Question about the holding through the jolt method

[JLMom]

I was reading this and have some questions.. see below the article

This is an excellent post from Heather10. It describes how to a modified wake to sleep approach.. which can help some young infants get past the 45 min. mark of their sleep.

"When you extend the awake time in 15 min increments, you are changing your EASY from a 3 hour to a 4 hour which is typical for most 4 month olds. If you are already there, and doing the 4 hour EASY with 45 min naps, you might try pre-empting the waking by:

Going in at the 35 min mark and waiting for the jolt. The beginning of the rise from deep sleep happens at about the 38 minute mark, so if you are there at the 35 you will catch it. Prepare to spend 20-45 mins in the room the first few times you do this. I started it today and it is already working. Get comfy, perhaps on a stool or standing by the crib and gently place your hands on your babys upper arms while she is swaddled. You are basically providing some pressure so that when/if she jolts, your pressure will prevent a startle awakening. If baby opens her eyes, use one hand to hold her arms and the other to shield her eyes with your hand. If the room is really dark you may be able to avoid the eye-part. Otherwise, maintain this position until baby falls back into deep sleep again. You will notice her breathing quicken when she comes out of sleep and she may grunt, life her legs and roll her head side to side. If you use a paci, you can insert it, but don't do so before she opens her mouth for it. Shoving a paci in there when not requested can actually wake her up more. Follow her cues for paci or out. You may put it in and she will close her eyes, rest and spit it out (keep holding her arms) and then suddenly seem like she needs it again - put it back and continue being careful not to let her come out of sleep due to jolts or wanting that paci - it can feel like a juggling act

The first time it may take her 20-30 mins to fall back into a deep sleep, but if you continue this for all naps, you will see that the time it takes her to fall back shortens and this means you will spend less and less time at the cribside.

We've been short napping for 5 weeks now and today had 3 naps of 1.5 hours each and a catnap of 45 min I feel like I have my life back!

Now, if you do all of this and baby is still waking up at the 45, not going back, eyes pop open and yet she is alert and HAPPY, this is likely her biorythym. If she wakes up cranky then you know that she needs more sleep. You can, if you like, try for 10-15 mins to get her back to sleep and then if that fails, take her out, do quiet activity for another 10-15 mins or so and then you may notice her getting sleepy again - right back to sleep then!

Essentially, this will be a broken nap with some A time in the middle. It will then seem like EASASE in the cycle. You might do this for a while before you can get the *going in early* part to work, but then it can be smooth sailing! "

It may take a few days to get used to this approach. With any strategy, it's best to stick it out, instead of just trying it once and abandoning it. Generally, most young infants will short nap and have difficulty entering the next sleep cycle. It's one of those developmental blips. In my experience, I have found most young short napping infants, need support to enter the next sleep cycle. Between the 5th and 6th month, they need less support.

All infants will awake at the 45 min. mark. It's biology.

One last thing.. remember, teaching independent sleep is a learning process. It takes time, patience and lots of support in the beginning. Once an infant knows how to fall asleep independently (which is half the battle right there!) then it's easier to learn how to stay asleep past the first sleep cycle.

Hope this helps!

Questions:

1) When we initially put her down, do we do ssh-pat and then hold her for 20 minutes?  Then do we have to go back in just before 40 minutes and hold her down through the transition?  So that could mean holdin her 2x through the sleep period for 40 minutes.  In our case we can put her down do a few minutes of ssh-pat and be able to leave.  She'll then either take a 30 or 40 minute nap.  Its the transition we have trouble with.  So when exactly do we have to hold her for 20-30 minutes? 
2) My DH wants to know what happens when her eyes pop right open and wakes totally.  Can you remove her from the crib, hold her briefly to calm her, put her back and then continue to hold her for 20 minutes?

[becky1969]

If she goes to sleep with shush/pat initially and stays asleep for 30 minutes or more then you're done.  NO holding necessary.  You'll just go back at the jolting phase to hold down.

If her eyes pop open, you;ll want to continue applying gentle pressure to see if she'll go back to sleep.  Only proceed to soothing methods if she starts to cry seriously (fussing ignore, she may just be mantra crying and trying to go back to sleep).  At that point, you *can* take her out and soothe if you need to , do shush/pat, whatever nap extention methods you usually employ.


When I did this technique with my son, his eyes popped open the first 3-4 times I tried the technique.  First couple of times he just woke fully and I had to take him out of the crib.  But the other couple of times he ended up going back to sleep.  so, you just have to be patient and see what LO is going to do!  This technique tends to be progressive -- in other words, at first it will seem like nothing is happening.  But each time you apply the technique you'll make just a little more progress until your LO starts going back to sleep on their own.

[JLMom]

Thank you.. you have given me hope!
Now, when she jolts and awakes she doesn't cry she just starts looking around.. if this continues (looking around, not crying) can we take her out of her crib and try holding her to see if she'll go back?

We had some moderate success today using the routine.  Instead of 6 30 or 40 minute naps we had 3 50 minute, 2 30 minute and a 40 minute nap... it's step in the right direction right??

[JJshappymum]

After I read this post, I tried the tecnique and the first time I had to stay with my LO the rest of his nap because he woke up and was crying. At the second nap all I had to do was apply gentle pressure for 20 minutes. He opened his eyes but I stayed out of sight while applying the pressure and he slowly closed them again after a while. I didn't pick him up this time. He has now been sleeping for 1 h 30 minutes!!! Yeah, finally.

Hope this helps

[aurora2711]

Hi,

I've just started trying this technique with my LO too with some success so far - have a look at my post 'A' Time confusion.

Let's hope it works for all of us!