Naps?

How did you get your your child to take naps during the day?  I hold my little guy alot and he will sleep but I can't get him to take a regular nap in his crib...  He will get himself overly tired and cranky and he has been doing that alot lately.  He is 2 months old and I would like to start getting him into good sleep habits...any suggestions...what did you do?

[fitzy11]

hi. it took us a long time to get there. my little guy is 7 1/2 mos now, and he has been napping on his own in his crib for a little over a month now. but it was a long road. your baby is still very young so he still needs help falling asleep. i would try not to stress about it too much, but rather enjoy this time now and his sleep habits will fall into place with a little work as he gets older. i stressed about my ds's sleep habits so much and when he was 4 mos we tried to let him cry it out. it was too hard and i stopped it. i regret it so much, he was much too young. we tried it again at 6mos out of desperation and it was easier.it was easier because he was ready and able to learn how to fall asleep on his own. good luck and enjoy your little guy.

[Mia28firstbaby]

Thats nice to know!!!   I am scared i am holding him to much...that he will not sleep in his crib becasue of me.   I have a friend whose child is in daycare and started a nap schedule at aroun 6-8 weeks of age...I have no idea how and she says she doesn't know how they did it just that he will nap becasue that is his routine now that daycare put him on.  

[myproblem]

Both of my girls preferred their swing or bouncer at that age. My 1st didn't really nap in her crib until about 6 mos. My 2nd is 3 mos, and will sometimes nap in her crib, but sometimes not.

[ImmortalOne]

Trying to force a sleep schedule so young doesn't seem wise, babies sleep when they are tired and when they are over tired they need the nurturing that we provide.  Your baby is only 2 months old, you can't spoil him by holding him too much.  That is how they learn about human interactions, they need to be held and cuddled.  In fact some psychologists would suggest you not worry at all.

[mommy2aj]

for the 1st 6wks i caught myself always holding ds to get him to sleep. for naps it seemed like everytime i tried to put him down he would wake up. at 6wks we got a swing, he loved it!! to this day, 2yrs, if he sees his swing he wants to climb in. i also at around 2 or 2.5mo bought baby einsteins-baby bach dvd. we had tried different soothing cd and lullabyes but they held no interest for him. i would put the dvd in and keep volume low and rock him until he fell asleep then lay ds in crib. i would leave the dvd playing so he could listen to the music while sleeping. my ds now loves music and anytime classical music comes on you would think ds was at a rock concert or something. we continued to buy the dvd's and use them for naptime, ds got to where after about 5 min he was fast asleep. no more problems. now at 2 we still use baby einstein dvd's to wind down after an energized day.

[anxiousmomtobe?]

I think it is best to let babies find their own schedule.  And hold him all you can, soon he will be a squirmy two year old.