Author Topic: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?  (Read 2051 times)

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Offline Nora2kids

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Hi,
I have been using the BW methods for my 11week old DD and we struggle with A times and short naps (sometimes DD sleeps 2hrs, sometimes only 45 or less, this is why I think it is an A time issue). I would like to put her back to sleep after waking from a short nap and based on the  book I should shh pat (or only shh as this has been working better so far). My 'issue' is that when She wakes up she either  starts chatting or just lays calm in the cot, or is looking around but not being fussy or grumpy, just yawning and rubbing her eyes. I am not sure if I should start shh-ing at this point. If I go to her cot and she catches sight of me she starts to smile with full mouth and all her hands and legs start to move with excitement. So I guess my presence is not helping. Any suggestion how to act in such cases and how to stetch these naps? Should I wait patiently until she starts fussing?
Thanks a lot!!!

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2018, 12:19:18 pm »
Hello and welcome to BW forums :)

If your LO is not crying for you or calling out for you (this is a sound which you know means come get me even though she is not crying hard, it is not the sound of babbling to herself) then you can totally leave her to it. In some cases when they are young like this they will stay awake a while and then decide to drift back off to sleep, which is great as this is self soothing and will help a lot if LO wakes in the night but isn't hungry, she'll learn how to just go back to sleep.  So, yes, wait patiently.

Having said that, waking up at 45 mins and being happy is often a sign of being UT (under tired) it could be she needs a little more A time as you have suspected.  The longer naps may be coming with a build up of tiredness over the day or week meaning she eventually gets a 2hr nap.  Or she might be having a different level of stimulation prior to the 2 hr naps which is making her more tired.
You didn't say what A time she is on now but you could probably try an additional 10 mins.

Another useful method is W2S (wake to sleep) which involves starting your shush/pat (or adapted) before she fully wakes, here's a link:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=223809.0
This can help LO stay more sleepy and move into the next sleep cycle rather than fully waking and babbling or chatting.  It can help LOs learn to nap longer as a habit.
You do this in cycles, do 3 days then hold off on day 4 to see what happens.

hope this helps


Offline Nora2kids2

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2018, 07:55:14 am »
Thank you for the Quick response!
Yesterday was quite a good day as she took 2 good naps (1.5hr and 2hr) and also this morning she napped 1hr 20mins after a 1hr7m A.
A times are the following: I take her to her room at around 55mins A as she starts yawning at that time. We have a 5mins wind down (singing a song, and saying goodbye to things) then I put her into the cot and she falls asleep on her own in 5-15mins (I can't calculate this, as this period really varies). So altogether from opening her eyes until closing is somewhere between 1hr7m -1hr25mins. I think I miss her wake up times sometimes as she tends to lay in the bed silently and is just looking around or is playing with her hands (left finds the right and together they find the mouth) so by the time she makes a noise I hear she may already be up for 5 mins.

I guess this is a trial and error experiment :) .

thanks!!!



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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2018, 09:51:23 am »
So altogether from opening her eyes until closing is somewhere between 1hr7m -1hr25mins.
This is fine. As she is getting a little older now I'd aim fro more of the 1hr 25 rather than the 1hr 7...although yes I know you can't predict the exact time she nods off.  With 1hr 25 the short naps are less likely.

Are you having problems getting on the forum? I see you needed to join again with a different name. Let us know if there is a problem.


Offline Nora2kids2

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2018, 07:40:11 am »
Hello,

Re: access to the forum: I forgot my password and the password reminder email just didn't arrive to my mailbox (checked in spam, too), so I decided to reregister.

We still try to get the best A time. Good News is that even with the couple of shorter naps during the day (we had days when only one nap was 1.5hr long, the rest was 45m), she had a decent night sleep.  She slept through last night, so I am sooo happy!! (I guess she was able to get enough food during the day to miss the 3am feed - she is on BF).

One question in case I can't find the good A time to get a long nap: Do you suggest decreasing the next A time in case she has a 1.5hr morning nap and then a 45m nap?

thanks for the help!!

