What is wake to sleep?

[ever55]

Looking for help with 45 ninute nap extention for 9 week old who is now successfully going to sleep in her crib with shh/pat. What is the wake to sleep technique? I think she does a mantra cry at the 45 minute mark but I'm not sure so I get her after a couple of minutes, I'm still not sure what the mantra cry is. Should I just do shh/pat all over again as soon as I hear her fuss? Any help would be appreciated!! Thank you.

[*Nicola*]

Hello 

Congratulations on seeing success with pat/shh  Isn't it great when they can get themselves off to sleep.  Sorry to hear you have the dreaded 45 minute naps though   

The mantra cry is a cry that is rhythmic in sound and doesn't escalate.  It might take you a while to identify it.  If you are unsure you could try leaving her when she wakes at the 45 minute mark to see if she resettles herself.  If she begins to cry hard or give a 'help me now' cry then you go right in to her.  You can then either get her up or, perferably, use pat/sh her get her back to sleep again.

With DD1 we used pat/shh to extend past the 45 min mark.  Basically I stayed in the room with her, gently held down her legs and sh'd her through the restless sleep around the 45 minute mark.

With DD2, I didn't have the time to stay in the room so we used W2S instead.  Basically you go into the room about 10 minutes before your LO usually begins to stir (might be helpful to spend a nap in the room if you can to determine the time that they stir) and you gently rouse them from sleep so that they start another sleep cycle    We had immediate results using W2S but sometimes you may need to experiment with the timings. 

Here are some links for you to check out.

WAKE TO SLEEP INFO CLICK HERE

MANTRA CRY INFO CLICK HERE

HTH, please post back with any qu and let us know how you get on 

[ever55]

Hi,thanks for the advice, I have a 3 year old also so w2s seems like a good thing for me to try. Any idea how many days it usually takes before they start getting thru it themselves? I'd love to have a realistic expectaion. Sh/pat took 2 full weeks and still takes a while in the afternoon as she is overtired by them. Bedtime is a disaster but we are working on it. I really think the longer naps in the day will help sort out the bedtime problem. My LO gen sleeps for 10 hours at night once she gets to sleep but it could take 2 hours to get her there! Thanks again

[*Nicola*]

The first time I used W2S Callie slept through 45 minute mark.  To be honest I used it EVERY nap for about 3 weeks as I was a bit chicken to try without it. But it takes about 10 secs to rouse her so who cares? 

I forgot her morning nap a couple of times after that and she slept thru and needed woken at 1.5 hour mark so I started to leave her alone then.  She did go through a stage of waking at 1 hour mark, and I thought about using W2S at 50 mins but she then started to resettle herself and go back to sleep so we left her to it.   She now usually takes 1.5 hours for morning and lunchtime naps, sometimes she wakes at 45 mins and resettles, sometimes she goes right thru. Often I have to wake her at 1.5 hours to keep feeding on time.  Sometimes I still do W2S for last nap as she is notorious for a 45 min nap at this time. Sometimes it works but she only takes an hour. 

If you have read the mantra stuff and you think she is manta crying at 45 mins then I would definitely try leaving her to see if she resettles herself, although if you are still using pat/shh to get her to sleep then you may still need to give her a hand.   

[ever55]

Thanks! I just tried wake to sleep but not sure if I did it right. My computer won't let me access the links you gave me yet for some reason. I'll keep looking for it.

[*Nicola*]

Your PC is probably blocking pop ups and that's why you can't see them.

They are both within the FAQ's section of the Naps Forum.  If you click on Naps Forum the FAQ's section is near the top.  There are lots of good posts within it