schedule/nap help for 8 month old

[mommytolevi]

I have been reading some of the FAQs and posts in the napping forum and they have been very helpful.  I would greatly appreciate any advice for our situation.

My eight month old is a happy, active baby.  He has always been a great night sleeper, but has struggled with naps.  As a result, I got into the habit of holding him for all of his daytime sleep.  I realize this is not a good situation and I am currently working with him to get him into his crib for naps.  Here is our typical schedule (this is what it was when I was holding him for naps):

6:00am-wake up and nurse, back to bed with mommy
8:00am-up for the day, cleanup, into daytime clothes, playtime
10:00am-nurse, then nap
11:00-playtime
12:00-nurse, fruit and cereal
errands, read, sing, play
1:30/2:00-nurse, then nap
4:00-awake, play with dad
5:00-nurse
6:00-dinner (veggie and yogurt)
7:00-bedtime routine (bath/sponge bath, jammies, book, nurse)
7:30-asleep for the night

Generally, he goes down for the night without any fuss and sleeps until 6:00am.

Now that I am no longer holding him for his naps, it is a much longer struggle to get him to sleep during the day.  I am trying to keep to his schedule, but it has been frustrating.

I am still nursing/rocking him before his naps because it works so well at night.  Assuming he is up for the day at 8:00, I will put him in his sleep sack around 9:45 and we will start nursing and rocking.  He is obviously tired and will start to fall asleep in my arms.  I will then stop nursing, rock for a bit longer, and then place him in his crib.  Sometimes he will go right to sleep, but usually he will wake up.  He will then either start to cry and begin playing/talking to himself.  Assuming he is not crying, I will leave the room.

Once he starts crying, I will go back in and rock/nurse until he starts to fall asleep again.  I will again put him back in his crib, repeating this process until he stays asleep in his crib.

My concern is that this new nap routine takes a long time.  Frequently it will take an hour for him to be in his crib and asleep.  In addition, his naps aren't very long.  Sometimes he will sleep an hour and a half, but usually he wakes up and starts crying after 30 or 45 minutes.  Sometimes I can go in and rock/nurse him back to sleep, but not very often.

Do I just stick with my current process?  I have been doing this for a week and haven't let him sleep on me the entire time.  However, I don't feel like we have had a lot of progress in terms of longer & better naps in his crib and it hasn't been any easier to get to sleep during the day.

Also, even if he doesn't nap much during the day, he is still a happy baby.  He is still active, can entertain himself, smiles/laughs with mom and dad, and still sleeps great at night.  I am stressing out too much over his inability to nap? 

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any help.

[Colin Macs Mom]

I am still nursing/rocking him before his naps because it works so well at night.  Assuming he is up for the day at 8:00, I will put him in his sleep sack around 9:45 and we will start nursing and rocking.  He is obviously tired and will start to fall asleep in my arms.  I will then stop nursing, rock for a bit longer, and then place him in his crib.  Sometimes he will go right to sleep, but usually he will wake up.  He will then either start to cry and begin playing/talking to himself.  Assuming he is not crying, I will leave the room.

Once he starts crying, I will go back in and rock/nurse until he starts to fall asleep again.  I will again put him back in his crib, repeating this process until he stays asleep in his crib.

I'm sorry hon, but your whole problem is right here. You're swapping one prop for another. If you truly want to get him napping better and achieve independent sleep, you have to stop relying on props. He's taking a long time to fall asleep because he doesn't know how to do it without the rocking and nursing. HOWEVER way to go on ending the holding him for naps!!! I was in that place too way back when and it was horrible.

So - what I personally would recommend is just stopping with the rocking and nursing, period. Have you used shhh/pat in the past? How did he respond?

[mommytolevi]

Thanks for the response!

I know the nursing/rocking is bad...but I don't know how to stop!  Right now his nursing schedule is completely tied to his nap schedule, if that makes sense.  Plus, it seems to relax him so much and that definitely helps get him to sleep.  I figured that since he is able to put himself to sleep during the night, that it would be OK for naps too.

Also, would you recommend stopping with the nursing and rocking now?  I am already completely changing his "world" by no longer holding him for naps, should I change everything all at once, or do it incrementally?  He did have two pretty good naps today: 1.5 hours this morning (although it took me a while to get him down) and 45 minutes this afternoon (he went right to sleep after nursing).

I have tried shh/pat and pu/pd.  He didn't really seem to like either.  It seemed like he thought that if I was in his room, we should be interacting, playing.  He is a thumb sucker and if I am in the room with him, I can't get him to lay down and suck his thumb.  He will either sit up or lay with his head up and kick his legs.  The pu/pd just seemed to frustrate him more and, in my experience, I can settle him down from a gentle cry to sleep with nursing, but if he gets completely frustrated/angry crying, it is very hard to get him to sleep and he doesn't seem to nap well once he does fall asleep.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Your key is going to be getting onto a true EASY, with sleeping and eating separated. The how-to depends a lot on his temperment. Do you know what it is?

shhh/pat and PU/PD can only be used is LO is crying so if he's not it won't really get you anywhere.

[mommytolevi]

I would say the type that best describes Levi is textbook, but with more difficulty in his naps.  He has never had much trouble sleeping at night.

Can shhh/pat only be done when LO is in the crib?  I have never had much luck with this method in the crib, but he will settle down if I rock and shhh/pat at the same time.  Although it is rare that I can get him back to sleep after a short (30-45 min) nap.

[Colin Macs Mom]

No, actually shhh/pat is technically supposed to be done with LO over your shoulder. It seems that most people do it in the crib though.