for the past 2 weeks, elise has not been able to nap on her own. she will only nap while being held and bounced, oftentimes simultaneously. and since babies her age need to nap 4-6 hours per day, you can imagine how exhausting this is for mommy. i've read 3 sleep books and countless online posts about infant sleep, but all the recommended tricks and methods are not helping and i'm starting to feel a little desperate. i'm unable to get anything done and my entire days consist of sitting on the couch and holding her or going for walks, since she can sleep in the stroller or carrier, albeit not in a deep sleep.
from what i've read, i need to let this phase pass, especially since she's too young to implement any kind of sleep training. i'm not sure cry-based sleep training would work with her, however, because she can be quite the resilient crier. she cried one of her hardest during the drive home from the americana day and i had to quickly pull over to the first open spot, a bus stop, to try to calm her down because she was nearly vomiting! it turned out she had a major blowout; i guess i would cry that hard, too. :)
anyway, i'm hoping and praying that elise will be able to nap on her own so that i can do one of the 29384 things that need to get done around here! i still have things unpacked from my mom's place!
How do you feel like using the swing or bouncer? I know all of the sleep books say not to. And you know I read as much as you did re: infant sleep. But sometimes I resorted to the swing to help Seth nap, especially when he was that young. It didn't set us back in our sleep training and he didn't become so dependent on it that he would only sleep in it. Those sleep books make it seem like you do something "wrong" once and it's all over for your training. It used to stress me out so much. But it's really not like that. You do what you have to do. And babies are not robots. Every baby is different and you'll find what works for you and Elise. Hang in there and let me know if you ever wanna chat!
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