Can't get my 4 month old to nap!

[malayasmommy]

I can't figure out how to get my 4 month old DS to sleep…you'd think I'd have this figured out after having 1!

Today is an example of what happens: he sleeps ok at night (to bed at 8pm--nurse to sleep--awake 2 or 3 times until 6am). He wakes up in the AM and like clockwork, is tired an hour after he wakes up. So I swaddle and nurse him, lay him in our co-sleeper--and he wakes up. Occasionally I can get him to sleep up to an hour, but usually it's anywhere from 0-30 min. Whether he sleeps or not, he usually then will not give me tired cues until the afternoon. Then I go through the same thing: swaddle, nurse until he's asleep, lay him down and POOF! He's awake. He'll do this all day long. I try to put him in the swing, and he sleeps BETTER in there but not always great. Some days if I can get him to sleep in the swing, I'll just let him stay there to catch up on sleep. I don't really have a "nap routine" per se, since his times are so inconsistent I feel like I just gotta catch it and nurse him on the spot otherwise I'll miss the opportunity.

One of my challenges is that I also have a 3.5 year old daughter. She's not the type of kid who will "color quietly by herself"--about the only way I can get her to be quiet long enough to nurse him to sleep is if I put her in front of the TV. I try to really limit TV time, but it's increased to a level I'm already uncomfortable with since he's been born (3 25-min shows per day).

I wear my baby quite a bit, but again his sister being a typical 3.5 year old wakes him up by her volume.

What kind of a routine do you have when you have 2+ kids? How did you get into that routine? What do you have your older child do while you're getting your younger one to sleep?

As you noticed, he slept a total of 11 hours today.  Not even close to what a baby his age needs.  :-(

[Beebsmom]

I hear ya! I wish I could say it gets better...but my little guy is the same way!  He sleeps GREAT at night in his crib, he prefers a crib now that he is 11 months old and SOOO long and quite a sprawler.  We co-slept until we realized he needed more room than our Arm's Reach co-sleeper and in between us.  BUT...he will not nap unless laying on me.  I spend about 3 hours in the afternoon with him passed out on me.  I've tried and tried and tried putting him down, but I don't believe in CIO...so alas here we are.  I wore him alot...a still do for shopping and fairs etc...he loves his mai-tei carrier...but I haven't had any luck getting him to nap unless it is on my chest.

We wanted to have another babe right away, but are napping until I can get him to lay down for a nap on his own because he needs us. He's the opposite with my husband. My husband can get anything done, put him down just fine...but not me!  I'm anxious to hear other's answers...Aiden is getting to be a long and lean 23lbs now, and wearing him and napping with him is hard work!  (At least I get some television time in!)

[Marissamom]

I'm wondering if he's not sleeping enough at night? can you get him down for another 1-2 hours when he wakes at 6? 

my 4.5 month old finally settled into a sleep schedule a couple of weeks ago, he is in bed from 9:30-9 (waking up to nurse in between) then naps at 12 for 2-3 hours and at 4-5 for about an hour. I nurse him and get him really sleepy, then put him in his bassinet and rock him the rest of the way to sleep if we're at home. if we're out I wear him and he passes out or he falls asleep in the car. 

[Blanca78]

OMG, I was just coming here to post a thread asking the same question. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have been trying SO hard to read her sleepy cues (DD is 16 weeks). She slept really well last night: from 8-8 with one brief wake up at 8:40 pm and then another at 3. At around 9 this morning I noticed her activity had decreased and she had yawned a couple times, so I brought her back, nursed her a bit (didn't make her sleepy, and then she started to fuss at the breast), then tried rocking/singing to her. She was quiet for a while but eyes still wide open. It is now 9:50 and I have spent almost an hour on and off trying to rock her and get her to drift off! I finally gave up and put her in the crib so I could have breakfast, and she's been making happy cooing sounds for the past 15 minutes, but NOT SLEEPING. Did I just miss the sleepy window entirely? I don't know what I could have done beyond rocking and nursing and singing. So frustrated.

[beckwith]

Hi OP--I agree with Marissa who said to try and get him back to sleep right away at 6 am; if you nurse him and lay him down, he may talk for a little while and put himself back to sleep.  

Blanca, I think at this age you should try and stretch her awake time to longer than an hour (if she's really tired at this point, she may not be ready to fully wake up for the day, and I'd offer the same advice as above).

That said, my 4.5 month old son does NOT have a reliable nap schedule.  Some days he's down for 45 minutes, other times he'll stay down for 2 hours.  It's not consistent.  His night sleep is much more organized though, so hopefully the days will fall into place over the next few months (that's what happened with my other kids--this is my 4th).  Good sleep begets more good sleep!

p.s.  My baby also just started to roll a lot, and he sometimes rolls onto his tummy during sleep time.  I think accomplishing this milestone is making him rest better.  That and sucking his thumb!

[Blanca78]

Thanks, Beckwith! I appreciate your input and voice of experience. It seems like her ideal awake time may be between 1.5 and 2 hours. I'm only going on today's resounding nap successes: twice now I have gotten her down easily with 2-hour wake intervals, and for the first nap she put herself back to sleep after 40 minutes and slept another 40 minutes! What I did differently was swaddle her and run the vacuum to help her shut down, rather than rocking her endlessly (which maybe was stimulating her too much) and then resenting the resulting back pain and getting more and more frustrated. The vacuum works REALLY well to get her to drift off.

OP--good luck--didn't mean to hijack your thread.