ok, perhaps i have created a little 2 1/2 month old monster. lol my baby girl sleeps wonderfully at night in her crib. she may wake once (maybe twice on an off night), but that is about it. naps are whole different story. she could be passed out (practically snoring) in my arms and as soon as she touches the mattress, her eyes fly open. a little giggle from her is usually added (as if to say, "ha! and you thought i was going to sleep!). i try to leave her to see if she will fall back to sleep on her own, but she never does. and i am not one for the cio method (at least not at this young age). if i put her in her swing, she is out like a light and will nap from 1-2 hours without a problem. she will be going to a sitter on a daily basis in a few weeks and i am not sure that she was a swing there (besides, i would like her to eventually nap in her crib or playpen). is the swing bad to nap in? any ideas?
There were times I put mine in the swing all night. She napped in it regularly until 5 months. She just slept better in there than anywhere else. It posed no problems latter on .
My PED told me to let my kids sleep where ever they fell asleep. Heck, he took one look at me when my son was 1 month old and asked how much sleep I was getting (next to none) and he said that I needed to do what I could to get sleep, if that meant putting him to sleep in the swing, then so be it. Good luck!!!
I'm also in the camp of 'do whatever it takes to get them to nap,' especially at a young age. She'll outgrow it (developmentally and physically). Also, if she's sleeping fine in her bed at night, it means she doesn't have an issue with the bed; she's just used to sleeping in the swing during the day. At least you aren't driving your child five miles in the car, which is what we did to get our son to nap. I shudder to think of the carbon we contributed to the atmosphere for the sake of naps!
I also like the suggestion about wrapping her in a blanket to reduce a startle from change in temperature. That might well help too.
We used a child swing for our kids to nap in. I had one son that hated it. When he got fussy and needed a nap we would put him in the swing and wind it up. He would cry and scream for about 5 or 6 minutes and then he was out for nap he needed.
As far as laying the child down for a nap, I would add a blanket between him and I. When the blanket was warm and he was asleep again, I would lay him down in his bed on the blanket and seldom had any problems with them waking up. Why? Because my arms were warm. My chest was warm. The bed was relatively cold. The sudden cold would wake them up. The blanket would insulate him from the coldness of the bed and they would stay asleep.
Good luck to you and yours.
I let my DD nap in a swing (the papasan style) when she was newborn. She did eventually get over it, and was one of those kids I could move if she crashed in there, but I considered the swing my sanity saver.
Totally agree with everyone -- the swing saved us too!
I would guess that in a different environment (the sitter's) she will sleep wherever she has to. Wait and see how it goes. Maybe you'll have to buy the sitter a swing...
The swing saved us too but now it has become a problem. My son is 10 months old and he has become dependent on the swing even to go to bed at night. As soon as we pick him up to take him to his crib he is wide awake and ready to go. He has gotten so used to the motion that he won't sleep in his crib. I used to be able to take him to bed and that was it for the night. Now that is not the issue. He fights us every step of the way. So as of today the swing is gone. We will have a fight on our hands but we are willing to do it. So do yourself a favor and don't let that be a crutch, it will bite you in the butt in the end. Best of luck!
My 3rd son slept in a swing EVERY night and EVERY nap from the time he was 1 week old until he was to the weight limit, and could basically reach out, grab the swing's leg, and stop himself :)
I didn't have a tough time transitioning him back to his own bed when the time came, and am SO grateful that we had such a great little sleeper. He is still a great sleeper.
