Extending 45 minute naps with the 35 minute sneak-in technique - how long?

[Emilys_mom]

Hello to all the moms out there.... My daughter is just over 4 months old and we've only just recently learned about the BW techniques and have started implementing them ASAP.  We've been having to deal with the constant 45 min naps and have recently tried the technique where you sneak in at 35 minutes and lay your hand or arm across them to prevent them from startling themselves awake.  This works like charm but is hard on mom's back and it doesn't seem as if this is helping her do it on her own as I tried this for 3 days straight and let her have a go at it herself on the 4th day only to have her wake up after 30 min.  To all those mom's out there that have tried this technique - how long did you have to do this for before they learned to make it through the sleep cycle transition on their own?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[ZacsMumme]

Hi hun,

Are you talking about W2S? There are a few diff ways to do this, but you can try going in and stirring (barely) your LO about 10 mins before she wakes. This will reset her sleep cycle, and hopefully she will sleep longer. Sometimes it can take a while to get the timing right and I would then stay in the room past the 45 min mark and if your LO starts to wake try HTTJ, shh/patting or pressure to extend as a back up

There was a post on how to do this and your options, but I am not sure where so will see if I can find it

I think 3 days is usually what it takes to break a habit...I had to do it for weeks but you can always do it for say 5 days then give it a rest to see what happens.

HTTJ is where you use the pressure to get your LO through the jolts - which is what you are doing. Do you swaddle your LO, this helps sometimes.

[Emilys_mom]

Thanks for the reply ZacsMumme!

I had to look up the definition for HTTJ as I'm a newbie here, but yes this is what I am doing (not W2S).  I was late today and got to her crib just as her legs went straight up in the air and she was awake shortly thereafter (I don't think I could sleep through that either!).

We had to stop swaddling her arms as she would wake herself up at night trying to get to her thumbs.  Now she finds her thumbs in her sleep and keeps sleeping (for a while anyway .  We do wrap a blanket around the lower half of her body though, but it doesn't stop her legs from going up.

[ZacsMumme]

Have a look here at the teaching babies to sleep posts and down the bottom there is one about how tracey helped josie get past the 45 min naps. http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=86.0

[ZacsMumme]

How are you going?