the "nap fail" what goes wrong?!

[seafox]

Sadly, my nap attempts have had this bad trend lately - where everything *seems* to go fine - I either nurse or bounce to sleep - he looks OUT, I tiptoe away, he stays asleep, etc. - but 10min or 20min later he's UP and *alert*! like its been a full nap.

Its always happened some, but lately it just seems way more often and annoyingly, when *I've* done the bouncing, not the mr. ! we try and both handle naps but its not really helpful if he's up 10min later - the issue is trying to get him down again doesn't work for a while - it really is like he's 'rested' although we know he's not.

There was a while where it was always after nursing twice - once since he was hungry and the second time *after* bouncing since he woke up a bit on transfer and so I nursed to sleep. So I thought it was just a too-full tummy or something. So I've tried to just bounce - no second nursing - but it still happens. I can't see what I'm doing different than the mr., but he has a much better success rate!
any ideas?

[mags]

I'm going through the same exact thing with my July baby. It's so frustrating. The only "good" thing is that at least he is a good night sleeper, but that's probably b/c he pretty much fights his naps during the day and is totally pooped out by bedtime.

[cristeen]

I'm having the same problem the last few days. If DH puts him down, he's out for at least an hour, but if I put him down I'm lucky to get 15 minutes.

[sunnygir1]

Naps have been bad here the last week or so too, but my babe is only 3 months old! He tends to skip his morning nap altogether and wake easily when he does fall asleep. To top it all off, he has quite a temper, so gets so worked up.

Dh doesn't ever get him to sleep, so I don't have that problem you mentioned.

I don't have any solutions. Sometimes the sling works. I certainly can't go around trying to keep his almost 3yo sister from making noise! I'm hoping it's a phase and he'll start napping better again soon.

[Carhootel]

sorry, nakking, but just a quick reply that sometimes my ds seems very alert and awake but if i lay down and nurse him he'll go back under. It's like he thought he thought he was awake and wanted to play but his body really does need the sleep. Sometimes it doesn't work obviously but it often did

[lotus.blossom]

Yup! My 8 month old just simply NOT a napper. I'm lucky if I get one or two 30 minute naps out of him per WEEK! I have just learned not to expect anything. I remember my ds1 starting to organize his naps around this time and sleep longer stretches, but we'll see with this guy. I feel like he must be exhausted, but he does sleep good at night so I am not too worried about it.

[atinygiraffe]

My 8 month old is the same way, and has been for months. If I get 30 minutes out of her, I'm ecstatic! It's the worst at night. I nurse her to sleep about 8:00 and I'm back in there like clockwork every 20 minutes she's wide awake and I have to nurse her down again for FOUR HOURS until I finally go to bed. I can't get anything done!
Anyway, I don't have any advice, that's actually the reason I came here, looking for the exact same advice. Just wanted to let you know you're not alone

[MamaPhD]

Maybe your babies are shedding naps? With DD (now 13 mo), whenever she was shedding naps, she had super short or sporatic naps for a couple of weeks.

Also, what really helped with our naps is that I don't nurse DD until she is out cold. I nurse her plenty but only until she is drifting. Then I either hold her a bit or just put her down in the crib and she falls asleep on her own the rest of the way. This way, babies learn to fall asleep, especially when they wake up during the nap.

DD also gets confused when she sleeps a short nap, she does think that it was a full nap. It works best for us to move on, rather than try to put her back to sleep and keep her up until the next nap time or bed time. It's is almost impossible to put her down "in between" times. At night time, is your baby sleepy when you put him down? My DD doesn't go to bed until 9:30. If I try to put her down at 8, she will fuss until 9:30, so try a later bedtime.

[sky_and_lavender]

I don't have a lot to time to reply, but my baby (now 4 months) has never been a good napper, but right now she is napping her second hour long nap of the day.

The no-cry nap solution and the no-cry sleep solution are two books that have helped me understand infant sleep.

Two things that seem to help me: earlier bedtime at night, and recognizing the baby's physiological need for sleep at certain (rough) intervals according to age. Also, the realization that sleep begets sleep.

[Jayray]

Have you increased his awake time lately? We were getting short naps and I slowly started keeping DS up a little bit longer. I'm hoping for the 2/3/4 pattern that I've heard about, but we're not there yet. He still needs a third mini-nap in the late afternoon.

Supposedly around 6 months their ability to stay awake longer periods of time increases rapidly. We're still 2-3 hours here, sometimes pushing it a little longer before bedtime.

[Jayray]

Well, I kept mine up 3ish hours and he woke up early from his nap. SOOOO who knows???? Naps are often a mystery to me. Once I think I have them down, they go to hell.

[April Dawn]

The only thing that works for us is to have DS in constant physical contact with me - either he sleeps in the Babyhawk and I do quiet things around the house, or I sit on the bed and read while he lays right next to me. If he's touching me, he naps way longer than if he's not. Could you try something like that?

[mags]

Well, I have a small update. I hope I am not jinxing myself. A couple of days ago I realized that my 5 mo old finally cut two teeth. He has been drooling for almost 3 mo, so I knew he was teething, but it seemed to have taken forever. Well, yesterday and today, he has been sooo much easier to put down for a nap! I have not changed anything I have done. I think that in the past few wks his teething must have been really bad and maybe now that the teeth has erupted, he's feeling better and more agreeable to naps? Anyway, just wanted to let you know that maybe it has nothing to do with what you are doing, but maybe baby is going through a phase and will start napping before you ever figure out what the problems was.