My 5 month old really struggles with naps, only napping if I walk her constantly in the buggy. If it’s raining and we can’t get out she just won’t nap and becomes inconsolable. At night things are even worse, she refuses to sleep unless constantly on the breast, if I take her off she wakes every 20 minutes (she won’t take a dummy). I have read what feels like a million articles on sleep training and my confusion is this.....all of them seem to be based on the idea your baby will just cry a bit and calm when reassured by you....not so for my little one....the instant she is put down she will immediately commence intense screaming (tears rolling down her face, sucking in breath)...if you try to pat/shhhhh/put a hand on her to calm her this does diddley squat! If you pick her up she will eventually calm but it can take 30 mins or so. I can’t believe for one second that I have the only baby that does this so why are all the sleep training methods explained in such an unrealistic way! It leaves me confused as to whether I can even use sleep training???? No tears methods seem pointless for her given that they say they take longer but are less stressful, but she is crying the entire time so I can’t see the point in doing something that’s going to take longer if she’s going to be so upset anyway. I hate the idea of leaving her to cry but it’s getting to the point where she has such a tiny amount of time each day where she’s happy that she’s hardly getting any time to play....I just want her to be getting enough sleep that she can be rested enough to enjoy some of her day. Can anyone help at all, I really want to know if anyone has been through this and what they did. I’m so sick of reading things about but your baby down and then ‘grumbling a bit or protest crying’ and then settling. I read one thing that said ‘it’s fine to let your baby protest cry but never ignore an emotional cry’ it didn’t bother to offer advice on what to do if you baby instantly goes to enotional crying!!
Sorry for the rant, just completely at a loss!!