[ShannonMVT]

We've hit yet another snag in sleep. Lately Matthew has gotten over being sick and also is waking around 7:00 a.m. rather than 6:30ish. That's fine and dandy, but now he is trying to refuse to take a nap. He normally seems a little sleepy around 10:00, but that is too early, so we push through, have lunch and I usually lay him down around 11:30-12:00. Normally we either read books or I let him nurse beforehand, then he goes down awake and plays for awhile, then puts himself to sleep. Well now he will play for around 30 minutes (or sometimes even up to an hour) and then start crying. I go up and try to calm him, but the crying starts once he goes back in his crib. Yesterday it took me 2.5 hours to get him to go down for a nap, and eventually I wound up nursing him to sleep b/c he was absolutely exhausted but would not lay down. Just kept standing up, rubbing his eyes and crying and carrying on. The today he didn't take a real nap, b/c I nursed him to sleep eventually, but he would wake up and cry each time I laid him down. Then he fell asleep in the car with Dh...around 5:00 p.m. Yikes.
He has also been a little more difficult at bedtime, again, he'll play in his crib for quite a while, then whine/cry a little but finally go to sleep.

I'm not sure what the heck is going on. No way can he be ready to drop his nap. Also, I don't think I will survive if he drops his nap. It's just really getting to me to have to spend so much time and effort trying to get him to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be crazy because he is going to bed super late tonight (b/c of his 20 minute nap in the car), but once things get a tad more normal I was thinking maybe trying to put him down later, like 1:00 p.m.? But then if he takes 30 minutes to fall asleep, he won't be getting up till 3:00 p.m. and then maybe not tired for bedtime? I have been doing bedtime a bit earlier, around 7:30 p.m. though sometimes it can be more around 8:00 p.m.

Is there something about this age maybe? Please tell me this is another phase and he will go back to taking a nap without hysterics? I'm not opposed to CIO, but he gets himself so worked up that he can't calm himself down so I don't think it's going to work for naps. I'm just at a loss for why all of a sudden he is fighting it SO much. It's not like naptime is some new concept.

[**jessie**]

Hope you can figure something out, Shannon. We are still at 2 naps and I cannot even imagine a time when there will be no naps!

My only thoughts... maybe allow him to take a nap early on when he seems tired. Maybe he wants a morning nap instead of an afternoon? Or try the later nap. I know Matthew is older than Jaxon, but Jax will still go to bed at night as long as he doesn't sleep past 4-4:30 pm.

Kirsty is going through the exact same thing and has been since around Matthew's age, and so did/are most of the babies in my PR. I would post in your PR and see if any others are there too.

Our schedule was exactly like yours: awake 6/6:30am, lunch 11/11:30am, bed right after, bedtime 7pm.

Then it just went all over the place. I find it easiest just to go by Kirsty, somedays she isn't tired and ready to nap until 1pm (i wake her at 2pm or 1 hour after she falls asleep if it's later than 1pm, so if she doesn't fall asleep til 1:30 I let her sleep for 1 hour then wake her). Other days like yesterday she was tired & cranky at 10am so we kept her going, fed her at 11 and she was in bed & asleep by 11:30am, in which case I allowed a 2hr nap.

If she doesn't fall asleep within 30-45mins at naptime, I usually take her down and try again an hour later or before if she plays up due to tiredness. On days where she flat out refuses to fall asleep and I know she needs it (she is not ready at all for no napping), I tend to put her in the pushchair, lay it right back, put on her lullaby music and she will sleep easily within 5-10mins, I try not to use this too often as I don't want to create a habit.

Biggest suggestion: try to follow his cues, if he doesn't appear tired at his normal time, try and wait 30-60 mins then try. Th reason I wake her and don't let her sleep the "usual" amount of time if she goes down later is I like my time to myself in the evening. I find even if she sleeps later but I only allow 1 hour, she still goes to bed approx 7/7:30pm. Hang in there, our kiddos have always had similar sleep issues huh!!!

[ANGWife]

Well I will say that Henry is a great sleeper and we've been having issues too. So maybe it really is the age?

He wakes between 5-6am. Then I put him down for nap between 11-12. He rubs his eyes and acts like he will go down soon. But 3 days last week he played for 2 hrs. Luckily he doesn't cry, but I hear him singing/playing. I put nothing in the crib but a blanket so I don't understand how he can entertain himself that long Sometimes this means he's pooped. So I check on him after like an hr. Whether he pooped or not, I do his nap time routine again (read a book in the glider and sing him a song) before I lay him down again. Then THIS is when he cries cause I've left him in the crib again. So I do the controlled CIO that the Baby Whisperer recommends. I think you KWIM.

[ShannonMVT]

Thanks for the ideas. Maybe it really is partly the age!

I guess part of my issue is I stopped doing too many errands in the morning b/c he will fall asleep in the car before we get home and have lunchtime. So then I want to do things in the afternoon (we were supposed to go to a bday party yesterday) and can't b/c I am spending hours trying to get him to take a nap!

I also really try to make sure he is getting some physical exercise in the morning so he'll be tired enough. Usually we go for a walk down the street together.
I've tried taking him out and letting him play more, and laying him back down later and so far no luck with that. I'll try watching him closely and figuring out if he just needs to go down at a different time.

Morgan, which method is the Babywhisperer CIO? Is it going in every 15 minutes to calm but not getting them out of the crib?

[Resi]

I don't think he should be ready to give up nap time. I think nap time should last until at least 3 years old. I get Oliver to sleep by nursing him while he is on my lap while I sit on the sofa. Then once he falls asleep I carry him to the bed and lay with him while he continues to nurse. Then I try to sneak away after I get him off my boob. I have to get him to sleep without the nursing for nap time. I got it down for bedtime but nap time is harder for some reason. I NEED nap time for my own sanity! No advise but I would just keep trying a bit later or earlier and not give in. I'm sure it will pass.

Oh.. Matthew is the same age as LO I watch. Jett seems to get tired around 10-10:30 AM. Sometimes if I wait to long to get him to nap he has a hard time winding down because he is over tired. Maybe that is the case with Matthew. Maybe you should try a bit earlier to see if it helps. Then bedtime might be a bit earlier too. I know Oliver needed about 4-5 hours of being awake before he was ready for a nap or bedtime at that age.

[Alison81]

I was also going to suggest the early nap. Kylie often wakes around 7-8am on weekends, and prefers a morning nap from 10:30-11am until 1pm, give or take an hour. Even when she goes to daycare, she almost always has a 10am nap. If I didn't let her take the morning nap I am sure she'd be miserable. She also naps again at around 4-5pm, usually a short 45 min-1hr nap, and still is in bed by 8pm. The short naps seem to help her more than a long mid-day nap.

[ANGWife]

Originally Posted by ShannonMVT

Morgan, which method is the Babywhisperer CIO? Is it going in every 15 minutes to calm but not getting them out of the crib?

If I lay him down again and he cries, I do the whole go back after 2 mins, then 3 mins., 4 mins, and so forth.

[Mars]

I think they're times when they seem to go through this fighting sleep phase. We're good now (for now )but we been through the same thing a couple times. I just follow her cues when we go through the phases and if she doesn't seem tired, I just let her be but if she appears, I'll put her down to nap and we may read a story, sing a song, etc until she falls off to sleep.