Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Hi ladies!
I'm sorry to ask for advice again when I haven't been on in so long- it's just that Matty NEVER naps on his own so I hardly ever have a second to put him down! I really need some BTDT moms advice on what to do here....

Matty is four months old and is BF through the day except for a bottle before bed.

The problem is twofold:

1. Naps! I know he needs a one and a half hour nap two hours after he wakes up, then another three hours after the first one and then one short one in the evening. This is based on him being cranky and rubbing his eyes. The problem is that he will only nap in my arms if I am rocking him or holding him in bed- occasionally in the swing for 1/2 hour. Often, I drive him around for two hours so he will nap! I know- pathetic- how do I get him to nap on his own in the crib? Just try to do the CIO?

2. Sleeping at night! We have a bedtime routine- we turn off the lights, dance with him and then he falls asleep on a 5oz bottle. He is down around 8:30pm. Then we started a rule- no boob until 5am! But, he gets up at 2:00 and then 4:00 and we do a half hour of shhhh and give him the binky and stroke his head. Then, he wakes up anywhere between 5 and 6:30- I nurse him and he sleeps in the bed with us- when he wakes up again at 7:00 I give him the other boob and he sleeps another half hour to an hour in the bed with me.

What can I do? Stop the binky at night? Work on naps first? Please help- I literally don't get a second without him in my arms except in the car!

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Well, maybe start CIO(going in with intervals, not all out extinction) b/c he is still young.
As for the nightime, he may still be too young to be sleeping from 8:30-5 on only a 5 oz bottle.
Why don't you feed him again at 2 and maybe he will sleep thru until the morning...I would think that would be better than waking up twice to ssshh him for half an hour...Not all babies sleep thru the night by 4 months.
And when you take him for a drive, after he falls asleep can't you take the infant seat back into the house with you?
I used to do that a lot with DD, that was the only was she would nap for a while.
Good luck, I hope it gets better!

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Hi Ariella!! Sorry you are having such a hard time.

As for sleeping through the night, I agree with the PP that perhaps 5oz isn't enough to get him through the night.

As for naps, I feel like I actually "taught" Hannah to nap. I put a lot of effort into it and she naps great now (except at day care )

Here's what I did to get her to stop napping on me. I allow Hannah to nap on her belly (she will NOT nap on her back). If you aren't comfortable with that, or he doesn't like it try this on his back.

I started on the couch (or in my bed). I would kneel on the floor next to her put my head down facing her, close my eyes (avoid eye contact), rub/pat her back, while shhhhing or humming. She did cry ALOT in the beginning, but I always stayed next to her soothing her. I never picked her up though. I did this twice a day every day. The first week I'd say the crying lasted about 20 -30 minutes. Every week thereafter the crying wouldn't last as long.

Once she was easily down on the couch or in the bed - I started trying the routing in her crib. She'd whine or cry alittle at first, but I always stayed and rubbed her back and shhhh'd her.

Today, as long as I put her down before she's overtired and when she's actually tired, she goes down with no effort. She may whine a few minutes, but I'm in and out of her room in 5 minutes tops.

I have found that if she cries too long she's probably not ready to nap. Sometimes I would pick her up and play for a bit more and try again and she'd go down. My DH is infamous for trying to put her down too early and complains he can never get her to nap.

Sorry this is sooo long. Its hard but may be worth the try!!! It worked wonders for me. I started this around 8 weeks, but it's never too late.

Good luck and I'm here if you ever need to chat!!

edited for spelling

Message edited 4/1/2007 12:17:12 PM.

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Thank you so much for your advice ladies! The problem with the 5oz bottle is that he falls asleep before he takes more! But, soemtimes I nurse him as late as 7:30 so maybe that's why he doesn't take more on the bottle at 8:30....

Jodi- I'm going to try your tips for naps! Does Hannah take the binky for naps and at night? When you put her to bed at night has she already fallen asleep on the bottle?


I think the problem is that Matty has never gone down "drowsy but awake" so he doesn't know how to settle himself for naps or in the middle of the night.....

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

my daughter was born nov 29th she is the same age as your son and she use to sleep from 11-8 at night with a 5 oz bottle this week I just started her on cereal and shes sleeping like 9-8. I also just started this week with the crib and Im keeping her up more in the day. If you have any ?'s just ask this is my 2nd

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

I think your son needs to learn to fall asleep on his own without a bottle or nursing. Otherwise, they need that same environment to fall back to sleep when the wake in the middle of the night.

If you are comfortable you can let him CIO in intervals. I also used to dream feed Molly at about 10pm before I went to bed and that would usually carry her through the night. So maybe try that.

But I would definately start working on getting him comfortable with falling asleep on his own. Maybe try rocking him until he is very drowsy, but not asleep and then put him in the crib. Good luck!

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

I also have a 4 month old. Napping for an extended amount of time has been a slight issue. However, we do have him sleeping from 7:30-7:30. I start a 7 oz bottle at 7:15 and lately he's awake once he finishes the bottle. We started putting him in the crib while he is awake.
I think you may need to try to give him more of a bottle before bedtime and maybe start feeding him a little earlier. I truely believe that they can develop bad habits at this time (which is why we started putting him in his crib awake so maybe he'll take better naps during the day). I want to avoid as many bad habits as possible-we learned from our first DS.
Good luck

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Thanks so much ladies!

We go to the Dr. on tuesday so I'm going to ask about starting solids....

We did one nap today in the crib! He fell asleep on the boob but woke up when I put him in the crib- my mom was here and we shhh'd him for an hour and a half- about half of that he slept and the other half was crying- but it's a start! Tomorrow I will be away for passover but starting Tuesday I am going to put him down like this for naps twice a day.

Also, starting this week we will try to put him down drowsy but awake at night- but how do I keep him from falling asleep on the bottle- an earlier bedtime?

BTW- he actually took 7oz tonight so we will see if it makes a difference !

Thanks so much for all of your advice!

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Message edited 4/2/2007 9:31:15 AM.

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Re: Need advice- sleeping and napping- please help! Long- sorry!

Thanks so much for the advice! Sorry I didn't post again- we were away for Passover.

Matty is taking big bottles now before bed- but still falling asleep on them.

We need to put him down earlier so we can practice drowsy but awake. Last night he was up at 2, 3, 4 and then 5 I nursed him. We keep shhhing him and giving him the paci- he settles down within 10 minutes but its torture for us. I think we will start putting him down awake and then start weaning him off of the binky....

He napped an hour and a half in his crib this morning but then for the afternoon nap he cried for almost an hour. DH was home but I couldn't let him cry any more so I put him in the swing and he slept for an hour...