Any March & April 05 mums/moms want to chat?

[Little Bear's Mum]

Nikki, I just realised you're a fellow kiwi. Yay for you! Danielle is 10 days older than my son and so I find it interesting looking at your routine. How did you figure out those awake times? IE it appears Danielle stays awake 2h 45m after her morning nap. Did she slowly extend out to this, or did you just try that time one day?

I do believe that if I could have my ds on a better 'time' routine, eg naps at 9am, 12noon, 4pm etc then it must be easier for his body clock to figure out what's going on. At the moment it's all dependent on when he wakes in the morning between 6-7am and then it depends on how long his sleeps are which also vary in length between 1-2 hours. He's usually awake 1h 45 mins but I'm trying to extend out to 2 hours now.

Any ideas on how you achieved your routine would be appreciated. Thanks.

[BiancaB]

Hello to everyone
Doing a bit of a rewind..to page 39- Arwyns Mom- Si does get restless after a long A time and she also gets to a point where lying her down is a no go..Further on this subject of awake times--I personally have found that if Si hasn't has a good long nap she will not manage to last the distance awake..So to all those trying to increase awake times maybe try extending after you know they have had a good long rest.
Si showed me quite clearly when she needed to stay up longer by just not settling..example- After 1.75 I would lay her down she wouldn't settle so keep her up a little longer try again and so on.
 The tricky part to all this is to know when its "I can't settle yet because I want to stay up" OR " I can't settle because I am now overtired"
Here is another interesting thing I noticed with Si- She will hit a grumpy stage which seems like tried cues but then after a little time and some distraction she gets her second wind and is fine again for another 1/2 hr or more. One last thing on this subject- If you are out and about with heaps of stimulation going on awake time may also be affected(usually shorter) especially for some personality types.
Naomi- Thanks for asking-We are all settled in really well. The room sharing is going well- I can't believe how quickly Ky has gotten used to Sienna's sounds and doesn't stir. And she has heard him since she was in the womb so the tantrum cries don't register when she is asleep or awake it seems
I didn't really have a choice with the same room thing but I'd say it does help with them both having the same bedtime and Si sleeping through most nights.
We have just hit another growth spurt- My peaceful girl has turned into the hungry lion cub again :shock:  Hope my supply picks up soon  :wink:
On the 2 naps thing(pg 40) I do believe you have to take this slowly with some babies and others just make the transition a little smoother -
Ky was a late bloomer when it came to 2 naps and Si has just made the change by staying up longer in the late afternoons, so go with the flow and make the adjustments slowly.
Take care all Bianca

[Erin M]

Hello all - so many moms here these days!  I love reading all the updates.  DH and I left Katie with my parents Saturday night as we had to go to a wedding.  I spent all week saying we weren't going because I couldn't bear to leave my little girl, but everything worked out really well.  Katie was fine, we had fun, and it was actually nice to not be in mommy mode for a change.  (And I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life as when we came home to her!)

Let's see - as for awake times/sleeping, Katie generally takes two naps unless they're both extremely short naps, then she'll throw in a third later in the afternoon.  We have just gotten to the point recently where if she takes too late of a nap (after 6) it seems to throw off her bedtime.  She does best with about 2 and a half to 3 hours awake time, and as a previous poster mentioned (can't remember who, Bianca maybe?) she sometimes has to get through a little "tired" period and then gets a second wind.  She needs to do the longer awake times though or she won't sleep well at all.  I did gradually stretch them out to that. 

Katie also didn't have her dreamfeed when she was at my parent's house and she slept through nonetheless.  I'm still too chicken to drop it completely until we're a bit more established with solids.  We're doing well with cereal now, just started fruit, which she makes big faces at right now.  Not yet interested!

Anyway, looks like she's about ready for a nap.  Take care all!
-Erin

[Arwyn's mom]

Traci... Arwyn's awake times are roughly 1h 45m, 2h, 2h-3h. I noticed it took me a while to figure them out. We've been doing this for over 3 months now and it has just settled down in the last month or so. Now she seems to want to move to 2 naps and 12 h at night. So... back to the drawing board.

