More questions about w2s

[Bori21]

Hi there

I'm a 2m11d old boy's mom who's suddenly having trouble with his naps. By saying trouble, I mean he takes 40m of every nap!!! Lacking of nap time brings me a cranky imsoniac baby at night and of course I have no time for myself, all day!!

I read about wake to sleep and holding through the jolts methods to extend naps and apply them but nothing changed. Actually, I'm a little confused about the timing as it's quite hard for me to know the exact moment when he starts falling asleep so I have to set the time from the moment he starts taking deep sleep. So please help me with these:
- Sleep cycle is the first 10m of Rem then 20m of nonREM and last 10m REM or first 20m of REM and last 20m of nonREM?
- w2s is to break their 1st sleep cycle, make them not know where they have been and start sleeping all ovler again; or to help them get through the transition?
- w2s is just to make them stir/turn head/sigh... or stop their deep sleep and start a light sleep (a new cycle)? Because I did everything to rouse my baby and he did stirred, but his eyelids didnt move which meant he was still in deep sleep then no gain.
Thank you so much!

[creations]

Hello and welcome to BW forums

There are different methods of W2S depending on the age of your baby and what works best for him.  In case you haven't seen this I'll link it:
How do I address habitual wakings? (wake-to-sleep and other methods)

For your LO I would recommend the method (naps option 1 in the link) where you go in and begin shush/pat at 30 mins to help him get through the transition between sleep cycles.  You might need to continue for 20 mins until he is again in deep sleep before stopping. The idea is to help before he fully wakes, it is often easier to extend the nap with a LO who is still sleepy, and at the same time remind LO that he is supposed to take a longer nap rather than wake up.
You might find you need to do a few rounds of this.  Try 3 days then hold off day 4 and see what happens. If he wakes you need to try to resettle him again and then continue another round of W2S for the next 3 days, hold off again the next day.  This gives you a chance to see what happens as W2S is not intended to become a prop.

The method where you disturb LO to kick start a new cycle is generally more useful for older LOs.

Whilst I'm here I will mention that if naps have suddenly gone shorter it can be he is ready for a longer Activity time.  Here is a guide for A times, every LO is different of course this is only guidance:
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
It may be that you are running on a 1hr or 1hr 15 min A time when LO is ready for 1hr 20 or 1hr 30.  The slightly longer A time can help him to be tired enough to transition alone again.

I hope this helps. Please let us know how you get on

[Bori21]

Thank u for your instant reply. Actually I trỉed the option 1 but as I said, it's a little confused for me to define when he starts to fall asleep. So I guess I will try again and set the timer 20m after he goes to a deep sleep because the deep sleep lasts 20m. Is it ok?

[creations]

You said he is taking 40 mins naps, so when are you timing that from?
Does he go to sleep after you have left the room so you are not sure of the time?

I would just go back in 30 mins later.

[Bori21]

40m is what I estimate but I guess ai need to be exact when is the moment to start doing patting him then...

One more thing, I'm following easy 4 for my LO but cecause he keeps taking catnap all day so he cant be awake for more than 1h. He gives so many cues like yawning, rubbing his eyes, moaning... If I try to extend his waking time, he's gonna be overtired and  it'll be very hard to make him go to sleep. What should I do and could u plz suggest some activities at his age for me? Thank u so much

[creations]

In the BW book Tracy says to keep Lo up and awake to extend A times, doing a fan dance if necessary
Often you can delay a nap by 10 or 15 mins just by cuddling (not too comfortably though) and a song or walking around the house talking about different things which are around.  A 2 month old doesn't "do" a great deal but they like to make eye contact and be talked to or sung to, he might hold a toy or like one of those activity mat type things...not too long or he can become over stimulated but mine loved an activity "gym" type thing which had a thing I could position over it with toys hanging down. He would get upset with too many toys hanging from it so I reduced down to one toy and this worked well. Then a couple of days later I'd change the toy.  He soon started kicking in the air trying to kick one of them which would make music when it was kicked/hit.

If your LO was previously doing longer naps the short naps can be due to UT and although he looks tired after 1hr the slightly longer A time can help him to get a better sleep and overall become more rested.  You can even increase by 5 mins per day if you prefer - increase every day this way until you are up to 1hr 20 or 1hr 30.  You can take up 5 extra minutes just being slow with the nappy change tbh, if he fusses just say "yes, I know you are tired, I am taking you to bed soon, just getting you clean first".

Don't worry too much about the timing of W2S, it is not precise. you can go in at 30 mins and hover with a hand to observe the transition if you like and begin patting then...or just start at roughly 30 mins, based on your estimate even if you don't know the exact time.  W2S will work much better with a tired baby, not so well with and UT baby.

hth - keep us posted

[Bori21]

Thank you so so much  I will try and tell you the result after a few days. Hope this works.

Once again, thank you

[creations]

You are very welcome