Eyes open during nap

[goldmom]

DS started with a new babysitter last week for most of the day (his old babysitter moved away), so we've been going through an adjustment period with him. Last Friday he skipped his nap, which made him completely crazy (OT) when I picked him up, but he made up for it by taking two 1.5 hour naps on Saturday (wow!). He's been back to normal napping this week, but... today the babysitter said she put him down at 12:30 and every time she looked in on him his eyes were open, so he didn't sleep, but was very quiet. After an hour he saw her looking in, so he got up. At the end of the day, he seemed mostly ok (not overtired like on Friday when he wouldn't even lie down without crying).

Usually he naps for around 2 hours, but I don't look in on him to see if his eyes are closed (the babysitter mentioned that the other days his eyes were closed during the nap).

I told the babysitter to just leave him in his crib during naps if he is quiet for the entire 2 hours and it doesn't matter if he closes his eyes or not. But it totally threw me, is he sleeping then, or is lying down good enough.

Any thoughts?

[Emami]

I know some people do sleep with their eyes open.  I have a friend who does, but they're open a crack and only the whites of the eyes show.  It's kinda creepy!  You can still tell shes asleep though, its more like the eyelids don't fully close.  But I would think if his eyes are wide open he's probably awake?   

[cath~]

I agree - sounds like he's probably still awake.  But lying down having 'quiet time' like that is obv better than just being up.

Where he is napping at the babysitters, is it lighter than he is used to or more noisy at all?  Could that be preventing him from nodding off?

I'd watch out for OT and do EBT if it doesn't seem like he slept.

[goldmom]

DS wasn't acting very OT last night, only like he had slept for 1 hour instead of 2. (He had a great night and woke for the day at 6:30 which is in the range of usual). DH thinks it could have just been that everytime the babysitter came to check on him he heard and opened his eyes, but closed them as soon as she left, even if he wasn't looking at her.

I do notice sometime when I wake him after a long nap that when I open the door to his room, he's just lying there with his eyes open - staring off, and he slowly turns to me as though he is just waking up.

I try not to go into his room during nap time so as not to wake him up with noise, but at night he is definitely sleeping with his eyes shut.

[Joy-filled]

During the night (especially in the early morning) my DS will have his eyes open for long periods of time but won't move an inch for 20-40 min at a time.  I'd see him on the video monitor and wonder how he could be sleeping if his eyes are open but yet how could he be awake and not move for such a long time.  I thought he must be awake but I just found this article which clearly explains that some babies can sleep with their eyes open.  My guess is that this is what your DS is doing too!  I don't know how to insert a website so you can just cut and paste this:

http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-normal-for-my-baby-to-sleep-with-her-eyes-open_3652525.bc?scid=momsbaby_20130820:2&pe=MlVCRU56dXwyMDEzMDgyMA..

HTH!