I'm sure he can tell time - 30 minute naps like clockwork!

[emgerson]

Hi, My DS is 6 1/2mo and has in the past been a great napper but at the moment he wakes up at the 30 minute mark like clockwork!

I know he's capable of having great naps as in the not-so-distant past he would nap up to 2 hours straight, then some things happened - my mum came over from overseas and baby moved temporarily into our bedroom, started solids etc and everything went haywire.

He wakes up at 30 minutes every time, I've tried tweeking his A times between 1 1/2 hrs to almost 3 hrs and each time he woke up at 30 minutes, I tried to make sure his food is easy to digest so no upset tummy, checked his mouth for teething signs and nothing.

The amazing thing is that in the past we've struggled with 45min naps but 30min like a clock is new to me, it leads to a tired and grumpy cycle and we're not having much fun at the moment.

Anyway, anyone has any ideas of the cause and how to fix?

He sleeps really well through the night for a couple of weeks now, we've struggled in the past...
Maybe he's teething?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Claudiamummy]

Hi there, we went through this with dd, but earlier (our usual is 40 mins!!)

30mins is usual ot and 35 is ut (annoying eh?!) so first port of call is ensure lo is not asleep before you think....

Then, what I did was get dd VERY gradually up to the min A time for her age, dd has a streak of touchy so I only ever increase 5 mins ever 3-5 days (sometimes more) I did/do it for the AM nap, the AP to extend if I need to.

Once I got back to 40 min naps I knew I had an UT "marker" and I continued the increase ( in the middle of final ten to 3 hours)


Also httj works for us about 70% of the time... Have you tried it??? Much easier for tummy sleepers and you have to bit a bit of an acrobat but worth it

Also wake 2 sleep, although we could never crack that one.... Gently disturb lo 5 mins before wake up (do not wake up, just change breathing to "reset" the clock)

Hth a bit
X

[rblott]

Hi there,

This is virtually identical to the post I made yesterday (http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=222125.0). Based on the response above I'm going to try increasing A time by 5 mins (have tried 15 before). I would be interested to learn how you get on as this problem is driving me mad. I have barely left the house for weeks as am trying to get dd's routine on track

What's httj by the way?

Good luck,
Becca

[emgerson]

Hi Becca,
I had to search this too but apparently HTTJ is holding/helping through the jolts.
I do have good news though, yesterday afternoon I put Adam for a nap after 2 hours A time and he wasn't ready for a nap so played in his cot for an hour and then fell asleep for an hour and a half so I'll be keeping him up longer from now and keeping an eagle eye out for signs of tiredness.
Today he did a 40minute nap so we're improving slowly...
Good luck and keep us updated.

[rblott]

I tried a new approach today too: two short naps and one long PM nap.

DD (Isabella) woke at 6 am with a dirty nappy (she seems to do at least 5 per day) so my DH changed her and put her back. I was really tired so let her sleep, which she did until 8 am. By 9:15 am she was tired though, so went for a 30 min nap. At 11:15 I put her back down until 12:00. She had a great PM nap from 2pm until 4pm when I went in to wake her. I sat on the sofa and had a cup of coffee for the first time in ages. It was bliss.

DD was however really cross with me ALL morning. I got a lot of shouting at me through breakfast and lunch, but I did feel better for not having to sit in the room with her and bend over the cot for hours. I think I may keep trying the two short AM naps, but bring the first one forward by 15 mins, then gradually extend and merge the two short naps in to two. One lives in hope.

Thanks for the note on HTTJ. I'm not sure that it will work for me as Isabella is always really happy after the 30 mins sleep. This is why PU/PD is not really any good either. She only seems to start crying when she is fed up of playing in her cot after having woken up. The cry is not really a tired cry, but more of a "Mum come and get me now!" cry. Then when I get her up she can't last until the next round of EASY

Good luck for tomorrow when you get to do it all over again!

[LouiseV]

Can I reassure you too that I've noticed my wee man goes through phases like this - and if you stick to the feeding time (instead of feeding them when they awke up) and increase their awake time, it may just pass. It makes sense after a few changes in their life and routine too?
I just posted in naps too - I've had similar issues. I ended up giving up and just giving him 3 naps per day to try and get as much nap time in as possible and suddenly he just started (honestly out of nowhere) increasing the first 2 naps up to 1 1/2 hours. I would never have believed it.

