@Bltbear82 I'm pretty much the sleep nazi too. He's nearing 3 and starting to have slightly more flexibility, but by that I mean like maybe I can put him down at 7:20 instead of 7:00 and not suffer the consequences the next day. I never thought I'd be so rigid about bed/ nap times, but it just makes such a HUGE difference in the way he behaves that it's worth it.
Exactly! For the first year I followed his patterns by measuring how long he was awake to know his tolerance for wakeful times so I knew when I could go out, it really helped balance all aspects of our life. He naturally fell into a rhythm that worked for us. It helped to track everything so I could identify patterns. It's so much easier when we are all set up for success. No one wants a cranky baby or toddler!
My baby doesn't seem to show many signs of being sleepy. She doesn't seem to rub her eyes much. She yawns and I will try to put her to sleep when she does but it seems like she gets hungry before she falls asleep and it just feels like we can't get into a rhythm. I'm not sure what I should be doing and she will be going to daycare in about 2 1/2 weeks so I feel like we need to have some sort of a routine.
I need to try the 90 minute thing too. Gwendolen sleeps ok at night but her naps are super inconsistent. She rarely just falls asleep on her own so I need to be better about making her sleep, even for a little bit. She can stay awake for hours and hours and then completely melt down in hysterics. Just ask me about our 4th of July weekend with the in-laws!! *sob*
Question: Do you ladies swaddle for naps or just at bedtime? Gwen still has a pretty bad startle reflex so I'm reluctant to stop swaddling for naps unless there's a reason to.
We start the routine by 8:30. Sooner if he acts sleepy. Sometimes it takes cluster feeding for him to be full and rested enough to sleep. He usually begins the night with a 3-4 hour stretch and then wakes up every two hours after that. We cosleep and I nurse him so we're all getting plenty of sleep. I don't change his diaper unless he leaks. Usually he's up for the day by 6 or 6:30 until his first nap. Sometimes he skips his morning nap or just takes cat naps while nursing which makes him fussier. We don't have a consistent schedule yet, I just try to let him/help him sleep when he seems tired!
@CUtiger09 My son never showed many sleep cues either- I just did what @Bltbear82 was saying and tracked his wake time to figure out when he was falling asleep or getting cranky, if there were any patterns, etc and put him to sleep based on how long he'd been awake. I used an app that I think was called Total Baby, but it may not exist anymore since that was 2.5 years ago. I still more or less go by the clock with him rather than watching his cues, although I will tweak things if he's looking particularly tired. Also don't worry about establish a schedule before daycare- it's nearly impossible at this age, plus the daycare people will probably find a routine that works for them and then you can steal it around 3-4 months people say you can start using the 2-3-4 method (i.e. kid wakes up, 2 hours later is the first nap, when that nap ends, 3 hours later is the 2nd nap, and when that nap ends, 4 hours later is bedtime) but that didn't work for my son until about 7 months because he couldn't tolerate such long wake times.
@Merinmac We swaddle for naps still- if we didn't each nap would be approx 9 minutes long. I'm all about the swaddle.
@Pascal86 Virgie usually takes two monster naps (2-3 hours), one in the morning starting around 8:30, and one in the afternoon around 1:00. The rest of the day she'll take little snoozes here and there- hard to say how long any of them really are because often I wake her up to go do something or she's taking them in the carrier/ stroller and when we reach our destination she wakes up. I keep expecting her to start doing the typical nap for 20 or 40 minutes thing that most babies go through but we haven't gotten there yet.
@CUtiger09 My son never showed many sleep cues either- I just did what @Bltbear82 was saying and tracked his wake time to figure out when he was falling asleep or getting cranky, if there were any patterns, etc and put him to sleep based on how long he'd been awake. I used an app that I think was called Total Baby, but it may not exist anymore since that was 2.5 years ago. I still more or less go by the clock with him rather than watching his cues, although I will tweak things if he's looking particularly tired. Also don't worry about establish a schedule before daycare- it's nearly impossible at this age, plus the daycare people will probably find a routine that works for them and then you can steal it around 3-4 months people say you can start using the 2-3-4 method (i.e. kid wakes up, 2 hours later is the first nap, when that nap ends, 3 hours later is the 2nd nap, and when that nap ends, 4 hours later is bedtime) but that didn't work for my son until about 7 months because he couldn't tolerate such long wake times.
