Controlled crying and daytime naps

[Triin]

Hi

I've just joined Mumsnet. My name is Triin and I have a 6-month old baby son Oliver. I have also just gone back to work this week and my patner's at home looking after Oliver. In anticipation of me going back to work, we decided to do controlled crying with Oliver, since he was getting harder and harder to settle at night (he'd only go to sleep feeding or when I rocked him) and he kept crying in his sleep several times a night, sometimes every hour and needed rocking back to sleep. Also I fed him at around 4-5 am and after that he sometimes wouldn't go back to sleep. Anyway, controlled crying worked really well with his nighttime sleep, he goes down around 7:30 now, has a late night feed at 22:30 and then goes down again until 7 in the morning. Daytime naps are another matter - when we put him down for a nap at 9:30, he can cry for an hour and a half until his next feed and the same with his afternoon nap. Does anyone know what you're supposed to do in such case - we didn't see any other way than to get him up after, feed him (and then he doesn't want his solids being cranky) and then he obviously zonks being knackered from all the crying. But I'm worried that if we get him up after 1.5 hours of crying, he'll get the wrong message. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Thanks,
Triin

perhaps his naps are at the wrong time? is he really crying for 1.5hours, this does not sound good.

Hi

We've been trying to get him to have a morning nap at around 9:30 (45 mins) and a longer afternoon nap at 13/13:30 (1.5-2 hrs). At the moment it seems that he's able to have one good nap a day - if he doesn't have a morning nap and cries all the way through, he then goes down well in the afternoon and sleep for 2 hrs. If he has a morning nap, he then refuses to go down in the afternoon. I started thinking that maybe he doesn't need a morning nap any more and could get through until about 12 to have a longer nap then, but he does actually get really sleepy in the mornings as well. The only way he has both naps a day if when we go shopping in the morning, he then sleeps in the car seat and if I take him out in the pram in the afternoon.

Cheers,
Triin

I seriously wouldnt be leaving a 6 month old wee baby crying for an hour and a half.

Maybe baby doesnt need two naps now, just go for a lunchtime one, thats all my lad had from about 6 months.

If they are not tired you cant force them to sleep.

he is probably also missing you, let him settle down first and a new routine will emerge.

maybe they could go out for a walk or shops in the morning, then he can sleep if he wishes. but if not he won't be as cranky as at home. there is no point in making you all miserable and still no sleep!

hi my dd is 15 months now but when she was that age she was getting up at about 7 having a 8oz bottle then some brekkie, then having a nap at about 10 and then getting up at about 11.30 then having a 5 oz bottle and some food and then would go down for another nap at about 2 ish until 4 etc finally going to bed for the night between seven and eight
she's been really good and i think if you leave them to cry and cry they just work them selves up into a state and def wonlt stay down, why don;t you try changing his cot around or getting him used to a fave toy
if she wouldn't settle i used to bring her back downstairs and give her some more bottle and then take her back up again i just did that over and over until she got themessgae that she was going up no matter what

Thanks to everyone who replied. I agree with tinkerbellie that if the baby works himself into a state, it's really hard for him to calm down by himself. It's just that since controlled crying worked such wonders with his nighttime sleep (he's settled without a peep for several nights now and slept soundly til the morning, I still can't believe it), we wondered whether we should carry on for daytime naps as well. But we'll try some of the other ideas.

Thanks,
Triin