December 2011 Moms

Crying through naptime?

Eli's been on the 2-hour schedule since we did sleep training at 4.5 months - usually he can only stay awake happily for about 2 hours before needing a nap.

Within the past week or so, he'll show signs of tiredness, we'll go through the naptime routine, I'll lay him down and he'll just scream and cry instead of sleeping.  I usually give him 30 minutes to fall asleep and I check on him a couple of times.  If he hasn't fallen asleep in half an hour, chances are he's just going to continue to scream so at that point I get him up and we try again later.

Just wondering if anyone else has gone through this?  I haven't changed any part of the naptime routine, so it's not like I've introduced something new.  After 2.5 months he should know what to expect by now, right?  Am I missing something? 

 

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Re: Crying through naptime?

  • I'm kind of wondering if maybe he can go longer than 2 hours between a nap now and that's what he's trying to tell you?  I used to be on the same schedule with my son, but in the last 1.5 months he become a 2 naps/day guy. 

    He used to need to go down for his first nap no longer than 2 hours from the time he woke up (usually 630ish).  Now he goes longer.  His naps typically start at 9-930 and 1-130ish each day.  He can go a solid three hours between his two naps now as well. 

    I use "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weissbluth for my sleep guide.  I highly recommend it!

     Good luck!

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  • ebd08ebd08 member
    I've heard so many people recommend Weissbluth.  We used Mindell because the other methods seemed a little too rigid for me and now I'm kind of wishing we had just done Weissbluth or Ferber from the beginning.  Guess I'll be going to the library today!
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  • Just to give you a heads up, the writing isn't the best in the book.  Sometimes you have to read it through a few times and jump around through sections to really get the full gist of what he's saying. 

     He does divide it up by ages, though, so that is helpful.  It talks a lot about the science of sleep, sleep needs and schedules.  He also has different approaches for attending to crying....from "extinction" to graduated checks. 

    I'm no expert but like I said before, the two hour awake time may just be too short at this point.  Is he terribly fussy or just rubbing his eyes and yawning a few times before you try to put him down?   How many naps does he take a day?  How long do they typically last?

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  • ebd08ebd08 member

    Usually, I can expect him to take two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Sometimes if I'm lucky he'll take 3.  Lately though, it's just been so tough to get him down for one and I never know how long they're going to last.  Yesterday his morning nap only lasted 15 minutes and then took a 2.5 hour afternoon nap.  Today he skipped his morning nap entirely.

    Does your LO nap at the same time every day?  I'm wondering if we need to switch to a schedule like that with dedicated nap times.

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  • The naps are roughly at the same time each day.  He gets up at 630, and the first nap begins anywhere from 9-930, depending on his mood and cues.  The second begins around 1-130, depending on when he woke from the first nap.  I try to get 2.5-3 hrs of awake time between the two naps.  His naps last around an hour to 1.5 hrs at daycare, and on the weekends, he sometimes takes 2 hr naps.  I've begun to notice that his afternoon nap is usually longer than his morning nap.  He goes to bed at 630-645. 

    I used to do the two hour thing wakeful thing, with 3 naps per day, but he dropped the third nap about 1.5 months ago.

     

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  • ebd08ebd08 member

    Thanks for the advice!  

    I'm going to start playing around with dedicated nap times and see what happens.  The sleep training book we used (Jodi Mindell) suggested either the 2-hour thing, which we've been doing, or nap times at 9:30 and 2:30.  

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