What do you think the best book/technique is for helping baby to nap?

[KiwiPanda]

Just after some recommendations.. DD is 6 months, wakes usually twice a night for feeds (is fully BF) but goes to sleep again straight away. Usually ends up being fed to sleep at bedtime too. Because of this (and I've probably created this problem myself) she will only really go to sleep at nap time if she's fed to sleep. Otherwise we just get about 45 minutes of screaming. Pick up put down doesn't work, just winds her up more and more. I'm not really prepared to try controlled crying because I sense it just won't work for her - when she gets really wound up she can really let rip for a long time!

So, does anyone have any good experiences with different techniques and/or books? No-cry sleep solution? (what IS the technique in that one?)

Basically I'd love her to be able to settle herself at naptime ... [a mum can dream emoticon]

[HullabaLuLu]

Bumping for you Kiwi, I'll be watching this one with interest. If you're looking at naps I hope that means your nights are all sorted!

[KiwiPanda]

Ah HullabaLuLu I wish that were true! The thing is she's usually hungry at suppertime just cos of the way the feeds work out, so if she's tired and hungry I can get her to sleep by feeding pretty easily. Then if she wakes in the night I just feed her and she's off again. So, she still wakes a few times, but feeding is always the answer! But I think by associating feeding with getting back to sleep, I've convinced her that's the only way she CAN sleep..! And it also makes it quite hard to tell if she genuinely is hungry at night or if sometimes it's just to settle herself again... hence wanting to try something different!

[HullabaLuLu]

Ah, well we have just started full time co-sleeping (the part time thing just wasn't working) and I was having the same thing - dd would only settle with a nipple in her mouth and if she woke and it had gone she went mental.

So, I started taking it out of her mouth when she is just suckling at the end of her feed. I have found that if I move it downwards over her bottom lip and leave it under her chin for a bit she protests less. It does tend to stir her which I prefer because then she knows she hasn't fallen asleep with it in her mouth. I just shush/pat her back to sleep then.

It took a few attempts but tonight she fed to sleep and 30 minutes later dh came in chatting loudly which woke her. Normally she'd need to be fed back to sleep but not this time, she kind of smiled, rolled towards me and closed her eyes and I patted her for good measure. Out like a light!

I hazily remember that it worked last night because although she woke a few times she only fed twice and went back to sleep with a pat or less the other times.

I am hoping that we can move to just patting to sleep soon and eventually settle herslef (long term plan!).

If you've already tried this and I have waffled all that for nothing I apologise! I am rarely concise!

[ChocOrange05]

KiwiPanda I used to feed my DS to sleep when he was little but decided to stop doing this at about 10 weeks. I think this was his sleep association so I tried to create new ones. I created a nap routine - nappy change, into grobag, read story, in cot with light show (and static radio - extended his naps from 45 mins to 2 hours +!).

Of course it didn't work at first, so I decided to do shh-pat (as PUPD was too stimulating for my DS) - so basically once I KNEW he was fed/clean/right temp I would not pick him up from his cot but rather sit next to him and shh-pat him until he was asleep, moving to leaving when he had stopped crying after a couple of weeks.

Now, at 7mo DS goes in his cot happily and looks excitedly at his ceiling for his light show. He sometimes even cries at me and only stops when I leave the room because he just wants to nap - charming!!

I definitely think if you have a consistent nap routine they know what's coming and are happy/content about it. IIRC it took about a month of the routine and shh-patting before DS would settle happily.