I've always let infants nap on their own schedule. I believe that is best/healthiest for a young baby. I'm struggling this go around though. Baby is 5mo, will be 6 mo next week. Due to tummy problems we're addressing she cries a whole stinkin' lot. She is also overly tired which adds to the crying. Drop off is 6:30 & she is always ready for a nap by 7:00. I put her down & she is asleep within 2 minutes. But I have to wake her at 8:30 to take my son to school.
She's ready for another nap by 10:00 & if let sleep on her own will sleep until 11:30 or 12. My problem is that nap time for the rest of the kids is from 12-2. I don't mind at all that she's up at nap time. It gives me one on one time with her. The problem is that if she's awake she's often crying which makes it hard for the others to sleep. Sometimes she's content to rock with me while they go to sleep, sometimes she's not. And my youngest daughter still nurses just at nap & bedtime so I definitely need 10 minutes w/o holding the baby to get everyone settled.

I tried waking baby after an hour so she is ready for another nap at 12, but I'm consistently finding that if I wake her early she just catnaps the rest of the day & is more fussy like she's too tired to settle.

I'm wondering if I should just give her some toys in her crib & let her cry while I get the other kids settled, nurse my daughter, etc. I hate letting her cry when she's so little though, especially since I know her stomach hurts.

So what would you do? Wake her early so she'll nap with the others (she only sleeps about 30 min then) or let her follow her own schedule & then cry it out for 15 min until I'm free to play with her at rest time?

Reply