Nap time blues - CIO isn't working as well for naps

Hi all,

We've graduated to the second year! Our b/g twins turned one earlier this month. Hallelujah!

I posted a while back when we were starting nap time sleep training. It worked great for our daughter, but our son was a hot mess. I stopped quickly with him and focused on her, and have been napping with him for a couple months. Well, I started CIO with him Monday. The first nap he did great! Second one and all that followed have been rough, especially afternoons.

I know nap training is harder in some ways. Have any of you experienced a real rough go of it? How long did it take if you used CIO? My poor little guy just won't let go, although I know he can. He's a great sleeper at night and did great using CIO.

I need a little encouragement as I try to decide if I will continue or just go back to our old ways. I feel he needs to make this leap, as I saw how much good night sleep made a difference. And, rocking him to sleep is getting very hard the bigger he gets, so this can't last forever.

As always, hearing your experiences is much appreciated.

 

My husband used to rock our daughter to sleep until she was over a year old.  I was not doing that for her before bedtime at night or before nap.  I'd say be consistent and eventually he will get it and each kid is different in how long it takes them to realize that this is how things are going to be now.
Or you could try gradually weaning him off?  Set a time and do your routine and leave the room, decrease the time you are there over time.
I know with my daughter, especially with naps, I started off sitting in her room and just quietly putting her back to bed but not interacting with her, so she knew this was nap time, this was time to be in bed and eventually she'd sleep without me in there.  
 
Happy birthday to your babies!

 

Thanks for your reply. I have found that my presence is more of a hindrance than helpful. They are more upset if I'm there trying to comfort them but not picking them up than simply not being there. Otherwise I would like to try that. CIO with a time limit is what worked before. As little progress as I see, I should probably give it a week before I make a decision to continue. I know they can do it...question is will I last?

 

Just a quick update. Stuck with CIO and both have become very consistent nappers now in addition to nighttime sleepers. It took about 3 weeks for nap training, each week getting a little better, but it did work. Of course now that they've been doing great for a couple months they are starting to indicate it may be time for the transition to one nap! The key points for us have been consistent nap times, and as was suggested by other posters, outdoor tie preceding naps seems to flip their sleepy switch.

 

That is awesome that consistency worked!    Great job!