My Baby Won't Nap in Her Crib During the Day Anymore
by Babywise.life
Mar 04, 2019
Good for you asking a question so early in the training process. We always say, "More questions, better success."
Before I provide some thoughts, let's recap your question:
My baby is 3 months old and Babywise is going well so far I think she is close to dropping the middle of the night feed and has successfully slept through the night once so far. My problem is about a week and a half ago she started to refuse napping in her crib during the day.
At night she will go to sleep in her crib just fine, even if I put her down when she's still awake. It's just the daytime naps. She will nap if I'm holding her, sitting in her bouncer chair, baby swing etc, just not the crib.
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I still try putting her in the crib for naps but she immediately starts crying and I wait about 20 min and she won't settle so then I end up holding her or putting her in the chair or swing for her nap. Any tips on how to get her to nap in the crib again? I'm worried if I let her nap in the swing all the time she may start to refuse the crib altogether.
Now on to the question at hand: We have a phrase, "begin as you mean to go", which means the following: You want her to sleep in her crib eventually? Then put her down in the crib all the time.
There are a few things you can do to help her to adjust to this new sleeping location. There will be the occasional naptime in another location, but I wouldn't do this until you get her firmly used to sleeping in her crib.
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Remember you are training and you don't want to re-train. In order to train her in this new skill I would treat naptimes this way: Feed, keep her naptime short maybe an additional 15 minutes of wake time and put her down for a nap. Eyes open (she may look completely alert, but you decided when naptime begins and when it ends).
When she starts to cry set your timer for 3 minutes and let her fuss, after the timer goes off go in pick her up, comfort her and assure her of your love, daddy's love and let her know it is naptime and she needs to sleep. Put her down (this should take 30 seconds), walk out of the room. Wait until she starts to cry and the next time you will set your timer for 5 minutes, if she is still fussing when then timer goes off, go in comfort and leave the room. Next time set your timer for 7 minutes after she starts to cry, comfort in same fashion (if she is still crying when the timer goes off).
The last stretch is to allow her to cry for 10 minutes before going in to comfort. If she still hasn't been able to settle herself and is still crying, start all over at the 3-minute mark and repeat the process. You are training her to put herself to sleep. She can learn this skill.
Keep up the good work, you are doing so much more than just training for sleep.
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For more help, please read "5 Nap Disruptions and How to Overcome Them" and "What to Do if Baby Wakes from Nap Crying".
