i usually resorted to sticking him in the car/pram

[ImBarryScott]

thanks tutter, but

anyone else?

[USAUKMum]

Worked with naps for us. DD took a while for naps (about a month?) after "successfully" doing night-time in 2 days. DS was quicker to cotton on to naps. Probably about a week. DD was about 10 mths, DS was 7 mths. At that time DD was only have 1 daytime sleep, DS was still having 2.

DS slept:

7:15 - 5:30/6:00 (night-time)
9:15 - 11:15 (nap)
1:15 - 3:00 (nap)

but he didn't drop the to 1 nap until 18 mths.

No tips, other than it is worth it

[ratfly]

so, just to belatedly cotton on to this thread - you have successfully used cc on naps?

ds has recently started to NOT NAP in the day. He will go down for 30 mins tops, twice a day, and I know this is leaving him tired. I'm unsure whether to use cc here, as he seems to cry longer when he won't go down for a nap rather than at night (iyswim) so I am also on the llokout for any success stories

ds is 8 months old btw

[ImBarryScott]

Hi ratfly,

I remember your dummy weaning thread - hope this are still going well for you. At 6 months we were still swaddling and using dummy, and loss of one or the other in the night was waking DD countless times.

We've been cc'ing since Fri eve last week, to lose the dummy and swaddle. I believe (touch wood) that cc is working for us - only 4 mins crying for naps/bed yesterday, but it's really hard. Especially as you make good progress one day, then things are different the next. I have been trying QoQ's idea about allowing more time between naps - extending gaps by 5 mins each day. Yesterday her lunchtime nap went wrong - she woke up halfway through. I left her to cry for 5 mins, checked, then another 5 and she was asleep again.

I don't know if cc would work for naps if you weren't doing it for night wakings though - we have applied it 100% for all wakings.

[USAUKMum]

I did use it for naps. For DS I did wake him at normal time even if it did mean a shorter nap. He cried at first for 30 min off/on, but swiftly down to 5 min. He still naps now at 3.2 and happily takes himself off to bed. With DS it was mostly because DD had school / activities, etc so he had to fit in with that. But it did seem to help.

[DaphneHarvey]

Hi Barry. Did fairly painless controlled crying with both my DC, although they were perhaps a little older than 6 months.

Iirc, at that age they seem to need a short nap of 30 mins in the morning about 2-3 hours after getting up for the day. And a longer one of up to 2 hours somewhere around "lunch time". So that they are awake again by 3ish.

If you are trying to get your DD to have more naps/sleep than this during the day then you may not be taking account of the fact that she is getting older and simply doesn't need as much day time sleep as a newborn.

By 12 months she will be getting to the stage of only needing one 2 hour nap in the middle of the day, probably.

I started on controlled crying by using it for the start of the long day-time nap. It didn't take too long, but I did keep very strictly to routines/timing at that time, just to give them the best possible chance of settling into a new routine. Once there was no crying at nap times, then I started with cc at bedtime. It was painless. But I never left baby crying in the middle of the night - I never really had to - on the rare occasions they did wake up and cry later, it was because they were poorly.

HTH.

[SofiaAmes]

I had great success with cc with my ds at night (started at 6 mo.), although I did have to redo it after a cold or after traveling to a different time zone. However, I did not have much success with it at nap time. And with my dd, I had much less success with cc at night and no luck at all at nap time. I think with the naps, it's much harder to hit just the right time where they are in the right frame of mind for sleep. I found that it took some time to figure out what was the best time to put them down for a nap. We experimented with earlier and later and often just walked them aroudn in the buggy until they fell asleep and then let them do the nap in the buggy. In the end dd was never really a great napper and gave them up before she was two. Good luck.

[ratfly]

We used cc for his nightwakings and it was totally painless - less than 15 minutes for 2 nights.
But nap times are a real fight at the mo. Sometimes he wakes after 5 mins (YES! 5 mins!) and will not go back to sleep. I tried cc but gave up after 20 mins. tbh I don't really know when he should be napping anymore...