I use Total Baby too. Love it. And I set timers for sleep in the beginning.
@CUtiger09 My son never showed many sleep cues either- I just did what @Bltbear82 was saying and tracked his wake time to figure out when he was falling asleep or getting cranky, if there were any patterns, etc and put him to sleep based on how long he'd been awake. I used an app that I think was called Total Baby, but it may not exist anymore since that was 2.5 years ago. I still more or less go by the clock with him rather than watching his cues, although I will tweak things if he's looking particularly tired. Also don't worry about establish a schedule before daycare- it's nearly impossible at this age, plus the daycare people will probably find a routine that works for them and then you can steal it around 3-4 months people say you can start using the 2-3-4 method (i.e. kid wakes up, 2 hours later is the first nap, when that nap ends, 3 hours later is the 2nd nap, and when that nap ends, 4 hours later is bedtime) but that didn't work for my son until about 7 months because he couldn't tolerate such long wake times.
That makes me feel better although when I tried the 90 minute wake time today she still didn't nap. She would fall asleep with me walking and bouncing her and wake up as soon as I put her down. The only time she took a nap was on me after I nursed her. She took a short nap while we were out and about today. She hasn't been really fussy so I'm trying to not worry about it but she just doesn't seem like much of a napper.
I am am kind of looking forward to her going to daycare if only so I can see how her naps go there. She seems to nap better for everyone else but me.
@cutiger09 Same as @Bellodomani, I go by the clock primarily and will adjust to make a nap earlier if I'm seeing cues. Usually by eye rubbing, it's too late get DS1 down gracefully. I need to catch him at the sleepy stage wnhen he starts slowing down, getting quiet, or gazing more. Then he's a cuddle monster and will fall asleep quickly. With DS2, he'll sort of stare off rather than interact with me like he usually does now if he's starting to get tired or overstimulated. I aim for a nap after 90min awake most of the time, though in the morning, he's usually happy with a 2hr awake stretch before falling asleep easily, so I go with it. When DS1 got to a 2 nap schedule, I had him nap at 10 and 1. Any later than those times and he was a mess later...which happened way more often when I was working than I would have liked.
Babies and kids can be tricky, because if you miss the sleepy window, they'll get an adrenaline second wind and it'll look like they're not tired anymore...but if they don't sleep you'll usually pay for it in fussiness, impulsive behavior, difficulty settling, etc. later in the day.
Swaddle moms - how do you break the swaddle habit? Found out my daycare doesn't swaddle for safety reasons it really gives me anxiety that LO won't be rested at daycare. The daycare worker suggested a sleep sack.
We've tried 1 arm out and that was a fail. No one would have gotten sleep if we left it so we caved. I also tried both arms out with me rocking to deep sleep but he never got to deep sleep. Ugh.
Swaddle moms - how do you break the swaddle habit? Found out my daycare doesn't swaddle for safety reasons it really gives me anxiety that LO won't be rested at daycare. The daycare worker suggested a sleep sack.
We've tried 1 arm out and that was a fail. No one would have gotten sleep if we left it so we caved. I also tried both arms out with me rocking to deep sleep but he never got to deep sleep. Ugh.
If I were you, I would just continue to swaddle at home and let daycare deal with getting him to sleep however they can. I'm sure if they can't swaddle there they probably have other tricks for babies with a strong startle reflex like using the swing or whatever. They are highly motivated to get children to sleep because it makes their day much easier, so I'm sure they have some reliable strategies. In general my philosophy is what happens at daycare is daycare's problem, and that makes being at work a lot less stressful.
I didn't wean my son off the swaddle until 4 months, and even at that point it was so challenging that we went with using the zippadee zip as a transitional tool.
Can someone suggest a good book and/or routine for us to follow? My little guy is 5 weeks old and we have gotten into a nasty habit of letting him fall asleep on one of us and we need to break this habit!
Swaddle moms - how do you break the swaddle habit? Found out my daycare doesn't swaddle for safety reasons it really gives me anxiety that LO won't be rested at daycare. The daycare worker suggested a sleep sack.
We've tried 1 arm out and that was a fail. No one would have gotten sleep if we left it so we caved. I also tried both arms out with me rocking to deep sleep but he never got to deep sleep. Ugh.
