Sleeping Babies

Get a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Try to get her parents on board for the methods, although as long as you are consistent and have her on a regular basis you should be able to effect a change just when you have her. From what I remember last time I read it (and that's been once with each child) a four month old shouldn't be awake more than two hours at a time, and total shouldn't be awake more than about 8 hours a day. The rest of the time she should be asleep. It varies per child, of course, but that's the general guideline.

I would buy the book "Baby Wise" and give it to the mother. The books goes over how to get your baby to sleep and sleep through the night. It is very clear that you should NOT rock your baby to sleep because they become dependant on you to sleep....which it sounds like has already happend with your niece.

My son never did sleep to much during the day by the time he was 2 years old naps were over for him but he slept through the night by the time he was 2 months old with no problem.
You can buy books that give general information but i think you need to look at the whole picture.
if a child is sleeping through the night for 8-10 hours she may not need a nap for to long during the day. it also depends on how active the child is. If the child is one who spend a lot of time relaxing that can be as good as a nap.
You can also try laying down with the child. I am not a big fan of the because my sister did this and she ended up with a son who would not sleep by himself till he was is 5th grade.
I think you should talk to you nieces parents and find out how long she sleeps at night.
Just a suggestion, if you fall into a pattern of having to rock her to sleep that can become a habit that her parents will have to follow at night.
Her parents can also ask her Dr.
I really feel each child need a different amount of sleep. A really tired baby will just drop when they are tired. I just don't think you should force her to nap if she does not want to.

She is getting you all trained well. A four month old should sleep 1.5-2 hours between feedings. Makesure she is not overdressed. How many layers are you wearing, she should have no more than that,then wrap her snugly in a soft receiving blanket/fleece cover. Get used to laying her down. If she wakes give her a chance to calm herself to sleep before you pick her up. Rock the crib, pat her back, talk to her, play music or sotry tapes to help her ease back to sleep.

It sounds like you have a problem sleeper.She should be takeing at least 2 to 3 naps a day for atleast an hour each.(That's atleast what I've read, who really knows though) She is now getting to the age of hopefully starting naps. My daughter also had this problem, but it really wasn't until she was about 6 months that we got her to take actal naps. We did start the process at 4 mo. Since she's not with you all the time it could be harder. What we would do is. I would start off rocking my daughter with any ocean/outside sound cd on(any white noise could work) after she feel asleep we would lay her down,(she always woke back up) from there we would not pick her up we would just comfort her by rubbing her back and makeing a shhhh sound for about 5 min. When that didn't work we would leave the room and let her cry for about 3-5 min. and repeat. The first time it was next to near impossible but it got easier and easier as time rolled on. Now I'm happy to say that she has a very good nap routine. We dont have to rock her any longer, and the second we lay her down she practicly melts into the crib and pass out. It's a very hard thing to do at first, and like I said it took us about 2 months to get her like that, but well worth it, I feel. I hope this helps, if not this, I'm sure you'll find something if you keep at it.

Hi T.,
I would have a chat with your sister/ brother about what they are doing at night to put your niece to bed. It really is their decision as to her sleep routine, so check with them. Personally, we do not let my son cry it out, and I do not want anyone watching him to let him do so. So it's best to check. See what they do on the weekends to put her down for naps.

Have you tried swaddling her for naps? This works very well for my son. It keeps him nice and comfy, and helps him sleep better. I rock him also, but he rests much better when he is swaddled.

I agree with the white noise suggestion. Definitely try it. But again, I would check with her parents to see how they are doing things. They may have a "trick" to putting her down- i.e. a certain way of holding her (some babies prefer to be rocked in the arms, some over the shoulder- and sometimes it changes!). Once she is sleeping, try just holding her without rocking for a few minutes before you put her down, so she doesn't notice the change as much.

Good luck- let us know what ends up working for her!

T.