Can I get 19mo Sleep Fighter back into the cot for naps?

[bclaremums]

Hello, my 19mo ds has never been keen on going to sleep in the daytime for me (although naturally he sleeps 2 hours in a cot for his childminders 3 days per week...)
At the moment he will only have a short sleep in the buggy, sometimes after a long, long time of pushing around the streets.
If I try to put him in his cot at nap time he laughs for a bit, then screams. Is it worth trying to sleep train him and let him scream for a few days in the cot, will he learn to go to sleep there? If so for how long do I let him cry for before I go and get him? 1 hour???
And if not, should I accept no naps at all at 19 months if he is fighting it so much?
Thank you for any and all advice!

Hi there.

I have a few questions:

What time does he usually wake in the morning, what time does he go to bed & what time are you trying to put him down for a nap?

What time does he nap at the childminders?

Does he sleep in his cot at night-time or do you co-sleep?

Can he settle to sleep independently at bedtime or do you need to rock/cuddle/feed him to sleep before laying him down?

Have you ever established a good wind-down routine before trying to put him down for a nap/BT or has he always been a pushchair napper?

Some LO's do drop their daytime naps by 19 months but I would say they are in the minority & the majority will nap til between 2-3 years old. Since he is napping well at the childminders then this would suggest to me he probably does need a daytime nap still.

I think if he has never been used to napping in the cot it may take quite some time to do it, but it could be done. Personally I wouldn't advocate just leaving to scream in there b/c he is bound to be upset if its something he's not used to. But if you can establish a wind-down, similar to what you would do at bedtime, perhaps a snuggle, read a story then upstairs, into sleepsack, close curtains, say 'its naptime now & I'll see you in a bit' & then pop him in bed, & then use something like walk in/walk out or the checking method then he should eventually fall asleep. OK he will probably scream, but you are there to comfort him if he needs it. The best advice I can give to you though is that if you decide to try for cot naps, be consistent. It may well take more than 'a few days' before he is happy to sleep in there. Possibly a few weeks & he may also have a regression during this period. If you hang in there, he will do it. And even if he doesn't fall asleep, he will get perhaps an hour of 'quiet time' which will recharge his batteries a bit ready for him to get on with the rest of his day.
HTH.x

Thank you very much Omama, that feels like really sound advice.

I put him to bed at 7pm with a breastfeed (still doesn't seem the right time to stop yet...hopefully before he is 16!) but he goes into his cot awake and talks to himself a bit before he goes off to sleep. He is up 6 - 6.30 in the morning.

I don't really want to start breastfeeding him again at nap times so that does make it a different routine from bedtime. He used to nap in his cot relatively reliably before he was 13 months old when he started going to the childminders (with a wind down, sleeping bag, breastfeed routine), then as he was in the settling in period with them he stopped sleeping in his cot and started falling asleep naturally in the buggy late morning. The HV told me not to try and keep him awake just for the sake of putting him down after lunch in the cot but to go with what he was doing naturally. Now though it is more artificial with me trying to get him off to sleep at that time in the buggy and I think it will be worth doing what you suggest.

Thanks again for your reply!

Hiya

WRT not having the BF at naptime - that's fine! I think its just a case of establishing a sequence of events that signal to him that sleep time is coming IYSWIM?

WRT his nap, I wonder if you are trying him too early for his nap. I definitely would see if gradually nudging that naptime a bit later until its after lunch helps with him settling more easily.

If it helps, my LO's routine is:

WU: 7am
Nap: 12.30-2.30
BT: 7.30

We've only established this in the last couple of months, prior to that he was waking 5-5.30, napping 11/11.30-1/1.30 & BT was 6.30/7ish. By pushing it all later it has helped his wakeup time tremendously.