Question: I am in the most desperate need of nap time advice. My almost 9 month old is a terrible napper (at home). He naps Monday-Friday at daycare perfectly. Two 1.5 hour naps at the exact same time everyday. And then on Saturday and Sunday he refuses to stay asleep longer than 20-30 minutes. I try to follow the exact same schedule as daycare but he it just doesn't work ( and that's if we don't have to cry it out for 20 minutes to even get that amount of sleep). It makes him cranky all weekend, in turn making our weekends so sad. Then his night time sleep is awful as well. I try to do the same things every time he goes to nap, establishing a nap time routine but I don't even know how to implement a nap time routine when it would only apply 2 days a week. This has been going on since about 4 months when we transitioned to crib from rock n play. He used to nap for hours in his rock n play. And he sleeps great (for the most part) in his crib at night. What's going on?
Answer: It's amazing that babies can compartmentalize their different caregivers. Sleeping great at daycare and terribly at home. Part of it is likely that he misses you and doesn't want to waste time napping when he could be with you. Part of it is likely that the lack of nighttime sleep success is effecting your nap success. Keep offering the naps and work on night skills. If you have solid night skills, you could do weekend nap coaching. 4 months is typically when major sleep changes occur and sleep skills need to be learned. Solid night sleep is the building block for solid nap skills so I would look very carefully at the nights first.
Let me know if you need my help to dig into this issue.
Tracy Spackman
www.GetQuietNights.com
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