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SLEEP => Naps => Topic started by: FamiliaPaz on May 03, 2016, 17:46:49 pm
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Hi all. First post, and out of desperation no less. (Sorry if I don't know all the lingo!)
We've been trying to nap train our 6 month old (27 weeks) daughter. Up until now, she had been napping in the stroller. We'd go through a routine (book, turn out lights, quiet singing and rocking) and then put her in the car seat (which attaches to the stroller) and push it back and forth. She'd fall asleep sometimes easily, sometimes with a bit more effort, and sometimes sleep 45 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. It was a mixed bag, but after she fell asleep, she'd stay in the stroller (motionless) til she woke up, which gave us some free time.
She's gotten to the point that I'm not comfortable leaving her stroller now that she's more active and can roll over. So we want to move her into the crib for naps.
She sleeps well at night. Falls asleep on her own in the crib rather easily (not more than 10 minutes of fussing, often less) between 7-8pm depending on naps. She's wakes once to breastfeed -- usually around 3 or 4am. (Though lately she's been waking up an additional time around 12-1am but puts herself back to sleep with 15 minutes; not sure what that's about. Solids maybe?) She wakes up between 6-7am. So around 11 hours of sleep at night, give or take.
We started nap training her last Friday in earnest. Laid her down in her crib after our routine. She'll always start to nod off in my husband's arms (he's been dong the training in the morning before he goes to work) so we know she's tired, and he lays her down before she's fully asleep. The first day was a disaster. No nap in the morning, cried for over an hour. We had somewhere to go later that afternoon (mistake, I know), so she ended up taking a two hour nap in the stroller again. Tried again the next morning, and she fell INSTANTLY asleep at 9:30am (after waking up at 6:30am), and she slept for 1h20m. Afternoon nap, fell asleep after 30 minutes crying, slept 30 minutes, and then slept another 45 on me while breastfeeding. We had a third nap, and she fell asleep after 15 minutes crying, and slept 40 minutes.
Things have been up and down from there.
- Sunday, we tried laying her down at 9am (after waking at 7am), and she was having none of it. We had to be at church, so we tried to lay her down earlier. Rest of the day was a disaster, fell asleep in the car on the way home from church, and took a third nap on a walk in the stroller.
- Monday, laid her down at 8:45 (woke up at 6:45), and she fell asleep at 9:30 and slept for 1h30m (we woke her up). Afternoon nap, I couldn't take her crying and she slept on me off and on the rest of the day.
- Today, we laid her down at 9am, and again she fell asleep at 9:30. I don't know what it is about that time, but she only slept 30 minutes this time. Afternoon (right now), laid her down at 12:45, and she fell asleep crying off-and-on around 1:25, 40 minutes later. We'll see how long she'll sleep for.
(Poor thing also is dealing with some bad ezcema right now, so I wonder if it's bothering her and not letting her relax.)
I suppose I'm just looking for confirmation that this is normal, or that we're doing it all right. Or some help understanding her schedule, because it seem impossible to read her sleepy signs. She'll yawn and rub her eyes even 30 minutes after waking up from her good naps. Then she'll wake up from 30 minute naps and be as happy as can be for 2 hours or so. She's really confusing.
Anyways, whatever advice or insights you can offer us would be very much appreciated!
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Don't worry, it will take a while to adjust. You just gently persevere and it comes, in time.
Her A time needs to be right, I think, and from what you've said it is rather short for her age. My guy is coming up for six months and we are on around 3-3.5 hrs of A time, sometimes longer.
Figure out the A, have a really consistent wind down and go to her if she is upset and needs your help. That's what I've done and we are getting (some) independent naps now. It takes weeks, not days, but this is about them trusting you will always be there and is worth doing sensitively, for both your sakes.
Hope that's of some help!
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Hello and welcome to BW :)
As MJ&N says, working out the A time your baby needs to fall asleep easily and take a good nap makes teaching independant sleep much easier. Here are a couple of useful links to get started:
What are A times and how do they fit into the EASY plan?
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
A couple of questions about your teaching her to nap independently:
After your wind down routine, are you continuing any soothing in the crib at all?
The BW books talk about the sh-pat method which, in the initial stages, continues in the crib, then eventually you can fade this out. Often babies find it hard to go from motion to get to sleep to nothing at all. Sh-pat helps bridge that gap.
Shush-pat - How to
It's also worth noting that the sh-pat can be adapted to your baby. Both of mine found the pat too stimulating so I just held them in the cot.
Hope that helps, pls come back if you have any questions about those links or how to get them to work for your DD.
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Hey all, an update. So, we've been at this about a week now, and I think we're making progress.
My daughter now falls asleep on her own for the morning nap without fail around 9:30, give or take. Today she went down at 9:15 with about 3 or so minutes of fussing. She woke up an hour later.
The afternoon nap is still giving us some trouble, but it's much improved. Today, we put her down around 12:30, and she fell asleep after maybe 10 minutes of fussing. Again, slept for an hour.
We're still doing the same routine. Book, turn off lights, and then rock/sing (or humming more often) for a few minutes before putting her down. We always try to put her down before she's fully asleep, though she sometimes gets the better of us.
A few things that maybe have changed:
- Solids! We realized that because of her eczema and some other stresses in our life, we had reduced the solid foods we had been giving her. Once we began giving her a morning and evening meal (currently cereal and squash), her morning nap extended (sort of) and the midnight night waking disappeared.
- Eczema is much better! We began applying a little bit of steroid cream after using more natural options of two weeks, and she's doing a lot better now.
Our only problem now is that nap length is still a little short. She's sleeping only an hour at a time. If we go in there and pick her up, she falls back into sleep within a minute, so we know she's still tired, but she won't sleep more than 10 minutes after that initial waking. If you have any suggestions related to extending the nap at this age, I'd be very grateful. Her sleep schedule (generally) is below:
6:30am: Wake up
9:30am: Morning nap (lasts 1h-1:30h)
1:30pm-ish: Afternoon nap (varies depending on morning nap wake up time - lasts 1h-2h)
(4:00-ish: Third nap if necessary depending on first two naps - lasts 30m-1h)
7:00-7:30: Down for the night.
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Your routine looks good and great progress with independent sleep too- all sounds positive!
Personally, I count any nap which is an hour or more as being a decent length. Around 5-7mo naps start to lengthen on their own especially with independent sleepers so she might start sleeping longer herself just given time & as she moves towards taking only 2 naps more consistently.
If you want to try extending her naps now though you could try wake to sleep- see link below:
How do I address habitual wakings? (wake-to-sleep and other methods)