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2018, 09:46:36 am »
One question in case I can't find the good A time to get a long nap: Do you suggest decreasing the next A time
This can go either way to be honest.
If you put in a full A time LO can become OT (having had a short nap then long A time) which can make her grumpy or cause a shorter next nap (eg OT nap of 20 mins although often easier to resettle and get back to sleep) but it can also help to maintained or establish the routine and could even encourage better napping again.
If you reduce the A time after a short nap you will avoid OT and LO may be happier, but this can also lead to another short (UT) nap and then the cycle continues of short nap, short A.
It's actually personal preference what you choose to do.  There are examples in the book of Tracy trying to resettle a nap right up to (or close to) the end of nap time (45 min nap 45 min resettle but LO doesn't sleep) she then gets them up and follows it with a full or almost full A time.  This means it is particularly long but LO is more likely to sleep train and get back on track.  it's pretty hard work though!  Many people prefer to go with the flow a bit more, go a bit gentler and count the A from the end of the short nap, do a full A or just slightly reduced.
As a suggestion you could go for a 1hr 15 A time after a short nap, counting from when she woke rather than when the nap should have ended.

Amazing she slept through the night - I bet you enjoyed that :)
Lots of growth spurts etc to come though so don't get too comfortable ;)


Offline Nora2kids2

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2018, 17:51:24 pm »
Hello,

The last couple of days I tried to stretch the A times a little but received mixed results.
I realized that is is possible to put her back to sleep after a 10 mins or 20 mins short nap but it is almost impossible after a 45mins nap :(
 Last week there were 2-3 days when she napped 2-2.5 hrs once a day ( one was after 1h30m A the other was 1h40m A then 30mins S Followed by A time of 50 mins and then she napped more than 2 hrs). The rest of the naps were 45 mins or 1 hr long.
She is a very cute but tricky baby as she tends to stay silent in her cot playing with her hands so I don’t know when exactly she woke from the nap ( or in the morning) only if I look at her every 5 mins.
So far the little chaotic days haven’t impacted the nights (1 NW between 2-4am and WU between 6-7am). Should I go for a longer A time and see what happens? Based on the last 2-3 days she gets cranky around 1h10-1h15 A time and falls asleep in 5-15mins.


Thanks!!

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2018, 19:06:38 pm »
I realized that is is possible to put her back to sleep after a 10 mins or 20 mins short nap but it is almost impossible after a 45mins nap
45 min naps tend to be UT. I would try a slightly longer A time, maybe 10 mins longer



Offline Nora2kids2

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2018, 21:27:23 pm »
Ok, will go for a 10mins A increase then. I keep my fingers crossed  ;)

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2018, 08:02:02 am »
Hi
The last 2-3 days we experimented with 1h30m A time, but it seems too long, as I got 30mins naps and it took more time than usual for her to fall asleep + she was cranky during the process, I had to help her with shshing and stroking her forehead . I tried to shh her back to sleep resulting additional 10-15 mins sleep and then wake up.
Fortunately, this morning after 1h35m A (in cot at 1h20m expecting 5-10mins to fall asleep but it took 20mins for her so ended up at 1h35m A) I succedded putting her back to sleep : I tried W2S (stirring her) at 25mins S but she still woke at 30mins. Shshing and stroking forehead helped her fall back to sleep pretty quickly. She stirred again every 10 mins until 1h15m (but calmed down with Shsh). She looked totally being in deep sleep at 1h15m S so I left the room to take care of DD1 (who is 9 and she would sit in front of Ipad and Youtube all day if I don't make her busy w sg else). Now we are at 1h48m S and I am sooo happy  :) Hope this is the beginning of a successful sleeping era  ;D

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Re: How to stretch short naps when LO is smiling wide after Wake up?
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2018, 18:05:31 pm »
Good to hear you managed to get her to sleep for longer even if it was only once :)

I suggest trying the other W2S method where you sooth her through the transition and into deep sleep, it can take some time but likely more successful than stirring at this age and for the sleep habits you are trying to instil.

Here's a link to A times, I think she's approaching 4 months now and the A time can increase faster than we expect:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=84884.0
If you stay too short for too long you can end up with lots of UT naps.  Longer A times might give some slightly OT naps (short, 20 min, some jolting perhaps) but usually easier to resettle and LO gets used to the slightly longer time. W2S can help too.

I'm moving house in a couple of days so I'm not going to be around so much for a little while.
If you need support while I'm gone please feel free to start a new thread which will be more likely to attract attention rather than a thread which looks like it is already supported.