Has trouble self-soothing with afternoon nap

[northrose]

Hi,

DD is almost 6.5 months and I have finally succeeded in teaching her to self-soothe. She goes to sleep on her own just fine at bedtime and for her morning nap, but can fuss and cry for 20 mins for her afternoon nap. I'm pretty sure she's not OT, as A time is 2-2.5 hours (including the crying!), which is fine in the morning and at night. The 2nd (afternoon) nap also tends to be shorter.

Here is an idea of our routine:

6:30am wake
7am b/f
8:00am cereal
9am nap #1
10:30am A
11am b/f
1pm nap #2 (this is the tough one)
2pm A
3pm b/f
4:30pm catnap (often in the stroller)
5:15pm A
6pm veggies/fruit
7pm b/f and bedtime routine
7:30pm S

Rose

[northrose]

Actually, I've noticed that sa the day advances, she finds it more and more difficult to settle for her nap.
Except at night when she goes down very easily...and sleeps without a peep for 10 or 11 hours!

Rose

[lilac83]

That's how my LO is as well. Her first nap is normally 1.5-2 hours and then her afternoon nap is short (although she's not too hard to put down) and then forget about the cat nap unless it's in the car or stroller! My daughter then also sleeps about 11 hours straight at night.

Is your LO in a good mood in the afternoon/evening? Mine is happy, so I've just come to accept shorter afternoon naps from her. I feel as long as she's getting a good sleep during the night, she is able to "recharge" so to speak and not get OT.

[northrose]

DD is happy in general, but can get fussy late in the afternoon.
If she's had a short catnap from about 5-5:30pm (in the stroller - at least I get some exercise!), DH gets home to a happy baby, and that's important to me. If not, she gets fussy and whiny from about 6pm till bedtime (7pm).
I too have started to accept that DD is not "textbook" for naps (ie: shorter than 2 hours), but seems to have her own biorhythm.
The tough part is that she settles down quietly in the morning for her nap, but it can be a 40-minute ordeal to get her down in the afternoon. Then it's easy at night again.

I wonder why...?

Rose

[parluvbug]

Rose,
Your DD sounds a little like my DS, however he is the opposite with the napping - can't get him to go down easily for the first nap, usually the 2nd one is better.

Maybe attempting to put her to bed a little earlier (since she is getting fussy around 6pm) might be a good idea. From your PP she is getting up about 6:30am so it might be good to get her in bed by 6:30pm

Hope this helps!

-Dora

[northrose]

Thanks DOra.

I may not have been clear in my PP, but the trouble isn't at night, as she goes down great and sleeps great.

It's in the afternoon that it's tough. I make sure she gets at least a short nap by the end of the afternoon, otherwise she would be OT, even if she did go to bed earlier. But her pm nap often has to be in the stroller, as she just doesn't seem to want to settle in her crib in the afternoon.

Her 7:30pm bedtime suits us well, and she seems to thrive on it too.

Rose

[lilac83]

That's EXACTLY how my LO is too. I don't know what it is about the afternoon nap. I've tried a bunch of different A times as well and nothing really has worked. What I've been doing (and this isn't really BW but it's something that has worked for me) is keeping her up as long as I can in the afternoon after her first nap. Usually she will go about 2.5 hours (she's 4mo) and then she will give either give me a slightly longer nap or because her nap was later in the day, isn't crabby until bedtime.

Night sleep is separate in their brains from day sleep, so I wonder if that's why our LO's go to sleep easily and sleep well at night.

[northrose]

Well, I'll tell you something: I have to agree with BW in theory, but lately in practice it has been more of a source of stress than help.

So because my Lo is such a great sleeper at night and seems to be in a good mood on shorter naps, I am going with that for now.

Makes my life (and hers) SOOOOOOO much happier!

Rose