Nap time routines - going from the hold to the put down

[MrGEnglish]

Hi,

I'm on summer holidays at the mo (teacher, not student) and so have a few weeks left to sort this out.

How things currently stand with my 8mth old

• as soon as I spot signs of tiredness (rubbing eyes, yawning) I start the routine
• say 'night night' to toys, people, rooms, stairs, world (as closing the blind) - she has begun to wave goodbye.
• I tell a story and she has a teddy bear that does instrumental lullabies.
• up until this week I have been holding her and the bear in my arms as I kiss goodnight to both and play the music. I waited until she nods off (within 10mins) and then put her in the cot with minimal fuss.
• I do this because on the odd occasion I have just put her straight in the cot there has been lots of flipping over, standing up and sitting up

What I would like:

• to put her in the cot with the bear after story time and whilst she is still awake
• to be able to leave the room and allow her to settle herself to sleep

FYI
She has as many as 3 naps a day and they usually last for only 30mins. They have gone on as long as 90mins but these are rare.

I'm open to ALL ideas/tips/constructive criticisms and count myself as being extremely patient.

Thanks in advance.

Get hold of a copy of The Baby Whisperer. No need to read every word cover-to-cover, I just skim read it enough to understand the techniques and the rationale behind them. It works.

Why do you need to be able to put her down awake? If it works to rock her etc then do it while you sort a routine.

My 8 month old naps at 8.30am and 1pm. I go for set times because I have an older child so it's easier. She wakes at 6-6.30am hence the early morning nap. Can you try napping at set times instead of watching for signs? Aim for a 2-3-4 hour pattern (number represent times since the last nap). So wake at 7am, nap at 9am, nap at 1pm and a possible cat nap if she needs it. My DD goes to bed at 6.30pm hence no afternoon nap.

Im lucky as DD is a long mapper whereas DS was a cat nap baby! With him I napped two hours from when he woke in the morning, next nap was about 12 (so lunch at 11.30) then afternoon nap at 3.30pm. He droppe the afternoon nap at 9 months and I worked on resettling him for longer lunch time naps.

Once I'd tackled the routine, I didn't bother with self settling for naps, only at bedtime. That was because I could put them down quickly enough. I have on occasion have to leave DD awake (eg when DS is causing trouble). I rocked a bit, popped in her cot with her light up seahorse which plays a tune for ten minutes and 9/10 she'd fall asleep!

Right, got a copy of TBW and thumbing through it now. Thank you.

Re: why I'd like to put her downtown awake - id read that your face should not be the last they see before going to sleep so that if they wake in the night they stand a better chance of getting back to sleep because their favourite teddy or something similar is there.

Thanks for the tip about spacing out the naps. We've been a bit 'happy go lucky' with the naps.

Good luck!

Yes you are right about needing to move towards being able to put her down awake. She will sleep better and longer when she learns that she can reach a state of happy sleep under her own steam. Getting to that point will take a bit of perseverence because she will protest at having to unlearn the habits she has learned so far, but you will get through that and all will be well.

For nap time could you feed cuddle etc then strap into buggy.and rock to sleep? Dd has been having her naps in her stroller for a couple of.weeks now.

Another thing which might work is if she usually wakes 30 mins after falling to sleep, pre empt it and go in at 20/25 mins and start pushing the buggy again. It may rouse her enough to not wake but fall into another sleep cycle?

Like it Gnocchi, like it!
She's resisting anything that restricts her at the mo - high hair, jumperoo, buggy but will give it go, I'm sure.

Cheers.

I put dd down asleep mainly and she sleeps for long stretches. Also when ds was younger, even when he self settled for bedtime he'd still wake up in the night so don't fret too much. I'd get a routine first in the cot then encourage self settling.