[emgerson]

That's encouraging Louise,
At the moment some naps are short, some are long and yesterday afternoon he took 2 hours to fall asleep which meant he was up for 4 hrs straight and not very happy (mummy or baby)... it's all over the place which makes me hope that it's just a phase and it'll pass soon (wishfull thinking more like )

[LouiseV]

Something else I am doing is working to a timeframe (for my own sanity) so....I stick to good practises like not feeding to sleep, checking hes getting the right amount of awake time, all that stuff.....and then I'm just letting it all go until the new year. If he has short naps, but I've stuck to what I know is best, then so be it and I'll worry about it if its still an issue in the new year. I think taking the pressure off lets us sit back and watch a wee bit and let them re-adjust themselves without getting bad new habits.
I've heard that if you're still trying to get them to nap after 40 minutes just stop, go and play for 10-15 minutes, then try again. I've had to do this several times - I even repeat his naptime routine all over again - and it really helped me.
(I think after an hour or so they are OVER it and need to reset)....haha, me too!

[rblott]

I hear you lound an clear re the stepping back. I've decide to let DD have two short naps in the morning with the view to merging them over time by increasing the A time. Since I have eased off on the intervention (PU/PD & S/P) I have felt a lot less stressed. It is soul destroying to spend the best part of the day leaning over a cot in agony with a bad back! I also reduced DD's awake time a little, which although has not altered the 35 min nap has resulted in her staying in her cot for 1 hour semi conscious. Before she would wake fully and was a bit manic. She seems to get tired again after 45 mins, so I'm giving her a second nap. My plan is to increase the first A time over a period and then (hopefully) merge the two short naps. I have spent a lot of time theorising and strategising, but whether it works or not is anyone's guess.
Wish me luck

[LouiseV]

Oh I am doing exactly the same thing - its like you spend all your time investigaing, planning, re-strategising, theorising......and in the end all you're doing is standing over a cot in a dark room going shhh shh shh and feeling like you may as well be living in a cave.

I started laughing the other day while I was in his room.....I thought to myself by the time I'm finished up with all of this intervention he wont even be a baby anymore and would have just outgrown his current phase and we'll be onto toddler stuff......

[rblott]

You have to laugh, otherwise you'd cry.
The advice that came through on my original post was that DD needs to stay up later and that short naps are probably not the way to go ( http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=222125). It makes sense. It,s just such hard work being in here with DD all of the time. Then the times that DD is out of her cot, she is tired and cranky, so can't really be left. Not that I would ever leave her alone, but when she's happy I can put her on her play mat while I get on with a few chores. I can't even seem to do that anymore. Yesterday I didn't get dressed until 15:20!
I am writing this sitting outside her room poised for action. I went in after 25 mins, but she was already awake and rolling around. I tried to lay her down and give her a dummy, but she just pulled it out and beamed at me, so I left. I can hear her now rolling around and talking to herself. I'm waiting for her to squark so that I can try PU/PD.
Thank goodness DH is off work and can take some of the strain as this is driving me insane.

[LouiseV]

Hey again - well, I've been waiting for around 2 weeks now and my wee man has suddenly just started stretching those naps out.....occasionally if hes in a really deep sleep I go in after 22 minutes and nudge his shoulder and it has finally started helping him to start another sleep cycle (this technique never used to work for us before). Yesterday we had two 1 1/2 hour naps. Might be worth reading up on and trying instead? I had to experiment a LOT to get it to work but it finally seems to be doing the trick...

Oh I so know that feeling of not being without them for a second......and you know you'd be such a better mother if you just had a little space (those 2 hour sleeps people talk about!) but you never get that chance to!

I also found we ended up in "sleep debt" so for a week or so I had to give him 4 naps per day and I'd even rock him off to sleep in the end because he was so overtired that he wasn't going to achieve much anyway nap-wise. After a week, I started becoming more firm again and then trying the wake-to-sleep technique. I just hope this lasts!!!!