Naps longer than 2 hours?

[tlee81]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the EASY routine and noticed that the BW book says to wake the baby at the 2 hour mark for naps.  So, baby should never nap more than 2 hours?  Is it really bad to let them go longer on a nap. 

LO is 7 weeks old.  Her A time is usually around 30 minutes to an hour depending.  I think she probably does better on the shorter end.  However it is only day 3 of the EASY routine for us. 

Yesterday here was her day (we were also out for 5 hours, but I tried to keep the EAS on track)

6 am: wake up 4.5 ounces (DH fed her and he usually is so tired when he feeds her at this time he just puts her in her bouncer and goes back to bed so she doesn't spit up.  Grrr.)  I usually do this feeding though. Before EASY, she was consistently waking at 7am.

6:45a: Sleep

8:30: Eat 3.5 ounces

9:15-10:45 Activity on playmat.  I was doing stuff at the time and didn't notice sleepy ques, if they were there.

10:45-11:30 Sleep ( had to feed her an ounce and a half in order for her to go down since she was starting to get hungry)

11:30: Eat 5 ounces

11:45: Activity: Car ride- 30 min.

12:15: sleep 2 hr.

2:30: Eat (Had to wake her to eat) 5 ounces

3:00: Activity: Car ride- 15min.

3:15: 2 hour nap in carseat

5:30: Eat 4 ounces

6:15: Activity: Diaper change, 10 min.

6:25: Sleep 50 min. (in crib - this is something we are working on)

7:15: Activity: Play with Dad (got first smile!), bed time routine

7:55: Eat 5 ounces

8:35: Sleep 3.5 hours

12:00: Eat 5 ounces

12:45a: Sleep 2.25 hours

3:00a: Awake, but not hungry, wanting to play (I like to ignore when she does this, but DH can't sleep with the noise and goes and picks her up so at least she is quiet.  GRRR!!!  She also hasn't done this since she was 3 weeks old!!)

3:30a: Eat 5.5 ounces

4:30a: Sleep


Today has been as such:

7:30-8:20am: Eat (6 oz.)

8::20-8:45am: Activity

8:45am-10:20am: Sleep

10:20am-11:00am: Eat (4 oz.)

11:am-11:30: Activity

11:30am -1:50pm: Sleep (2 hrs. 20 min.)

1:50pm-3:00pm: Eat (5.5 oz.)

3:00pm-3:30pm: Activity

3:30pm: Sleep (this is where she is now.)

[~Karen~]

The reason it says not to let them nap longer than 2 hours is so they're not catching up on any lost night sleep in the day and also to get enough food in them in the day so they don't need it at night.  However, I let ds2 (angel baby) nap as long as he wanted in the day and he'd still sleep all night.  Like everything, it depends on the baby. 

What I'd suggest is to go with your instinct and let her sleep longer for naps if you want to but just be aware of the implications and if she starts ew or feeding more in the night then you may want to start limiting naps to two hours. 

[firsttimemummy]

I agree with Karen; both my boys seem fine with as much daytime sleep as they want without it affecting their night .... but Murray, certainly, needs lots of sleep! His body clock is strong too - if he has a late nap and doesn't waken til 5pm, for example (instead of his usual 3pm wakening) he will be tired around 7.30pm instead of his usual 7pm bedtime.  My friend's LO, though, will be awake all evening if she is up later than 4pm.

[tlee81]

Thanks Karen.

She woke at 2 hours and 20 minutes.  

Now she's not going down easily for nap 3...I think I might have OS'd her.  She has been in there for 40 minutes just playing and trying to get me to come (cooing and shouting).  I don't go until she cries.

[~Karen~]

What was her A time?  If she's having a 2h 20 min nap then you may need to make it a bit longer.  She might not be going to sleep as she's just not tired. 

[tlee81]

I fed her at 1:50, finished eating at 2:50, burped her until 3 and then played from 3-3:30.

SO, if she had too long of a nap, I could give her a longer A time the next time around?  It's 4:30 and her next feeding is 5....so she is basically skipping this nap.

[~Karen~]

If anything it looks like the A time is a bit too long.  At 2 months the average A time is 1 hour and 15 - 20 mins.  I'd prob go for the higher end of the average A time after a long nap.  I always got ds2 down quite early though as he'd just lay there quietly until he went to sleep.  Can you get an APOP nap in if she's refusing it? 

[tlee81]

Karen:
I'm still quite unfamiliar with APOP, but here is basically what happened:

She really didn't nap at all, was hungry at 4:45, so I went ahead and fed her, she ate 4 ounces and started yawning.  I changed her diaper, she woke up a bit for maybe 15 minutes, and then was yawning again.  So, it is now 5:45, and I just put her down for a nap.  Is this the APOP you are mentioning?  She usually doesn't go to sleep for the night until 8/8:30, her bath will be at 7:30/8.  So my plan is to let her sleep until about 6:30/6:45 and then let her have A time until bath, or, if she is showing signs of hunger, feed her then? 

[tlee81]

Karen,
One more thing, Does A time include the feeding time??  I was under the impression is was seperate as the book says

E:25-40 min (sometimes DD needs an hour as I have to burp her often to reduce gas and spit up.)

A: 30-45 min.

S: 1.5-2 hours

[~Karen~]

Yes A time included feeding time.  You might find at this age she's literally awake to feed and by the time you finish the routine (if it takes an hour) she may be just about ready to go back down.

APOP is accidental parenting on purpose.  So like yesterday when she was refusing to take a nap for some reason, you could take her for a walk in buggy/drive in car/put in sling to ensure she takes a nap, stop her getting OT and keeping everything on track.

[tlee81]

Karen,
Thank you so much!!! Last night was horrible. I really don't know what happened last night. She was startled at 11 pm by DH's phone ringing. The only way to calm her and get her back to sleep was with a bottle. I really think we need to atop doing that. She was up again at 1:30 awake, but I don't think she was hungry until 2. I fed her and put her back to bed. Up again at 5, fed her and back to bed. She used to sleep so well: 3.5-4 hour stretches af night up until about a week ago.  I looked at our log and noticed the first EASY day we did went pretty well and she slept a 5 hour stretch at night until DH fed her because he wanted to go to bed. I wonder how long that stretch really would have been if he hadn't done that. Today, she's pretty tired and I'm going to try to mimic the routine we had that day to see how she does.

I'm so new at this it can get so frustrating so easily! But I've commited to try this out for a week and see how it goes.

[*Kara*]

It takes a good two weeks of consistency to get a baby onto a new routine, give it time