Tips on getting 4.5 month to nap

[iamroddo]

Our 4 1/2 month DS is a delight. He sleeps pretty well at night, usually h babbles himself to sleep rocked without needing to be after the 10pm feed and will usually sleep until the 6am feed.

The day time and evening naps are a bit different, he sleeps but it almost always takes a period of rocking or jiggling him in his cot, which is a moses basket. The technique works fine but has its drawbacks. He's getting too small for it and we need to move him into a larger bed soon. We can't always take the basket with us when we travel or go camping.

What techniques do successful Mumsnetters use to sooth similar aged DS and DDs who clearly need a snooze but just don't recognise it.

I used to put mine in a dark room....or if all else failed I would take them toa walk.

Ah it was at 4.5 months that I started insisting my DS had a nap in his cot during the day... in fact 2.

I would get him up at 7 regardless of what had happened during the night, give him a feed, bit of a play and then I would give him his breakfast (babyrice or whatever) and then knowing that he had been stimulated and had a full tummy put him back to bed. probably before 9am at that age but I don't really remember.

Then I would draw the curtains and leave the room. he would cry but I'd get in the shower and more often that not he would be asleep by the time I came back upstairs.

He would cry but as I was in the shower I couldn't hear him.

Took a while but it was more me having the courage to leave him... for me knowing that he had a full tummy, was warm and probably tired made it easier. By 8-9 months he would go down without having to have just had a meal so food doesn't form a dependanct in my experience.

good luck, it is tough.

I used a sling, fed to sleep or rocked to sleep in a rocking chair. I still do one of the last two at 15 months because both he & I enjoy it so much. :)

Daytime sleep is always more difficult than night-time, especially at this early age when the body's circadian rhythms haven't properly developed yet.

At that age I was feeding to sleep, sometimes rocking or wearing in a sling. If I had to go out I'd time it so they could nap in the pushchair. Self-settling comes in time and doesn't have to be taught, although if you're impatient for it to happen a book like the No Cry Sleep Solution might be helpful.

I think for my DS creating a "sleeptime" senario worked. So in cot, music on, in sleeping bag and curtains shut. And tried to keep to the same times each day. Was less easy when out, but he did fall asleep in the pushchair, never for as long though.

We also did controlled crying, so I would let him cry but he'd generally go off quickly.

He slept really well during the day and night. I think some of this was a 'good baby' and some of the above.

Good luck.