Naptime Advice

[LSarafyan]

Hi,

My baby is 5 months old and until recently she used a dummy for sleep. It worked really well to settle her until about a month ago when she started waking every hour in the night wanting her dummy replaced. We decided to go cold turkey on the dummy and had a tough few days but she is now sleeping from 7.30pm to 7am with one feed at around 3am each night (no other waking) and she has started to fall asleep independently at bed time.

However, nap times are a completely different story! I've always struggled to get her to nap. She has always woken up when put down asleep and cries when put down drowsy/awake so until now we were holding her with her dummy to get her to nap or taking her out in the pram/carrier. Without the dummy, she will no longer sleep being held. She still sleeps in the pram and in the carrier if we are out and I'm on motion, but not in the house! I'm happy to take her out but on days like today when the weather is bad it's not really possible!

We resorted to trying Ferber last week to help her to sleep in the crib and she cried a lot which I hated but did eventually fall asleep however she only napped for 20 mins or so in her crib. Today I tried putting her in the crib (after a 2.5 wake window and showing sleepy cues) and she didn't cry but just stayed awake sucking her thumb and chatting for about 45 mins, at which point I got her up as she was smiling and making excited noises!

We skipped the morning nap entirely so I have now let her fall asleep on my boob. She's been asleep for over an hour but wakes up and fusses if I try to slip my nipple out of her mouth! Happy to do this for an 'emergency' nap so that she gets some sleep today but it's really not sustainable for me to sit with my nipple in her mouth three times a day!

Any tips would be very welcome! I feel like I've been obsessed with naps since she was born and have always felt like I have to fight for them! I was surprised by how happy she seemed this morning despite a skipped morning nap. I've never really let her miss a nap because I've always been able to get her to settle with the dummy but maybe I've been forcing naps on her rather than following her needs?!

Are you sure she’s tired when you’re putting her down? Look for signs such as being very quiet and still, pulling ears, rubbing eyes. We did the Ferber method too after giving up the dummy and it worked for bedtime and naptimes. All I can think is she’s not tired when you’re putting her down at nap time or there’s something interesting in her room to look at.

She does very obviously rub her eyes before I out her down. I've also been using the huckleberry app to predict wake windows and it does seem to coincide with her getting a glazed look and rubbing her eyes. Have tried putting her down as soon as I see this and also waiting a bit longer but still she fights sleep!

No arrive really but following cos my 5mo is shocking at naps too and I can’t bare to go cold turkey with the dummy as I fear she’ll never sleep. I follow the huckleberry app but I feel like I’m getting her to sleep for what feels like hours, for her to sleep 25 mins and then repeat an hour or so later - it’s so draining!

She can self settle for her morning nap usually but not for any others throughout the way, no idea why this is!