From the very beginning…
Naps
My little man is growing up on me. Ian used to love falling asleep on me. He used to fall asleep while we were nursing and then complain if I tried to lay him down. Over the last week or so, I’ve begun noticing that he hasn’t been sleeping as long when he falls asleep nursing. The other day, I put him in his crib soon after he fell asleep and he slept for an hour. He doesn’t want to sleep on mama anymore. That’s fine, but now I’m having a hard time getting him to take decent naps. He starts rubbing his eyes and I know that’s a signal that he’s getting tired. So today, I am trying to get him to fall asleep for a nap in his crib. It’s not working yet. I’m also trying to get him to go to sleep without nursing.
Any ideas on how I can get him to take a nap without nursing (he nurses right before bed half the time too) or other hints that might help this transition?
They say that it is a good thing for babies to use pacifiers now – try giving him one when you put him down.
Yup, that’s what I thought. I let him cry for 5 mins before I went in there. I go in and let him nurse and he’s out within a minute.
The problem with pacifiers is that Ian hasn’t learned to keep it in his mouth yet. He’ll get going on one and he’ll either (A) stop and it falls out or (B) get going so hard that he pops it out of his mouth. This is problematic because he hasn’t learned that he can pick it up and put it back in his mouth yet.