Here is our sleep solution. The plan is the same as for Sleep Consult #4 with an emphasis that “All naps are in her crib”.

April 9-April 13. 10 nap attempts: Slept 5 times and cried 5 times. She did nap in her crib twice on April 9 for the first time in her life. Remember, we are comparing 5 days to 9 months of not being allowed to self-soothe for naps and no naps in her crib. Being successful 50% of the time is not bad at all. Let us modify our plan and go to her at 5:30AM so there is less crying in the morning and put her down for naps a half-hour earlier to see if she is more able to fall asleep. We feel completely defeated, depressed, and hopeless. I am feeling extremely discouraged, frustrated and guilty. She is very cranky.

April 11. I may try nursing her before each nap. I haven’t been doing that but I think it might relax her. Will it become a crutch? I don’t want to have to nurse in order to fall asleep. Try to nurse her only upon awakening and only when you are soothing for the two naps and at bedtime.

April 13.

Plan A. Because this has been such a stressful experience for mom, one idea is to abandon our entire effort for naps and do whatever you can to maximize sleep and minimize crying during the day but keep the early bedtime in place. This means no sleep after 3PM. After a few days of recuperation, we try our old plan again. Sometimes when parents do this, the child sleeps much better and cries very little as if they know that things have really changed. Maybe because they are better rested they are now more able to sleep better. Of course, we might have a repeat performance of what you are going through now. In this scenario, the child has outlasted the parents and stubbornly continues to fight sleep for parental attention. However, many parents having a taste of success now have a stronger resolve and continue to enforce a biologically healthy sleep schedule causing the child to eventually sleep better.

Plan B. Because your daughter has actually taken half of her expected naps, even though they are brief, we should be proud of her learning this new skill (self-soothing for naps) and encourage her to improve her ability to fall asleep for naps in her crib unassisted. We stick to the plan over the week-end and make another effort to have dad work his magic!

Readers: What do you think they did, Plan A or Plan B? What do you think of my avice?

Marc