nap times and wind down?

[lazfam]

DS is 3 months..almost 14 weeks. I think the average awake time is 1.5 hours, yes? Does that include the feeding time, and wind down time? so if he ate at 7, you'd bring him in for his wind down at 8:15 and then asleep at 8:30...I mean, not exactly to the minute, but that is the idea? His cues are REALLY hard for me to read. Also, I find we still do not have a nice WD routine. I'll bring him in, change his diaper, draw the drapes and turn on his white noise machine...at which point, I'll TRY to hold him, rock a little give him his paci and lovey and rock a bit. 9 out of 10 times he starts to struggle against me, spit out his paci and I'm not really sure what to do. I try to calm him down, but the more I try the more angry his cry becomes. So, I put him in his crib, and he calms down a little bit, but then we have this crying to sleep thing and I don't want him to hate his crib. I'm just so confused. I would think he'd like some gentle time with me. But, I'm tempted to change his diaper, draw the blinds and just put him right down and maybe sing gently for a couple minutes there? Thoughts? Thanks!

[Jiinx]

hmm I think I can count the number of times my dd went to sleep without crying. She cries when she's ut AND ot so it's hard for me to read her. Does he start to less active towards the end of his A time? rub his eyes? Bury himself in your chest? I know when my dd has had enough when I try to show her a mirror and she just turns away. Sometimes, she's not ready and literally needs a couple of minutes of looking around before I put her down. I take her into her room, turn on the white noise..hold and sway with her for a little while until she rests her head on my shoulder. Put her on the bed, sing tinkle tinkle little star while swaddling her. Hold her for a bit ..if her eyes start dropping I put her down right away and she goes to sleep. Sometimes she's not ready and I pat her gently for a few minutes and that does the trick. oops dd waking up..bbl

[becky1969]

You may have either a spirited or touchy little soul.  They can find too much cuddling intrusive rather than relaxing.  Absolutely follow those cues and just put in crib and sing or whatever you want to do.  You can also extend your wind down a bit by taking baby around the room to say night-night to familiar objects.  This is a nice way to lengthen out the process when they aren't into rocking -- it has you saying 'night-night' over and over and they begin to associate those words with sleeping and calming down.

1h30 may be a tad long.  I might try 1h20 or 1h25 and see how those go over.  1h30 is more towards the end of the 3rd month.  At this age 5-10 minutes can make all the difference.  Also watch those yawns.  They can be hard to miss! At this age I always really started watching for the yawns at about the 1h mark.  As soon as I saw the first one we started our wind down and it worked out that by yawn #2 he was in bed, and that way we never got to yawn #3 which is the exiting sleep window yawn!

And you are absolutely right about the A time -- it is inclusive of feeds etc.  It is simply the moment their eyes open until the moment eyes close again for sleep.


As for the crying, some babies need that to wind down.  You must remember babies have no other ways to express themselves.  They can't even control their hands, so it's not like they can really suck on their fingers or hold a lovey to soothe.  You should see those soothing cries start to decrease, esp. over the next month I suspect.  If you're not using a paci you may try introducing ones.  Touchies esp. really need that sucking to soothe themselves.  Don't worry about it becoming a prop.  If you only use it at sleep periods it is simply a way for the child to soothe themselves when no other methods are available.

[lazfam]

thanks ladies...you know, I've tried shorter A times, longer A times, A times by the clock. I've tried each for well over 2 weeks. I've sat there and watched him for the first yawn and picked him up and immediately started his wind down. Even if it's only 45 minutes from when he woke. I get the same results no matter what I do. This boy does NOT nap longer than 40 minutes until I've got him in a sling and he's sleeping on me. In that case, he sleeps for about 1 hr and 10 min. I really don't know how to extend his nap times beyond this. I'm truly at a loss for what to do! Also, is it possible to have a baby that is on a 3-3.5 hr EASY eat cycle, and a 4 hr EASY sleep cycle? ...like he wants to eat more frequently, but not sleep more frequently. I'm seriously wondering if I just have a power catnapper baby? Is that possible? BTW, he's 15 weeks now...