Looking for help for mom's of spirited babies !!!!!!!

[sbchic1999]

Hello,

I am pretty new to BW and need some help in the nap department.  I have a 10 month old who is a very good boy but also VERY spirited!    In the past we had a nap routine that involved him falling asleep in my arms and then sleeping in his crib for 1 1/4 hrs.  Then last Friday I started BW and trying to get him to sleep in his crib by going down for his nap awake.  BAD IDEA.  Now our naps are all screwed up, he is napping less and he gets so mad at me when we try to nap.  He is very active and thus tires himself out after 2 or 2 1/2 hrs of A time.  Our new routine is this: Swaddle (both arms out), read a book or two, sit and rock for a few minutes with me singing, off to his room with me still singing.  I put him in bed and he literally can barely keep his eyes open he is so tired but he instantly pops awake  and starts laughing, playing, crawling around, standing up, etc like he is not tired at all. THen I try to make him lay down and that really makes him mad!!!  So I need some advice here on what to do...   

[Deb_in_oz]

Good on you for making the switch to independent sleep - it can't be an easy decision to make 10 months in.  Most spirited lo need a very short / almost non existent wind down - i think you are drawing it out too much and actually winding him UP.  if i were you i woudl take him to his room when it is time and just change nappy/diaper, do the swaddle if you still need it, say night night (or some other form of good night that will be his signal every nap time) and put him to bed. if you want to sing a very short lullaby i would do that , but not drawing it out.  the whole thing should be about 1-2 min long and then you are getting him in bed before that point of exhaustion and OT.

[scorpionbec]

Hi there,

I feel for you I really do.  I was told about the Baby whisperer books about a month ago and my first born son was born almost three months ago so I was so lucky to have the chance to start early on. 

Having said that.  I was rocking and bouncing LO to sleep and on the chest sleeping was the most popular thing until LO was almost 2 months old.  I then tried to put LO into the cot on his own to sleep after reading the Baby whisperer and YES you guessed it he was not happy at all.  I would just start lowering him to the cot and he would be screaming already. 

I found that a lot of things helped me to rectify this situation.  Firstly, I know that you will have heard this a thousand times but I will repeat it.  Getting Malakai onto a EASY routine was the best thing ever.  He knows what to expect and when.  Secondly.  Ensure that your LO is getting sufficient food to keep him going.  I monitored what I was giving Malakai and noticed that a lot of the problem was he was not getting enough.  The fuller his belly was the more he could do in activity time and the better he slept.  Be careful not to overstimulate though.  Watch for cues of LO getting tired and act on them.  If it is earlier or later from the EASY routine that's ok just means that the nap might be shorter or longer.  Do not let LO nap for longer than 2 hours though otherwise it will rob the sleep time. Thirdly and more importantly the sleep/ nap thing.  Like I said earlier I would lower Malakai to the cot and he would scream.  It ended up taking about 2 days to fix this for me, It can take longer though.  As your LO is quite a bit older I would say that it could take up to a week or two.  When it came to nap time I would make sure that for 10 to 15 min before I tried to put him down for nap we would do things that would not over stimulate.  Like change nappy, have a little cuddle.  Very low key stuff.  I would then walk into his room stand next to the cot with him and if he was settled I would lower him into the cot.  He would scream so I would leave him in his cot for 1 min still standing there saying Mummy is here, It's just time for sleep in a calming voice over and over.  You can pat him at the same time I found this made it worse for my little one though so I would just put my hand on his back to show that I was there for him.  (my bubs will only sleep on his stomach so you may have your hand on his stomach if he sleeps on his back).  If he was still crying after a minute I would pick him up and the second he was settled again I would lower him and repeat.  If he did this for a whole nap time that was fine, he just missed out on that one.  I would just Feed and do activities as usual and try for the next nap time.  It is very time consuming but if you stick with it you will be rewarded with an angel sleeper.  I found that having a monkey soft toy in the cot that he would touch helped because it felt like my dressing gown and i slept with it for a couple of days first so it smelt of me too.  A dummy also is a comfort for him but if it falls out it does not bother him because this method has taught him to put himself back to sleep.  I now can go to friends places for the footy and walk him into a spare room, put him down for nap/sleep and he will hold his monkey suck his dummy and go straight to sleep.  Sometimes he will talk himself to sleep as much as a 3 month old can.  We are then able to watch the footy ball yelling and screaming at the TV and he won't even stir and if he does he is able to put himself to sleep again. 

Just to let you know.  I was not a fan of dummies but it is a comfort thing for him at night and he is not totally reliant on it so it has been a great thing in the end.  Malakai does not like a dummy unless he is going to sleep and if we don't have it he still will go to sleep fine it just takes a little longer for him to put himself to sleep and you hear him talking to himself a little more.

This has worked a gem.  Malakai sleeps from 1830 until 0630 without a single peep.  i do dream feed at 2200 but he does not stir. 

Let me know what you think and how it goes if you choose to give all this a go