PU/PD and tears (mainly mine!)

[Mae34]

Hello,

I tried this for first time this morning for nap as thought daytime would be less stressful time to start. My DD is 5 months and I usually put her down for naps with short routine of singing and shh/pat until sleepy but not asleep. She usually goes down really well and sometimes is more awake than others. For bed she has good routine and then a feed and usually goes down sleepy and sometimes asleep. She will every now and again go to sleep from wide awake (usually when I leave her to it as am getting frustrated!). She sleeps ok at night, usually only waking if she needs a feed (once or twice) or if ill.

So...this morning just resulted in her getting increasingly wound up by being picked up and put down and took 30 mins instead of our usual 10 or so. I just found it really hard to know when to pick up and then putting her down seemed to just make her more upset. Tears for both of us and DD finally fell asleep in hiccuping heap.

Is it meant to be this hard?
Is self settling a myth at this age?
Is sleepy and sometimes asleep, sometimes more awake ok?

I just feel this way lies conflict and stress!

Any thoughts gratefully received - sorry long post,

xx

Hi Mae

I feel your pain!

My DD was the same and no matter how I tried, she would NOT self-settle for naps and PU/PD and the other gentle methods only made her worse and resulted in less sleep.

Overnight sleep, she can and does self-settle now and her sleep is generally improving (at 9 months).

But naps?? Forget it. In the end, I gave up and now I try and get her to take one (usually very short) nap in her cot (have to feed her to sleep and it usually takes a few attempts to put her down) - hoping that eventually she'll get used to it and maybe sleep for longer.

Otherwise, I take her for long walks in the pram as she'll only sleep when it's in motion. I don't get a break, but it's good exercise and at least she remains sweet through the day and goes down easily at night.

So no advice really, except to say that babies can be more nap-resistant because daysleep is different and it can be a lot harder to sleep-train as a result.

Maybe concentrate on getting better sleep from her overnight and just do what you have to do for naps. The apparent inconsistency is unlikely to impact on her night-time sleep as the two aren't related in that way.

AngelDog has lots of good advice about naps - she may well be along soon.

Hi Mae

just to add we used PU/PD to self settle at night and it works a treat- for naps, forget it.

We would spend the whole nap time PU/PD'ing resulting in tears and no sleep. To be honest I still BF to sleep for naps, and she still self settles at night time. A lot of even die hard baby whisperers find the method ineffective for naps...

x

Thanks guys...just to update - have started putting DD in her cot awake after lots of nap and bedtime sleep cues (singing, blinds down,etc etc) and just holding my hand on her back and rubbing and shhing only if she starts crying. Plan was to only get her out to soothe if she seemed properly upset rather than grumbling.So far shes gone to sleep herself after 10-15 minutes and I'm planning to move on to just sitting next to the cot - guess its a kind of gradual retreat...anyway seems to be working (at the moment) which feels good!

x

Good stuff, Mae!