Nap Help

Melissa - posted on 06/28/2009

I am having the exact same problem with my 3 month old daughter, she only sleeps if I am walking around rocking her. Even in her sleep she must sense me sitting down because as soon as I sit or try to put her down she wakes. I have a chair that vibrates and lately I have been putting her in that to nap, I lay her down and then keep my handa on her as if im holding her for a few mins, it works maybe half the time.

Erin - posted on 06/28/2009

My daughter was EXACTLY the same, and still is a pretty terrible napper (only 30-40mins at a time). Do you swaddle?? At your son's age he will still have a pretty strong startle reflex that will wake him up. Swaddling helps limit this, as well as make him feel like you're still holding him. It's the only way my daughter will nap at all, and she's nearly 5 mo. Also try and get him on a nap schedule and don't let him stay awake for more than about 90mins at a time or you'll end up with an overtired baby who will fight sleep even more. My daughter now only tolerates wake periods of 2-2 1/2hrs - if she goes any more than this I can kiss the rest of my day goodbye.
I'd love to tell you it gets better (people told me that) but I'm still waiting :-P Does your son sleep well at night?? My daughter always has, so I've just had to accept the fact she's going to struggle through the day. I'm hoping once she starts crawling and being more physically active she will sleep consolidate her 3-4 short naps into 2 decent ones, but who know?!?!

Sarah - posted on 06/28/2009

Hmm well, I tried the swaddling for a while and he absolutely HATES it so I gave that up about a month ago. But thanks for the tips anyways. I will try the noise maker thingy and see if that helps

Christine - posted on 06/28/2009

My daughter is 3 months old and had that problem. I started swaddling her and she started sleeping 6 1/2 - 8 hours at night and taking 3 hour naps. It was night and day. To make it easier, I bought the Kiddapotamus swaddles at Toys R Us (don't bother with the ones at Target - they kick right out of those). I rock and nurse her to sleep, then lay her in the swaddle and wrap her up and lay her in the bassinet. She's out

Catherine - posted on 06/27/2009

In a month or so if this problem persisits I would consider putting your son in his crib shutting the door and letting him cry it out. He will get used to soothing himself and felling asleep on his own. My sister layed down with her daughter till she fell asleep and now 2 years later she still has to. When my son was about 4 months old my husband made me do this(putting him in the crib alone) I never would have let him cry! I'm so happy he made me do this because now he, I and the baby sleep through the night and naptime is when I can catch up on housework, email, etc. Hope this helps. For now I would try and rock him in my arms and hope for the best!

Sarah - posted on 06/27/2009

Try to swaddle and have a noise maker on. There are many different ones that have different noises. My kids like just the white noise, but you can get ones that have a heart beat that sometimes helps with newborns.

Shondeleena - posted on 06/27/2009

Yes I agree with Samar! My son is now 4 months and still fights to get to sleep. I figured out what works best for me was laying him on my bed with me and as soon as he was sleep I put dividers around him and walked away. He figured that out quickly and stayed up for long periods of time after that. I finally started putting him on his tummy to sleep (yea I check on him every 5 minutes) and he sleeps at daytime from 745pm to 530 in the morning! So try everything and you'll find the answer believe me.

Samar - posted on 06/27/2009

with all three of my children i had the same problem! it drove me insane.... at the end what i did and it worked for me was i would lay down next to them and let them use my shoulder as a pillow and have the bottle (warm) in their mouth.. and once they fell asleep i would slowly move away... with my last child she was breastfeeding and i would do the same thing and it worked all the time... also maybe he has gas try giving him a massage and holding his tummy (more like pressing it lightly) and lefting his legs up a little, if your doingit right he will let out the gas... also maybe he likes noise so you can try having the tv on... hope it helps.