Author Topic: A little confused about how to push wake times  (Read 1506 times)

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Offline Joanteng22

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A little confused about how to push wake times
« on: August 26, 2013, 22:46:39 pm »
Hello! I'm new here but have found a ton of useful info from all the moms and dads here. I have a question about my 9 month old. He's a super sensitive sleeper. He can fall asleep on his own for nights. For naps, he's being patted to sleep but even before our vacation/teething interruptions, he still woke up mid nap and sometimes would go back to sleep on his own and sometimes wouldn't. He HAS taken an hour plus nap before but the wake time has to be just right! I think he's ready for some more wake time but am wondering how I should push it? Here's his schedule in general.

6:30 - wake up, bottle, play, solids
9:10- 11:00 - nap 1 (37 min. And I spent some time getting him to go back to sleep)
Actual time asleep was 37m + 40m
11:00 - wake up, bottle solids, play
2:15 -4:00- nap 2 (31 m, spent time putting him back to sleep)
Actual time asleep was 31m + 42m + 30m)
4:00 - wake up, bottle, play, dinner, bath, bedtime routine
7:15/7:30- bedtime

Id say about 30-60 min. A day is getting this guy To go back to sleep. I think he might be able to do a long morning awake time since he woke up at 37 m and it tooke awhile to get him
Back to sleep. Should I only push the first wake time by 10 min and then hold the 2nd nap around 3 h or 3h15m?  Then keep doing this till his firss nap lengthens and then start pushing the 2nd and 3rd? Or do I push all waketimes and then do an early bedtime if OT?

Thanks and bless you if you read this whole thing! :)

Offline Ima shel Alon

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2013, 12:48:40 pm »
Hi and welcome to BW!

You are right, it defo sounds like he needs more A time and I think the reason he wakes so early from his naps are because of that. I would work on pushing both A times gradually, by 10min every 3-4 days till you get longer naps (1.5h minimum).
If you get 2 short naps and you might because that often happens when increasing A times then I would do an EBT. If not I would still keep BT at the same time and have the last A time rather short, that works for many babies.
You just need to bare in mind that many babies this age start to cap one of their naps because otherwise it's too much day sleep for them, and if they don't do it then sometimes we need to do it for them :).

How long it's been now that you are settling after short naps? Could it be that it's a bit of a prop? That he doesn't manage to go through sleep cycles because he knows mommy will come and help him? And could it be that you are rushing too fast? Maybe he will self settle if he has the chance?
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Offline Joanteng22

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2013, 14:07:33 pm »
Thank you so much! I definitely think I need to push it now b/c he woke up at 3am and played around for close to an hour. He had less overnight sleep-only 10 hours- so I'm going to try to push to 2h50m today and see how this first nap goes. I'll gauge the 2nd nap b:c we've been doing more of a 3 hour wt when the it at nap is short but 3h15m after a good nap hasn't necessarily yielded heat results but I wonder if that's because of the timing if get first nap isn't where it should be.

He has gone back to sleep on his own as well as taken an hour long nap here and there but Ed I do think I've become a prop which why I think we need to retrain.

Thank you so much for your support and I'll come back to update!

Offline Joanteng22

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2013, 16:58:46 pm »
I pushed him to 2h50m and he went down without crying. I put him down suuuuuuuper drowsy and fussed the rest of the way to sleep. He still woke up at 40m though. It was easier to get an extension out of him though. Yesterday at 2h40m A, it took 20+ min to get him to go back to sleep. Today he went back to sleep in about 10 min. I think I'm going to try to push him as close to 3h as possible tomorrow before his first nap and see if he can handle it.

So I'm not sure when to put him down from his second nap. I'm going to cap this extension at 40-45 m (that's probably all he will do anyways).  Should I stick to 3h15m or push for more?

Offline Ima shel Alon

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2013, 14:40:13 pm »
If you offered 2:50h A time today and it's more than he usually does then I would stick with that for two more days to prevent OT and only then push to 3h. Even 3h could be quite short at his age so I would give on pushing gradually till you get better naps and certainly till catty NW are gone.
If you offered 3:15h A time after the morning nap then I would offer that for the next 3 days and then start increasing it to 3:25h. If he gives you a short nap in the morning then maybe 3h A time?
What I did actually at this age as the day didn't fit anymore and I couldn't just keep on pushing the second nap more and more because it was too close to BT - I just set it at a certain time that was enough A time from the first nap to fall asleep but also gave enough A time before BT (not full, but enough to make him tired), and then the nap was also just 45min.
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Offline Joanteng22

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2013, 22:34:20 pm »
I stuck to your advice and will stick to 2h50 min for another day or two before he's comfortable with it. He woke at 36m for a min and want back to sleep for 6m and woke up crying. He was def still tired and I got an extension. I limited his nap to 1 hour though. I went back to look at my logs and found that anytime he slept for more than an hour in the morning, he tended to not sleep as well his 2nd nap. For his 2nd nap I stuck to 3h20m A and he slept for 34m, woke up and cried for a min or so, and went back to sleep. Again he woke at 6m but I have his butt a few pats and he went to sleep. At 9/10m he had another big jolt where I patted his butt. Still waiting for him to wake up. Ideally he'd do a total of 1.5 hr here, wake up at 4 and have a 7:30 BT but I'm pretty sure he's going to wake up before that. We'll see. So I'm going to hold at these wake times like you said before I push that first wt again. Thank you. It's so helpful to get some feedback as we are struggling through this!

Offline Ima shel Alon

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2013, 11:38:20 am »
IIWY I would let him sleep the first nap and complete a restorative nap of 1.5h. Then would offer a full A time before second nap and see how long he wants to sleep (only some babies need the second nap capped, some still need 2 full naps).
If you insist on capping the first nap then I wouldn't offer such a long A time before the second nap.
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Offline Joanteng22

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2013, 22:58:35 pm »
Hi! Sorry it's been a few days but I've been so tired I haven't posted. 

So this is what he's been doing

5-5:30 - wakeup, try to get an extension b/c he started crying within 15-20 min. If he's well rested, he usually can play for 30+ min in his crib with no crying.

7am - I'll wake him up from whatever extension we were able to get

10 -11 am  nap 1 (the most he'll sleep for this one is 1h15m but I've been capping it at 1 hr so his 2nd nap isn't too late)

2:20 -4pm - nap 2 he's been sleeping about 1.5-1.75 hours but I've capped it at 4 pm.

7:30 - bedtime

So his A times are 3/3h20m/3h30m. Naps around at about 2.5 hrs. Nightsleep has not been more than 10.5 hrs. I know the extension I'm doing might not be helping the situation, but not sure what to so if he wakes up at 5:30 am. So I do a nap at 8:30??

I also read on the nap board that early morning wakeups are generally caused by too long of a morning nap and/or not enough waketime before nap 1. I'm willing to try to push his wt like you sugg to 3h15m for that first nap but want to hold steady here at 3h for a couple more days for 1st wt.

By the way I've been encouraging him to self settle these past two days and trying to pat him if he wakes mid transition with no PU or holding. Today was the first day he slept straight through his naps without needing to be resettled!

Offline Ima shel Alon

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Re: A little confused about how to push wake times
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2013, 16:52:39 pm »
Today was the first day he slept straight through his naps without needing to be resettled!
That' great!

I really think he needs more than 3h A time and I believe the EW are connected to that.


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