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November 2015 Moms
Tina7722
member
Napping
Tina7722
member
My baby sleeps through the night no problem! Naps are more challenging! She is still taking cat naps throughout the day. 30 mins tops and about 5 of them! I want to get her on the 3 nap schedule but not having any success. We are also trying to get naps in the crib but isn't going so well either ( she sleeps at night in the crib no problem) they say not to let your baby cry before 4 months so I'm at a loss how to trai her. any one else experiencing this?
Re: Napping
She has been sleeping at night in the pnp next to our bed and usually during the day she sleeps in her bouncy chair or on us. I'm not planning on transitioning her to the crib until about 6 months, but I've been trying to do at least one nap a day in the crib so that it is not a total mess when she's sleeping there at night in a few months.
The cat napping is also related to age. A lot of babies struggled to make the transition into deep sleep and will wake at the end of their first cycle. This is part of a sleep maturation process that is largely developmental. An 8 month old who cat naps may have a sleep issue, a 2 or 3 month old who cat naps is a regular baby. However, this is why I don't recommend pushing crib naps until later. In a lot of cases LO will sleep longer while being held, worn or in a swing or bouncer. This is because the movement is soothing them at the end of the first cycle and allowing them to transition into deeper sleep successfully. Both of my kids napped in their swing until they were much older and neither had any issue when I finally moved them to the crib. If yours does, it is possible and fairly easy to wean from. I literally just moved DS2 to his nursery for naps last week and his sleep has not change in the least.
Nap issues including ones dealing with circadian rhythms don't always translate into night sleep. I tried everything under the sun to get my first son to take longer naps. I read a million articles, tried several different methods but nothing worked until he was developmentally ready. I finally gave up, let him nap in his swing and we were both much happier and more rested.
Now he fell asleep at 5:30 (in his daytime clothes) and it's looking like he may be in for the night. I really don't want him to be in bed this early because then he'll be up for the day at like 5 am. I don't want to wake him up though since nap time has been such a struggle. Any tips on what I can do to get him to nap earlier in the afternoon so he stops going to bed earlier and earlier? He only occasionally will allow himself to nap in a swing or bouncer or anything like that. This kid is already incredibly strong willed....
ETA: I'll check back. Some things will definitely change based on what you have going on already and how many weeks old he is. @rachswi
Thankfully it was apparently a nap this evening and he woke up about 7:30 (so a 2 hour nap), and now we're doing the bedtime routine and he'll probably end up not going to sleep till more like 9:00 again.
Can you really watch him and try to anticipate when they will get tired? It took some really close watching but after a week or so I cold get my daughter down for at least an hour morning nap and then a long afternoon one. The afternoon was only longer because I would sleep with her.
Picky nappers tend to need strict wake windows. If you are waiting for tired cues he may be up too long already at that point. At 10.5 weeks his wake window is most likely between 1 hr-1 hr 45 minutes. Typically, the window is smallest in the morning and longest right before bed. This means that baby should be asleep no later than 1 hr and 45 min after waking and includes time spent soothing. Overtired babies not only have a harder time falling asleep they have a harder time staying asleep. LO's total sleep for the day should be between 11-15 hours, I'd argue closer to 15.
If you have an easier time getting him to nap in the swing or bouncer go with that. There really isn't a need to make things more difficult (in my opinion at least). Preciouslittlesleep.com has a great write up on what she calls the Varsity method for swing hating babies. It worked like a charm for DS who absolutely hated the swing but refused to nap anywhere except in my carrier. Basically, white noise, swaddle (if LO will tolerate it), with the swing off use your wrist to jiggle the handle back and forth rapidly so that his little head wiggles back and forth while at the same time swinging the swing manually. After a bit DS1 would start to doze and I could turn the swing on high and get some stuff done. I realize this sounds really obnoxious but once you get it to work for a bit LO will need your help less and less until eventually I was able to just pop him in the swing, turn it on and he would fall asleep.
DS would easily fall asleep in the swing but I realized that this method works for him as well. If he started stirring after a shorter nap I could just sneak in behind him and jiggle him back to sleep easily. He got on a pretty good schedule of 3 shorter naps a day and one longer one which seemed to work for us. 4 short naps per day may be enough for LO if he is sleeping 12 hours overnight. As far as bedtime and morning, you will probably have to play around with it a bit as you start getting him to nap a bit more consistently. Usually around 10 weeks bedtime is closer to 9pm. With DS2's longish nap an earlier bedtime kept putting him over 15 total hours and led to early morning wake ups. Once he dropped down to 3 naps his bedtime naturally moved earlier.
Check out Preciouslittlesleep.com for some amazing sleep tips. She saved my sanity when DH and I were at a loss with DS1. I seriously print out a bunch of her articles and make sleep books to give with my gifts at baby showers. We call her our sleep guru. Good luck!
ETA: Sorry so long. Baby sleep is one of my passions. I have all this crap floating around in my head after reading millions of articles and books trying to find a solution for my oldest child who came out of the womb allergic to sleep. PS He is an awesome sleeper now
ETA: this applies more to naps than nighttime sleep
Doesn't always work but I feel like I'm setting good habits to help later on.
For the most recent nap, he woke up crying after 30 mins again, but my daddy was over and went in to rescue very quickly. I tried to explain that he really needs and wants to nap and not play. I also instructed him to try to get him back down to sleep soon or else he will prob be a terror. We'll see if that happens. My daddy and MIL are watching LO when I return to work in a month and I really need them to be on board with working on the naps. Nighttime is going beautifully (for now), but if he's not napping all day, I'm going to come home to a very cranky baby every day :-/.
ETA: Word change. "Is" is not "isn't" and really changed the whole meaning of what I was actually trying to say: it isn't unusual for a young baby to take short naps.