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February 2012 Moms
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Neep nap scheduling help please

katea81katea81 member
in February 2012 Moms

I've been trying to get my DS on a more predictable nap schedule and so far the mornings have been going great. The afternoons? Not so much. I've been trying the 90 minute sleep cycle thing I read about on here: he usually wakes up around 6:45 am and after a feeding and playtime, I put him down in his crib awake 90 minutes later. He falls asleep after a little bit of fussing and there he will nap for about an hour or so.  He does great with this.

The problem comes in the afternoon. We usually go out and run errands and he'll sleep the whole time. When we get home, he inevitably wants to eat, so I'll feed him and play with him, but then what? Should I put him back for another nap even though he slept for at least an hour or 2 when we were out?  I think because I don't continue to follow the 90 minute cycle in the afternoon that he ends up getting overtired and refuses to sleep/nap. 

How do you SAH ladies who go out frequently handle naps? Also, how exactly does the 90 minute sleep cycle work? Is that the same as the EASY method? 

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Re: Neep nap scheduling help please

  • halo_txhalo_tx

    We have been following the 90 minute sleep cycle for about a month- I actually really recommend the book- it's called The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program. It's not really a routine or schedule- it just explains that a baby's wakeful cycles are naturally 90 minutes long, so after 90 minutes, baby is ready for sleep. If you miss the window, another wakeful cycle starts and baby may not be able to fall asleep until another 90 minutes later, and be overtired and harder to get to sleep. According to the book, most babies aren't ready to stay awake for longer than 90 minutes until they are 4-5 months old (when they'll be up for 3 or 4 1/2 hours at a time and will settle into a more predictable napping pattern). So even if baby just woke up after a long stretch of sleep, they need another nap after being awake for 90 minutes. It doesn't matter where in the cycle you feed, although I usually feed DD right when she wakes up. The length of naps also varies- sometimes DD will take only a 20 or 30 minute nap and sometimes it's much longer. I'm still trying to figure out how to work around naps- DD isn't sleeping well anymore when I'm out and about, so I've been doing things when she's awake more often.

    We've been having a lot of success using this- I like it because it's more about following baby's natural cues and helping LO get the rest they need than any kind of specific parenting style. It's made a big difference to DD's fussiness since she started taking more frequent naps.


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  • mle5dmle5d member
    No advice, but I'll be stalking your post. My LO's nap schedule is basically non-existent. He did okay with one late morning/early afternoon nap, but that was it. And now that doesn't even happen! Little man needs to sleep!
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  • KatelynEA90KatelynEA90 member
    We basically do this too. Occasionally DD will be up for 2 hours instead of 90 minutes but she seems to do okay with it. We mostly follow her sleepy cues but its pretty consistently 1 1/2 - 2 hours after she woke up. The nap times vary. I know her first morning nap is 2 - 2 1/2 hours long. For my DD, if it's been less than an hour, she isn't ready to get up again. No matter how long her naps are, she still goes down again about 90 minutes after she woke up.
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  • MollySmMollySm member
    imagekatea81:

    I've been trying to get my DS on a more predictable nap schedule and so far the mornings have been going great. The afternoons? Not so much. I've been trying the 90 minute sleep cycle thing I read about on here: he usually wakes up around 6:45 am and after a feeding and playtime, I put him down in his crib awake 90 minutes later. He falls asleep after a little bit of fussing and there he will nap for about an hour or so.  He does great with this.

    The problem comes in the afternoon. We usually go out and run errands and he'll sleep the whole time. When we get home, he inevitably wants to eat, so I'll feed him and play with him, but then what? Should I put him back for another nap even though he slept for at least an hour or 2 when we were out?  I think because I don't continue to follow the 90 minute cycle in the afternoon that he ends up getting overtired and refuses to sleep/nap. 

    How do you SAH ladies who go out frequently handle naps? Also, how exactly does the 90 minute sleep cycle work? Is that the same as the EASY method? 

    I haven't read the EASY Method or the 90 minute sleep cycle, but I'll give you my advice from experience.  I put Lucia back down to sleep 90 minutes after she wakes up.  She usually lays there quietly and then falls asleep easily.  If she doesn't , or if i try too late, she gets cranky and has a hard time falling asleep.  It doesn't matter how much she slept, I always have to put her to sleep 90 minutes after she woke up.  
    So if you are out running errands and he sleeps the whole time, I'd still come home, feed and play with him and put him to sleep 90 minutes later.  He might just take a small nap, or maybe he'll take another long one, but if I go over 90 minutes things don't go well, so I'd do it.   

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