Am I failing at this?

Question

Hi ladies - I recently became a FTM on 14th Feb - my boy is fab however every single day for the last month he has just screamed and screamed and screamed at every nap time - I can see he is tired but he won't go down, he will only nap in my arms after a total melt down, everyday I swing between "let's make this the day we conquer naps" and "let's just leave him he will go to sleep when he is tired...right?" Am I failing at this? How are you ladies getting on with naps? How many does your lo have? How long are they awake for? How do u keep a consistent bedtime?

Answer

My 4 month old is the same way, crying in my arms (sometimes hard enough where I think something else is wrong). I've tried everything - moby wrap, not swaddled, etc. and it's the same cry each time. After about a minute or two he gets completely calm and closes his eyes. I've tried every period of awake time to make sure he isn't over tired.

I've finally just realized that this is part of his wind-down process. He doesn't do it for nighttime sleep. I've stopped fighting it and just stay calm, doing the exact same thing each time and just letting him do his thing. Once he is asleep I am able to put him down in his bassinet.  He naps 4-5x a day (every 1.5 hours) and is typically in bed between 7-8 and sleeps until 6:15, waking up once or twice to eat.

Answer

My 4 month old just went down to 3 naps per day. I also just extended his awake time from 1.5 hrs to 2 hours. So once he's been awake for 1 hr and 45 mins I head into his room and start the sleep routine! His morning nap is usually 2 hrs and the other two range from 45 mins to 1.5 hrs. Sleeps 11 hours straight at night.

What does your daily routine look like? How long does he stay awake?

Answer

My LO is doing this too. Started around her nap transition at 3 months (turns 4 months this week). It's nothing you have done, pretty normal phenomenon when their sleep starts changing. I am curious what other people are doing as well. I have been trying to put her down for a nap when she starts showing sleepy cues but I tend to be too late and then she is overtired and screams when I tried to rock her to sleep. I would like to get her on a schedule, so that way we will both know when and what to expect at naptime and avoid the blood curdling screams but it is hard to do when she wakes up at a different time every morning (this morning, 5:20am - ugh).

Answer

I feel your pain! My DD was born 16th feb and she always hated naps and would only sleep in our arms and wake up the moment we put her down or sleep for 5 mins at the most. This was until about 2 weeks ago when all of a sudden she started to take half hour naps every 2-3 hours. I notice her eyes get heavy and it's easy to feed her or rock her to sleep and she won't wake and scream when we put her down. So hang in there, they do change, it's just a matter of time!

Am I failing at this?

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