Naptime Boot Camp

This week, I decided to get really "tough" and work on Kacie's naps. I have read TONS of books about sleep, but I was still not having success with the whole nap time thing. Most of the books really focus on sleeping at night, and that is not our problem. After re-reading some parts of the books, talking to friends, and reading on a few websites, I decided I just had to make a plan and stick with it. To begin with, I believe in "cry it out" (or CIO), but I wasn't sure when to start this process. I decided to just try it with naps this week. I decided I would let her cry for 10 minutes before I went in to intervene. Well, the whole week, I only had to go in and comfort her ONE time. She always fell asleep before the 10 minute mark each day! This week, Kacie took 3-4 naps EVERY DAY. I just swaddled her, rocked her for a few minutes, then put her in the crib. I turned on her music and white noise that we use at night and then just left the room. The first few days, she would cry for a few minutes, then fall asleep. Towards the end of the week, several times she didn't even cry. She would just look around and then go to sleep. I feel so much better now, because I know she was getting overtired but I couldn't seem to "force" her to sleep. The thing I want to work on now is the length of the naps. Some days, she took 2-hour naps. Some days each nap was only 45 minutes. I am still not really on a schedule as far as doing the same thing at the same time each day since her naps are different lengths, but this week was a major breakthrough!