Things I have tried to get Maya to fall asleep at naptime:
Nursing, walking, singing, all four settings of white noise, swaddling, Soothie brand pacifier, Nuk brand pacifier, snuggling with a lovey, being in a dark room*, giving a reasoned argument, begging.
Things that seem to get Maya to fall asleep at naptime:
Rotating her 90 degrees and letting her sleep on her side.
Babies are crazy.
*closet
I went out for coffee shortly before morning nap time, hoping Maya would fall asleep in the car. She did, but woke up while I was bringing her inside. So here we are, 10:27, wide awake but smiley. She has her sleep sheep, pink lovey, and pacifier that she keeps absentmindedly spitting out.
10:45, still awake and crying. Nursing to sleep now.
10:53, asleep, and she even let me put her down!
10:59, awake and fidgety.
11:07, nursing again.
11:14, asleep again…and lying down…
11:33, YES. YES. YES. Still asleep.
11:44, wide awake. I think that’s it for the morning nap.
Nap 2 — Nursed until drowsy. Put her down around 2:05. She has her lovey and paci… so far so good.
2:38, awake.
Yesterday was basically a failure.
Today, I put Maya down right at 10. She is smiley and quiet, no fussing or crying, but doesn’t seem tired at all. She has her sleep sheep, lovey, and pacifier and I’m lying down next to her. So far she’s just chewing on things and kicking her legs.
10:15, fussing started, nursing to sleep instead.
Tried putting her down after she was mostly asleep. Bad idea.
11:00, still awake. Nursing again.
11:07, she’s out. Can I put her down…?
11:10: Nope. Nursing again.
11:30: Woke up on her own. No interest in going back to sleep.
So far Day 3 looks like a failure again.
I’m not sure what it is about parenting that makes people want to start blogs, but here I am. I guess I want to be able to keep a record of all of the early days, before it all fades to a messy blur. I’m a scientist — I love data, and charts, and graphs — so I want to keep track of everything.
Maya is 19 weeks old today. She will be starting day care in 4 weeks. I told her day care provider, Therese, that Maya has a hard time taking naps, and most days I have to walk her around in her Moby wrap until she falls asleep.
You’re spoiling her, she said. Babies have to be sleep trained. They have to learn to sleep on their own.
I came home and cried when I told my husband what she said. My baby is going to be crying and no one is going to hold her and I’m paying this woman to do this, I said. I know it’s hard, my husband said. It’ll be ok.
I don’t know that much about babies. I read a lot of blogs and I read a few chapters of Marc Weissbluth’s book about sleep. It convinced me that if Maya doesn’t sleep enough she’s getting brain damage and I’m ruining her for life. But I didn’t get to the part that tells me how much is enough or what the magic trick is for getting babies to sleep.
I’m sure she would be fine if we just let her cry it out. But it’s not for me. So my plan is to try my very own three-step approach to nap training:
11:14am — kiddo is up and not showing any signs of going back to sleep. Will keep attempting sleep until 12:30 since she didn’t go down until about 10:30.
mamaandmaya 