I'm trying to break the swaddle habit now,. What's working for us is the halo skeep sack. Instead of swaddling both arms in, I just swaddle one. Started on Monday and so far so good. Next week for naps I plan on trying both arms out. Depending on how that goes I'll roll it out to night time next month. Then hopefully by September 1 we can be swaddle free!!
Can someone suggest a good book and/or routine for us to follow? My little guy is 5 weeks old and we have gotten into a nasty habit of letting him fall asleep on one of us and we need to break this habit!
The whole thread is nothing but suggestions for routine, and there is s book thread already going Maybe take some ideas from what's been posted already??
I think I've posted this before, but we broke the swaddle habit at 5 weeks using a consistent bedtime routine of bath/lotion/bottle/story & footy pjs. I think it is a combination of having all 4 limbs still covered by the pjs & having him so relaxed by the bath etc that he falls into a deep sleep quickly.
I tried a sleep sack that was armless & didnt have success with it...he likes to hang out in it but having naked arms is too much for him still.
We're now trying to break the RNP habit for bedtime...this one is trickier.
I think I've posted this before, but we broke the swaddle habit at 5 weeks using a consistent bedtime routine of bath/lotion/bottle/story & footy pjs. I think it is a combination of having all 4 limbs still covered by the pjs & having him so relaxed by the bath etc that he falls into a deep sleep quickly.
I tried a sleep sack that was armless & didnt have success with it...he likes to hang out in it but having naked arms is too much for him still.
We're now trying to break the RNP habit for bedtime...this one is trickier.
Do you cover hands with gloves or anything? We don't do footie PJs (even though we have some) because we're lazy for MOTN diaper changes lol. I might have to try footie PJs again. When he breaks free from the swaddle, he puts his whole hand to his face and fingers all in the eyes, mouth, and nose. I think that's what wakes him the most.
So after the post last night, my LO slept for 8 hours straight in his crib, swaddled. UGH why do the swaddle gods have to do this to me
Our 13 week old goes to bed at 7:30 in his swing in a sleep sack (no swaddles anymore) and sleeps through the entire night until 6:30am. We usually wake up to him sneezing. He sleeps in his own room. He usually naps about every 1.5-2 hours for 15-30min and one long 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. He usually gets fussy or we try to get him to nap after its been awhile and after a bottle. I EP and we're slowly bringing in formula. Pretty happy with how things are going, if only delivery hadn't been so horrible.
Between 8:30-9 we feed her. She never wakes up, and sleeps until about 8:30 every morning (since about 8 weeks) People always comment about this, but I worked with her for weeks using the Baby Sleep Solution. I've never been happier lol mama needs her sleep.
Re: Baby Bedtime?
Question: Do you ladies swaddle for naps or just at bedtime? Gwen still has a pretty bad startle reflex so I'm reluctant to stop swaddling for naps unless there's a reason to.
@Pascal86 Virgie usually takes two monster naps (2-3 hours), one in the morning starting around 8:30, and one in the afternoon around 1:00. The rest of the day she'll take little snoozes here and there- hard to say how long any of them really are because often I wake her up to go do something or she's taking them in the carrier/ stroller and when we reach our destination she wakes up. I keep expecting her to start doing the typical nap for 20 or 40 minutes thing that most babies go through but we haven't gotten there yet.
I am am kind of looking forward to her going to daycare if only so I can see how her naps go there. She seems to nap better for everyone else but me.
Babies and kids can be tricky, because if you miss the sleepy window, they'll get an adrenaline second wind and it'll look like they're not tired anymore...but if they don't sleep you'll usually pay for it in fussiness, impulsive behavior, difficulty settling, etc. later in the day.
We've tried 1 arm out and that was a fail. No one would have gotten sleep if we left it so we caved. I also tried both arms out with me rocking to deep sleep but he never got to deep sleep. Ugh.
I didn't wean my son off the swaddle until 4 months, and even at that point it was so challenging that we went with using the zippadee zip as a transitional tool.
The whole thread is nothing but suggestions for routine, and there is s book thread already going Maybe take some ideas from what's been posted already??
I tried a sleep sack that was armless & didnt have success with it...he likes to hang out in it but having naked arms is too much for him still.
We're now trying to break the RNP habit for bedtime...this one is trickier.
So after the post last night, my LO slept for 8 hours straight in his crib, swaddled. UGH why do the swaddle gods have to do this to me