My 9 month old daughter is an angel/textbook mix, and typically has 2 1hr naps per day. We're working on getting her a little more sleep because she's waking up at 5:30 then breastfeeding and back down until 7 or 7:30, going to bed at 7:00 now. Anyways, lately she fights her afternoon nap about 1/2 of the time... she goes down for morning naps no problem and there's never any fuss at bedtime. She has no props, I never bfeed her to get her to sleep. When she does fight her nap, I had been letting her cry a bit (2-3 minutes max), it's just her tired cry. If she switches to her upset cry, I go in and get her and try again in 15 minutes, usually that works. We have a very short little nap routine that consists of 2 short songs, a few quiet snuggles, then pulling the blind closed in her room and putting her in her crib. Today, she would NOT go down for her nap - screamed and screamed, wanting me basically in the crib with her. I tried all my tricks and she was having none of it, she just wanted me and then when she got even more tired, she started biting my shoulder and crying as I held her. I gave her some ibuprofen thinking it might be teeth (she's got six already, and I can't get a good look in her mouth anymore to see what's happening in there for more) and waited 10 more minutes. She clung to me with all her might (poor lo). I figured she was just too upset to sleep and it was time to feed her (was she crying due to hunger? it wasn't past her usual feeding time, but right at it) so I fed her and she fell asleep. Now I feel like a terrible mom because she's going to want to breastfeed before every nap... plus I'm going back to work in two months and I have to start looking for daycare and it's killing me...
Is the pick-up put down method recommended for naps and if so how do I institute it when she's not consistently like this? I think maybe because we went for a long walk and didn't get home from it until 15 minutes before nap time she didn't have enough wind-down time. Does that make sense? Any advice or kind words would be appreciated!
