Spend a little extra time putting your active monkey down, and see if it pays off.
When Julian first started standing in his crib, I was at a loss for how to get him to nap. After listening carefully to Ryan’s procedure for putting him down, I realized I was trying to do it too fast. We got back on track with the extended ritual.
When our naptime routine was at it’s peak of effectiveness, which you must realize, dear rookie moms, can change at anytime, I recorded the procedure, in more or less 10 steps:
- Put on white noise
- Put on sleep sack
- Give pacifier and lovey to hold
- Sit on bed with Julian in lap
- Read 2-3 books
- Stand up and sway while singing Frere Jacques in English and French and then Yellow Submarine
- During the chorus of Yellow Sub, put in crib.
- If he stands up, sit on bed and sing for one more minute and then kiss and walk out
- If he stays laying down, stand and sing for one more minute
OMG. My baby is a crib stander-upper now… I’m going to need to try your tricks.
I go through a whole diaper change-book-song-lovey routine with my son but he’s older now (2 1/2 years) and sometimes that isn’t enough to calm him down and get him to lay down in his crib. My latest trick is to tell him that I’ll sit next to the crib and hold his hand if he lays down. He almost always really wants me to hold his hand so he lays down and doesn’t move and usually falls asleep within a few minutes. Sometimes he doesn’t lay down for me at which point I say that I’m leaving. When I open the door to leave and he realizes I’m serious he starts to cry a little. I leave anyway but go back in after a minute or two. Then he’s usually ready to lay down and hold my hand – and after a little bit of crying he falls asleep quickly. On rare occasions, he doesn’t want to lay down and hold my hand and he doesn’t get upset when I leave his room. Those are the days he just jumps in the crib, sings songs, etc. for two hours and then I go get him up. He didn’t take a nap but at least I got a little bit of mommy time. I’m lucky that he will stay in his crib, happy, for very long periods of time.
Yes. Once mine started standing we had to completely rethink nap and bed time. Consequently we ended up with a put-down honeymoon time.
My trick:
Laying him down (after all that other stuff Whitney explained) and “petting” his head explaining exactly how he was feeling “sleepy” and what was going to happen next “you’re going to go to sleep,” “you’re going to cuddle your puppy,” “you’re going be soooo cozy,” “mommy will come and get you when you wake-up, but right now, you are soooo sleepy,” “ooooh sleepy boy, cuddly boy” “so cozy” “mommy’s going to give you your kiss and go, sleep tight”
It was fun to do (especially compared to rocking him to sleep) and he really dug it (still does at 22 months).
These are such great suggestions. I do something similar with my little guy, who is 14 months, especially lately since he is getting stubborn about naps (at least with me). I rock him for a bit, place him in the crib and continue rubbing his back or his head for a minute or two. Sometimes he fusses a bit when I walk out of the room but most of the time he is settled down enough to drift off to sleep shortly after.
Wow… that is our nap routine almost to a T! The only difference with ours – before putting my 13 month-old to bed, I ask for his dummy and lovey, which I then put on the cot mattress before putting him in the cot. Which means, one: he is in the habit of getting his soothing items for himself, and two: they’re already on a low level so he goes straight down to mattress level for them! It was brilliant when he was in peak pulling-up-on-the railings phase and still pretty good now