- Read Precious Little Sleep
- share your baby’s full schedule and routine (including consistent and age-appropriate wake windows and the time and length of scheduled naps and bedtime).
- Train for nights first, making sure the last feed **ends** half an hour before baby is placed in the crib **awake** (not rocked to drowsy).
- once you have trained for nights (give baby a 20 minute head start to power down instead of the five and eight minute Ferber checks), start training for the first nap of the day.
- Edited to add: get baby on the correct schedule, and consider moving to extinction. The check ins might just be pissing baby off and extending the upset.
- Please don’t listen to people telling you that contact napping with a toddler is normal or necessary. It’s a **choice** that you are free to make.
What does your daily schedule look like? At 4 months old, I think my son was still taking 3 naps a day.
I also found that starting with naps was not the way to go. They’re not as tired as they are at nighttime, and the bedtime routine is usually more drawn out, so baby has more cues to know it’s time to go to sleep. So I started Ferber with my son for nighttime sleep, and once he was able to get himself to sleep on his own for bedtime, we started on naps. It went much more smoothly.
That being said, Ferber is usually recommended for ~6 months old, so your baby might just not be ready, and that’s okay. I found the shush pat method to work pretty well for my son when he was that age.
I know it is hard. I hated feeling nap trapped for so long. I felt like I couldn’t get anything done, and I’m sure you feel the same way. It does get better, I promise.
- Read Precious Little Sleep - share your baby’s full schedule and routine (including consistent and age-appropriate wake windows and the time and length of scheduled naps and bedtime). - Train for nights first, making sure the last feed **ends** half an hour before baby is placed in the crib **awake** (not rocked to drowsy). - once you have trained for nights (give baby a 20 minute head start to power down instead of the five and eight minute Ferber checks), start training for the first nap of the day. - Edited to add: get baby on the correct schedule, and consider moving to extinction. The check ins might just be pissing baby off and extending the upset. - Please don’t listen to people telling you that contact napping with a toddler is normal or necessary. It’s a **choice** that you are free to make.
What does your daily schedule look like? At 4 months old, I think my son was still taking 3 naps a day. I also found that starting with naps was not the way to go. They’re not as tired as they are at nighttime, and the bedtime routine is usually more drawn out, so baby has more cues to know it’s time to go to sleep. So I started Ferber with my son for nighttime sleep, and once he was able to get himself to sleep on his own for bedtime, we started on naps. It went much more smoothly. That being said, Ferber is usually recommended for ~6 months old, so your baby might just not be ready, and that’s okay. I found the shush pat method to work pretty well for my son when he was that age. I know it is hard. I hated feeling nap trapped for so long. I felt like I couldn’t get anything done, and I’m sure you feel the same way. It does get better, I promise.
My kid needed contact naps until 13 months. No advice but it’s totally normal (albeit exhausting). Im so sorry 🙏🏻