9.5 month old baby cries when sees cot for naps but goes down at night fine

by charmaine
(warwick)

Question my 9.5 month old is driving me crazy. hates taking naps during the day.goes to bed about 7pm or 7.30pm each night. we have a routine of bottle, book then cuddle and bed. dont usually hear a peep until a few hours later in the night. most times i can shush him and put hand on back and he is back to sleep in a minute or so till morning. he gets up any where between 5.30 and 6.30am. usually can stay awake 4 hours between naps. i struggle to get him to nap though. when he looks tired and starts ribbing eyes i take him to cot. as soon as i put him in his cot he starts screaming.

cio doesnt seem to be for us as daddy wont stick with it. thinks if lo is standing in cot and crying hes not tired so gets him up. think another factor is at daycare ( he goes 2 days a week) they let him sleep in the rocker. he did have reflux and suvere constipation as a baby and ended up on goats milk. think this is a lot of our problem now as he always had a belly ache and couldnt sleep. any advice would be much appreciated as i am dreading sleep times.

Heidi's Answer: Hi Charmaine, It looks like you have really good nights going on so that is a really good thing.

Can you imagine anything that is different between when he goes down at night and for naps? Even details like different lights, sounds around, covers, clothing, diaper, ... can make the difference in sleeping.

I agree with your husband regarding not sticking to crying it out :). Trying that for naps has a good chance of messing up the nice night routine you have.

I do not agree with your husband about not being tired when he's crying in stead of sleeping ...

It may very well even be the other way around, so the first suggestion I have is to get him to start the nap a little earlier than you do now:

Try to catch him before the eye rubbing starts, either by time or by signs like staring and losing interest in activities around him.

And/or you may go for a stricter (timed) daily sleep schedule: that can be what helps him sleep at day care as well.

And to avoid cio, work with gentle no-tears self soothing techniques.

Good luck,
Heidi

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