Friends, Moms, Countrywomen,
Lend me your ears.
I need help.
Serious naptime help.
Maggie is a great nighttime sleeper. She pretty much always has been. She’s got three molars coming in and she’s still sleeping through the night.
BUT. Naptime is hell.
She will only nap in my arms. Yes, you read that right. It’s not that I have to rock her to sleep, and then I can put her down. It’s that I have to hold her during the entire nap.
If I put her down, regardless of how tired she is, she’ll sit right up in her crib and start howling. And howling.
So I’m spending about 3 hours a day sitting in a rocking chair, watching my house get dirtier by the minute. Thinking of all the great blog posts I’d like to write someday. Thinking about how great it would be if I could get anything done during the day, other than feeding and chasing a toddler. Watching a lot of reality TV.
I have been doing it for months. Before she turned a year old, I said I would stop when she turned a year. Then when she did, I wasn’t ready yet. Her daddy puts her to bed, so it’s the one time during the day I get to really snuggle with her, and I know I would miss that.
But it’s time. She needs to nap in her bed. She’s getting too big to comfortably sleep in my lap for like 2 hours. It’s just time.
But I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried just doing her nighttime routine during the day at naptime, and it doesn’t work. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not daddy, so she isn’t standing for it, or because she knows I’m a pushover and I’ll run in and get her after about ten minutes of crying.
When we sleep trained her for bedtime, she only cried the first two nights, and for only about ten minutes each night. I don’t know what the big difference is.
I need any suggestions or advice you have to getting kids to nap in their beds. I’m going crazy.
Oh, honey. Praying for you…
Girl! Let me send you the sleep e-book I have. I think I mentioned it to you before, but now I totally have your email address, and it will be yours. This book seriously changed our life with Virginia as far as sleeping goes. I got it from a mama who swore by it … I now swear by it … I have sent it to other moms who are now so grateful I passed it on. Stay tuned …
No advice, much support. Liam naps on our bed ~ I lie down with him and read until he is asleep then I tip-toe out, could you try that?
I do what Joy does. My oldest was the same way as yours though. Is she cold? A draft? Staying in a 90 degree camper made us discover she was cold because only then could I leave. And she kicked off blankets, too.
Have you tried blacking out the room with black-out curtains so maybe she thinks it’s bedtime? i have to put cardboard over the windows during Joe’s naptime because it is way too bright in there in the afternoons.
Baby Nyquil. I’m totally kidding.
I usually let him play himself out. I keep a pillow on the couch and when he’s ready he’ll often climb up himself and put himself down or decides he’s ready for a cuddle, then I hold him until he’s asleep and then gently put him on the couch himself when I see his sign that he’s really asleep (he flips over his hands so they’re palm up – been doing this since about 5-6 months). Perhaps Maggie’s ready to move to 1 nap a day instead of two?
Good luck though!
What if you… I’ll try tossing out ideas when I see you on the 6th.