For two months we were having awful sleep issues with Carmela. She was waking early and then not napping. She wasn't really cranky that much, but you could tell she was constantly tired.
I contacted a sleep expert finally after her wake time started becoming earlier and earlier and the sleep expert told me to pick a bedtime and a nap time and stick with it. Instead of changing everything every week to try to fix the problem, to just stick with it. Try to make the bedtime between 6-8 p.m. and the nap between 11 p.m. and 1 p.m. and just do it consistently. If they wake at 4 a.m. or 7 a.m., keep that same nap time. I was, at the time, changing her naptime to the time she woke up. For example, if she woke up at 4 a.m. I was putting her down at 11 and if she woke up at 7 a.m. putting her down at 1 p.m. and this she said was not helping.
So for 3 days I did what she suggested. I made bedtime 7 p.m. and I made nap time 12 p.m. After 3 days she was sleeping until 6:30 a.m. (sometimes even longer) and napping for two hours. Perfect.
Well now we AGAIN are dealing with the early wake times and bad naps. And I realize now that she's teething. I talked to the sleep expert again about this and asked if I should put her in at 6:30 a.m. instead of 7 and she said to keep everything the same and as soon as her teeth are feeling better, she'll sleep again.
So I read so many posts asking for quick fix and I thought I'd just throw it out there to not try to do anything. Just continue your schedule through the sickness and teething and your baby will be fine in a few days hopefully. I'll let you know :wink:
