[cyberfish88]

I am beside myself - I cannot get my 4 month old to take any naps with consistency. Somehow I have trained her not to sleep!

I try to follow the EASY (Eat Activity Sleep) routine of the Baby Whisperer. I watch for signs of sleepiness which usually occur 2 hours after the last wake-up and then put her in her crib with curtains drawn and also try to keep any stimulation down. She either plays happily for a long time or plays and then starts wailing and is then impossible to get to sleep or so much time has passed that it is time to feed her again!

I have been so concerned about her not getting sleep that I have resorted to using a swing or nursing her to sleep but even then she doesn't sleep long. Last week I decided I would not use any of these crutches and just try to get her to sleep in her crib no matter what. The first nap of the day went beautifully. She fussed and cried so I went in to console her and then put her right back in the crib. I only had to do this 2x and then she slept for 45 minutes. I thought I was homefree but its been a week now and I cannot repeat this! On a really good day, I can get two hours of sleep out of her but figure she should be getting 3-5 hours!

I haven't bought any of the sleep books yet but have done lots of internet research and most of it just focuses on night time sleeping. My dd sleeps well at night in her crib. She is down by 7-8 and goes right back to sleep on her own after each feeding. I don't get it. Its the daytime that is driving me crazy.

What am I doing wrong? Any advice? Anyone else been through this?

[adahc]

Check he previous post by Fenho about this but in summery I had the same problem when my son was 4 months. You must remeber that everyhing links to eachother i.e. how long doe your baby sleep at night, how does she feed,the room is too bright?.
What I did was be consistant. Set your mind on the time of the day you wnat her to sleeep. Gina Ford suggested that the time of the day that the baby has the lowest energy is between 12 -2.30pm. So try that. Do what ever you can to get her to sleep. If she wakes up just put her back in the cot. My son was and still is very sensitive to sound. I basically had to ip toe around the house, not turning the tap on in the ensuit bathroom, clost the curtain completly. White noise is useful too. I used hairdryer.
Don't forget if she is over tired then its hard for her to sleep and she probably was over tired by the time you got her to sleep. Remember they don' know themselves what they want or if they should go to sleep. You decide and make it happen.
Hope this help.

[clowe77]

Hi Cyberfish - I just replied also to your last posting on the "Longest Stretch of Sleep" thread... so check that too!

WRT daytime sleep (since our babies' schedules seem to be in synch) I also used Gina Ford's theory on when natural dips take place in their blood sugar/alertness levels. As much as I dislike her rigid schedules, I do take on board some of her basic concepts. And she is right I think - my baby starts yawning around 8:40am (an hour and half or so after getting up in the morn). He is usually down for his nap by 9am and I wake up him after 1-1.5 hours. Then before noon, he is fussy out of sleepiness again and then he USUALLY but not always takes his longest nap of the day - from 12 to 2 ish. Then for the rest of the day before bedtime he may go down for another half hour or so but It ry not to let him nap past 5 or 5:30pm otherwise it does put him off his bedtime.

My dirty little secret? When he is hard to settle down to sleep I turn him over on his tummy first SUPERVISED and he is much easier to calm and settle to sleep that way. Then as soon as I see he is fast asleep I flip him back gently onto his back and voila - he is down for the count. I know belly sleeping before 4 months is not advisable, but I only do it for a few minutes and watch him the whole time. Your baby is 4 months already - have you ever tried this?

[clowe77]

btw Cyberfish i assume that is a pic of your sweet little one - he is sooooooo cute - such pinchable cheeks. like mine :-)

[cyberfish88]

Thanks adahc and clowe77,
That makes sense about the dips in energy levels at certain times. The one time of day I have been more successful is the 8:30-9 in the morning time when she has gone down for about 40 minutes (still not everyday, I can only get this to work sometimes!) but for some reason I cannot get her to go down at the 12-2:30 time. I guess I will keep trying!

clowe77, I will try the stomach thing! Also, I am going to send you a PM so check your messages!