I had to work all last weekend and DH was in charge, so Wes started waking when he laid him down for naps (normally we put him to sleep in our arms and he stays asleep). He was going back down after a few min of crying, so it was no big deal.
However, since then, he has been waking when I lay him down and crying for up to an hour before falling back to sleep. I've been just leaving him in there, and it sucks (even though it does work eventually). I tried rocking him back to sleep after he wakes, but that isn't working. And there's no middle ground with him (it's CIO to extinction or hold him till he's sleeping).
Anyone have any tips for something else that might work? He falls asleep really quickly, so I know he's tired, but as soon as he senses I'm going to lay him down he wakes up crying. It just seems to be one of those weird phases. Figures I'm randomly using up PTO this week (Frankencation), so it's solely on me to deal with it!
Re: Tips for addressing nap strike?
Can you try getting him in the crib before he's asleep? And maybe just patting his back or rubbing it to get him to sleep? I've found that once I could get my kids to fall asleep in their cribs instead of in my arms they tend to sleep better--but there were plenty of periods where it just didn't work :-(.
Brinley also went through a period where she would only fall asleep if she were holding my pinkie finger. So I'd sit on the ottoman next to the crib and let her hold my finger to go to sleep. Then once she was asleep I'd slide my finger out.
Maybe if you give him something to entertain himself like a cloth book or something.