Seriously, naptime makes me so upset I want to puke

[jsmith328]

I completely understand how you are feeling. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who feels like I can't settle into this mothering thing. My ds only takes 45 minute naps. I'm trying to settle him for longer ones, since I've been doing that he has been waking at the 30 minute mark. I'm sure things will get better=that is what everyone says!

[Meg's Mom]

I have been there, my LO started the 45min nap at about 3 months.  I search high and low for information and found Tracy’s work, then this site.  By this time Megan was now well into 4mos and I moved her to 4hr EASY as Tracy recommends and the short naps got a bit better.  I then used shh/pat and pu/pd to get her body used to sleeping thru the 1st sleep cycle as by now it was a habit.  We had success almost immediately and I was convinced Tracy’s work was a godsend.  Things were great for 2 wks and after beating the 45min nap monster – we had a few weeks of great naps. 

But then the monster came back.  I thought I would fall off the deep end.  But what I didn’t take into consideration was she was older now.  So I increase her A time by 15min and poof…the monster was gone.  At 4-5mos 2.25hr of A time was the magic number for us.

We have been fighting the monster everytime she needs her A time increased or drop a nap...so hang in there it does get better - i promise

[Mom to M&M]

Michelle - How can you tell it's time to increase A time? I have such a hard time telling when DD (11 weeks) needs to go back down - she will often yawn and rub eyes right after waking! If I put her in too early she's not ready to sleep yet and wants to play - then will fall aleep but do the 45 (or sometimes 35, sometimes 50) min thing. If I wait too long I guess she gets overtired and we have the 45-min problem then too! Ack!

[cwolff]

That's my thing too.  Is she overtired or undertired.  I really think I need to wear her out to being overtired before she'll let me get her thru the 45's.  Plus, do you do 2.25 of A time every single time all day, or does it decrease or increase as the day wears on?

[Meg's Mom]

General rule of thumb - for combating the 45min naps: under 4mos, decrease A time and over 4mos increase A time.

So Marrisa Mom, less A time and CW more A time.

CW-When i was really in thick of it, i worked at it non-stop for a week or 2 and if she woke early i did shh/pat or pu/pd (mainly shh/pat) for the remainder of the nap time.  If successful, shout for joy (quietly).  If not, then get her up and restarted my 4hr EASY w/ 2.25 of A time.

[ourmiraclebaby]

Yes, I agree with Deb. I know it's painful, but have you considered getting rid of the pacifier?

We got rid of Adrian's when he was about 5 months, because he had to be replugged at night. We had 3 rough days and many more happy months.

I just had a question about HOW you got through the 3 rough days...did you just let him cry it out? Did you feed him instead of replugging? DD is 5 months now, and we're going through the same issue of having to replug several times a night. Driving us crazy!!
What did you do??