short napping & rocking back to sleep *EASY posted* any tweaking help?

[okinawamama]

My 5.5mo old son has recently (with in the last 3 weeks) become a 35-40 minute napper.  I have also watched him during nap times and he goes from sleeping, to wide awake in the same second, so it's really hard to soothe him back down again. I've tried W2S with no success (and I mean never), as well as messing with A time, making it longer or shorter and I haven't had any change . He is a great sleeper at night, sleeps about 11-12hours straight.

In the past week or so on 2 occasions he has slept for about 1.5hours, and it seemed to be a fluke. I've kept a sleep journal and it appears that I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to make his nap any longer.

In the past two days I have continued to try and get him to sleep after his 35minute waking using shh/patt, but it hasn't worked. Well today, I pulled him out of his crib and rocked him and he slept for an additional 50minutes. I am wondering if I am creating a bad habit. He goes to sleep great on his own during the day. Most often we do our wind down, I lay him down in his crib and walk away and he'll fall asleep with very little fuss, sometime I might have to do a minute or t of shh pat, but that's it. Am I creating a prop by rocking him to sleep after his initial waking?

ANy other suggestions on what I can do to help us through this transition. I really feel that longer naps are developmental but if there is anything I can do to help him figure out how to nap longer, I'd love to!

[~Emma~]

Hey hun,

Hugs on the short naps. Maybe you could post what your day generally looks like and perhaps someone could help you tweak your routine?

 I personally think that if you routinely AP back to sleep you are making a rod for your own back. Although we have all done it! If he has recently napped past that point then he CAN do it, perhaps try going into his room about 5-10 mins before he wakes and quietly shushing him whilst applying gentle pressure to help him get himself back to sleep.

Emma xxx

[Don]

Hi,

I understand your problem on the short naps. I did rocking back as well and I was told not to do it, bc it will take away the abilty of the baby to fall back asleep on his own. My DS already did it twice. He woke at 30 min and slept back. Once for a whole hour and once for another 15 min. So my suggestion is leave him alone for another 20 -30 min and hope that he sleeps back. If not get him up so he can have some A time.

What I am trying to say it is very tempting, but it is def not the way to go, specially if your LO goes down on its own.

Hopefully things get better.

Don

[okinawamama]

Here is my schedule, due to the 40 minute naps, he's taking about 3 naps and his A time lasts for about 2-2.5hrs. I'd LOVE ANY and ALL advice.

I have tried lengthening the awake time and shortening it and haven't found a change. I have not done PU/PD do you think that it would work in our situation. He wakes from his naps happy and talking, and I usually leave him in there for at least and additional 15-20 minutes after waking.



7am wake
E7:15 8oz bottle
A 7:15-8:15
E8:15 solids
S 9:9-45
A
E10:30
A
E 11:30 solids
A
S 12-12:45
A
E 2:00
A
S 3:00-3:45
A
E 4:30 solids
A
E 5:30 6oz
A
6:20 bathtime
6:45 bedtime bottle and sleep until about 7

Also, someone I was talking to last night (who is a big believer n Ferber) thinks that my son is sleeping too much at night and therefore his naps are short. Is that a possibility?

Also, yesterday he had two long naps (1st nap was 2 hours, second 1.5) however his nightime sleep was bad. He usually sleeps straight through and he woke up twice (not bad I know), and if good napping is going to cause his night sleep to be bad, I'd rather deal with short naps and have longer nights

[okinawamama]

So, does anyone see where I might need some tweaking? I'd love any suggestions

[~Emma~]

 Hi,

  If I were to give any advice it would be to maybe up your 1st A and see what kind of nap you get then but I'm kinda stumped by the fact that the day you got good naps he woke at night. 

When he did wake in the night when was it? Was he upset or just babbling? Could it have been anything else...teeth perhaps?

 Saying that I looked back on Brodie's days when he was that age and we were pretty much the same....until we dropped the catnap. How is he during the day on those A's? How does he go down for naps?  What was your A time when you got the good naps?

 Sorry for all the questions,

Emma xxx

[okinawamama]

I have lengthened it, but still get the same 38-40 min, but I'll re-try the longer A time next week. Thanks for the suggestion!

When he woke up at night he cried for about 3 minutes, settled himself and went back to sleep. Then he was up at 3:30 talking, playing in the crib, like it was time to get up. I let him play/cry for about 30 minutes, and then went and fed him and he slept until 7:30.

When he wakes from his short naps, he's completely happy and plays/talks for at least 10-15 minutes in his crib. Since he's happy, do you think that's as long of a nap as he needs....surley not right? During his awake time he's happy, but occasionally will rub his eyes while playing. He goes down really easy after our wind down routine, I lay him down,walk away and he talks himself to sleep falls or MAYBE a couple of minutes of fussing.

THanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

[Don]

Thanks for the post for me. I know I can get pretty obsessive when I want something. i.e. longer sleep for DS. My MIL is coming on Sunday so I think she will help me to relax a little.

Just wanted to say, try to figure out the first A time and your first nap should be nice and long. Today I had a nice long nap in the morning and that is all I want and I have usually two short ones that is it.

I can not really help with the time, but try different ones.

Let us know how it goes.

Don

[~Emma~]

 Hows it going? xxx

[okinawamama]

FANTASTIC! first nap he went down at the 2hr 45min mark and he slept for 2 whole hours!!!!! We ran errands and he was very alert and happy. We are just now finishing lunch and we'll start the wind down routine in about half an hour and see how it goes.

How encouraging. Even if he doesn't do it on his second nap I know he can, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

THanks for asking!

[~Emma~]

YAY!!!! Excellent update. 

[okinawamama]

well, we're kind of back to square one, but I know he CAN do it, so I know one of these days all will be well in our little napping world!

I was wondering, due to the messing of the awake time we're ending up with naps ending at a weird time. If my son wakes from his last nap around the 2-2:30 time frame what should I do. Put him to bed crazy early, like 5-5:30? He needs to be up at least 3 hours after his last nap prior to being put down for bed or else he lays and plays and then fusses and winds up and has a really hard time settling, so putting him down for a cat nap around 4ish doesn't really work.

[okinawamama]

Also, after looking back at our sleep journal it seems that he takes  a great first nap if his previous night was bad. I know that the first nap is a continuation of night sleep so it kind of makes sense. Anyway,  knowing that, do you think that he's just not tired enough to sleep well during his naps?

[~Emma~]

Hi there,

 When you are doing the 3-2 transition with naps there will still be some days when you will do 3 naps and some days when you'll do 2 and a super early bedtime, you just have to call it as you see it on that score I think. 

 Most LO's have a bit of regression when you are trying something new, I think they do it to try us!!  You have to keep plugging away at it.

 How long is his 1st nap generally for in the morning? The only thing you can really do is up the A and give it a shot of you think he's UT for his nap. Do it slowly though...otherwise you'll get a visit from the OT monster!!! Just try maybe 5-10 mins of extra A but keep it qiuet, kinda like a longer wind down iyswim.

 Emma xxx

[okinawamama]

his first nap is usually 40 minutes, but if he wakes in the middle of the night (which he rarely does) he'll take a two hour long nap.

I'll try extending his awake time to the full three hours and see how it goes.

Thanks for all your help!