And baby help

[Der Cute]

Jeez I need help.

My little guy is almost 9 mo old.
Since day 1 we've been using a vibrate/music chair to get him to nap. Now he's too big for the damn thing, but he will NOT sleep in his crib when it's Nap time. He fights it and screams and is generally a little shit.

How the frack can I get him to do the crib instead of the chair?

I don't have curtains in there and I think that's a problem too. What else can I do besides use earplugs?

[Mikkel]

It will take some time and patience but I don't think earplugs is the solution .
Perhaps he will fall asleep in your bed and then can be moved to his own?
Could you get the musicplayer/vibrator out of the chair and put it under the mattress in his bed? Or just put the chair under the crip?
Maybe he will sleep if you sing to him or tell him a story?
Be warned: you will be stuck with whatever you start. If you want to change it later you will probably have the same problem.

[Der Cute]

Well, the vibrator thing is a good idea. the motors I have access to are 4 cylinder kinds. Would be a bit much for him. No, I can't get the motor out of the chair.

I've thought about a mobile for him, do those help? He's now so big, he twists in the chair and wants to play with his toys and almost can scooch his butt off the chair. I am getting frustrated. It's now almost 11am and he has not napped at all this morning, which means he'll be a really ornery little shit all afternoon.

Someone got some rum?

[r2cagle]

Car ride.

Or stroller. Seriously, if you have a stroller, stick him in it.. very slowly walk him around with frequent stops until he's almost asleep, then gently put him in his crib. Have soothing music going that he can hear from his crib. The key is to put him in crib before he's completely asleep.

[AdminAssistant]

Don't put him down in your bed. My sis did that with Nephew, and they just now got him to sleep in his own bed. He's five.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I always (and still often do) lay down and cuddle with my girl before she falls asleep. She used to fall asleep in my arms, but she usually doesn't anymore. But it winds her down and is part of our sleeptime ritual. I have done it since she was a baby.

It's nice for me, too.

I sing a song to her, too. Now she's old enough to sing it with me, but we still do it.

[Der Cute]

I dont think he's truly conditioned to sleep in the chair.

He goes to bed at night, we fill him up with bottle, let him get eye rubs (2 in 5 min = ready). Then we put him in bed, sometimes he fusses, sometimes not, and he goes out pretty good.

We finished night weaning pretty recently (he now only gets up after a good 8 hours sleep, bottle then back to bed for about 4 more)

He was going to day care for about 3 weeks and slept there for 2 hours in the morning. His body schedule has been Wake up, eat, 2 hours play, nap! Wake up, play, eat, stuff.. 3 hours total, Nap!

So I can't figure out wtf I'm doing wrong.

[shankyknitter]

ask the day care what they do to get the kids to sleep. That'd be the best place to start, also he may just be transitioning to one later nap. Benefit there being one nap normally equals a longer nap. Let him get tired before he conks out, or use the same routine you use a bed time so he associates that with sleep all the time.

[42_42_42]

I've had success w/ 6 different babies (not mine, nephews and friends' kids) even when the parents couldn't get them to sleep doing the following:

1) remain calm, if you get tense or anxious or frustrated, they WILL pickup on it and become fussy/ier

2) go to a quiet, darkened room

3) hold the baby against so their chest is across yours (so their body is kind of at a diagonal)

4) slowly and gently rock the baby, either by sitting and rocking in a chair, sitting on the edge of a bed or sofa and rocking, or walking and sort of rocking/swaying the baby with your arms

5) very quietly, sing or hum a soft, repetative song

6) as the baby settles and begins to fall asleep, slowly sing/hum quieter and quieter until the baby is completely asleep, then gently put baby down


Seriously, it's always worked for me. My sister would regularly hand her kids over to me to be put down because she could never get them to sleep.

[Midnight12]

its because he is used to the vibrating sensation and thats fine but can be problematic later on
he will now have to get used to either falling asleep in his crib or some other way and that will take time to adjust to

and basically what 42 has said, it works. but it will take time to get it as some kids fight change even over sleep patterns. white noise like humming helps

[BarbieGirl]

We got a white noise machine when my big guy was around 10 months old. It was pretty awesome because you could do two sounds at a time like rain and thunder. We changed it up so he wouldn't need any one sound and eventually put it really low volume, then got rid of it during the summer when we put a fan in his room and when we got rid of the fan he was fine to sleep on his own.
Also little kids sleep patterns and eating patterns can go all crazy when they are about to hit a big milestone or growth spurt, like walking or teething or even when they grasp concepts like when mom leaves the room it doesn't mean she no longer exists, she's just gone for a min.
Also you may need to let him cry it out for a bit, 30 seconds on the first nap time 60 on the next etc. til he puts himself out.

Good luck.

[Kogarashi]

My oldest switched to one nap when she was 8 months, and this sounds a little like that. Her two naps were at 9am and 3pm like clockwork. What I ended up doing with her was keeping her up later in the morning and then putting her down at 11am, at which point she slept for 4 hours. She gradually pushed that back until it was a 2-3 hour afternoon nap.

I recommend sleep training. We had to do that with our younger daughter because she refused to stay asleep when we rocked her and then put her in the crib. For bedtime, we do the routine (stories, songs, etc.), then put her in the crib awake. Let her cry maybe five minutes, then go in, soothe her (preferrably without taking her out of the crib), and maybe sing another song. Leave again and let her go another five minutes before repeating. Try to drag out the time between soothing sessions as you go along until the child learns to fall asleep on their own. Also, if she started to sound absolutely hysterical, instead of just "Mom, where are you?" crying, we'd pick her up and rock her with another song or three until she settled down again, then repeated the process. Took us a while to convince her that it was good for her, but now she goes to bed at night like a charm.

It does sound like you have nighttime going for you already, so here's how that applies to naptime. As I weaned both girls off their naptime feedings, I substituted an abbreviated version of the nighttime routine for their naptime routine in place of breastfeeding. One story instead of three, no toothbrushing, three songs while rocking in the chair, then into the crib whether or not they were asleep yet. I got fussing at first, but if I kept them awake until they were showing tired signs, I had more luck getting them to sleep. We also play music while they're sleeping so they don't get used to sleeping in absolute silence, and I'm sure that helps with the comforting issue. And having them sleep-trained for nighttime helped with showing them that they can do it at naptime too.

My general rule of thumb is that I will put them down when it's naptime. If they'd rather play in the crib than sleep, that's fine so long as they're not screaming their heads off. Mommy still needs that quiet time.

It may help to have curtains in the room, yes. We had a curtain rod sitting around in a closet, so we just safety-pinned a spare bedsheet over it to act as a curtain rather than going out and buying curtains to fit the window, since we're just renting until Hubby finishes his PhD.

Good luck with the baby!

[Der Cute]

I really really think it's the amount of light. I chatted with the daycare people (don't get me started on the price) and she said it was very quiet, dark etc and the 2 babies (mine and someone's) slept good.

Ian's room faces South-East. He gets A LOT of sunshine. We had to do the cheap thing and hang up a blanket over the window. I got home after laundry, and found the baby was napping just fine in the bed.

I have to watch him today (and work a 12 hr graveyard) so here's to hoping he naps in the bed!

[Kogarashi]

Ian's room faces South-East. He gets A LOT of sunshine. We had to do the cheap thing and hang up a blanket over the window. I got home after laundry, and found the baby was napping just fine in the bed.

Hooray for napping!