When I first posted to this board 5 weeks ago, we were all over the place for awake times and I couldn't get her to nap more than 45 minutes. I now dreamfeed consistently... Arwyn used to wake 2x a night, at 2 am and 4 am. She dropped her 2 am herself sometime in the last while (can't remember when  :oops: ) and is starting to drop her 4 am. Sometimes she can settle herself -- I give her 10 minutes if it is not a true "cry" -- if she gets worse, then I go in and feed her. Since she is still EBF, I don't mind... however, I know she can go as long as 7-8 hrs. as she has done so a few times in the last 2 weeks. I am waiting for her to drop her 4 am feed before I start weaning the DF.

As for others looking after him, once she had a settled schedule, it was easy. My parents look after Arwyn once a week, for a short time during the day. I tell them what time Arwyn goes to sleep and she settles herself. If she wakes up crying, they have to try to put her back down... otherwise, she can stay up. I keep in mind though, that when I go back to work, she will be a different baby. The way I figure it, one day of a wacky schedule isn't so bad. I'm more concerned about later.

[kate585]

All this talk of 2 naps has me freaked a bit.  How did you know it was time for that?  Ryan is doing 3 naps...used to be 4! 
My mil suggested he might be ready for 2 naps as he resists sleeping when at her house while I work 2 am's/week.  Yet, at home, he'll do 1.5-2 hrs. in the am.  That suggests to me that it's not needing to drop the am nap, but excitement at being at a place other than home.  It's really bright in her nursery, as opposed to the cave-like atmosphere over here.  I'm bringing over a dark blanket for her to hang up on Friday.  Any suggestions on that one?

Thanks, as always!!!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Don't feel the pressure to go to 2 naps if your lo's are quite happy with 3.  The only reason I figured Danielle could go the distance was really by accident - because I get distracted by Nathan or we're out and about doing "his" things I haven't been able to get her down when needed, so may have decided to keep her up for the extra half hour and get us back on routine and because she's an "Angel" I think she copes with it easier.  Because she does a really long nap in the afternoon it definitely reenergises her to go the 4hr distance in the afternoon - if she for some reason only did a 45min she would definitely need some sort of nap to keep her going.  I also made the switch with Nathan at this age because we were stuck with 3 x 45min naps a day so I went cold turkey with him and consolidated the naps and got onto 2 x 1.5hr naps.  But if what you're doing is working, keep it up, in some parts of the new book Tracy doesn't recommend dropping the late afternoon catnap until 8mths.  Also like Bianca mentioned, if I miss the opportunity to put her down for a nap when she starts to fuss, she will also get a second wind and be happy again for another half hour.

[Jayri]

May be it was me that started all this talk of 2 naps. I am sorry to have everyone in a thing over 2 naps.
It is just that last week Riley seemed more than happy to be awake for 3+hrs, so I figured she was ready for the next step as she was taking oat cereal with a passion and really spacing out her A time. But alas, as of sunday she has snapped straight back into a 4hr routine as if there was nothing wrong, likes her 3 naps, but with it comes a later bedtime, just when I was having success with getting them both in bed for 7:30pm, Oh well!!!
The only down side to her being on this routine again is they are both up by 6:30am, no that is not a typo.
Well must run, bedtime is my duty tonight.
TTFN, sorry once again girls! :oops:  :oops:

[Little Bear's Mum]

Naomi, how long is your 3rd nap? Have you thought about shortening it to say 30 mins? Usually my ds only does that length in the late afternoon if he has one at all. It doesn't disrupt is 7pm bedtime that way. He's happy to go down. Just a thought.

I have to tell you all how proud I am of myself. The odd time ds doesn't settle by himself I've resorted to feeding to calm him down and get him drowsy to sleep. Well, I've been making a real effort not to do this, and thismorning, once again we did it without the feeding! yay! I've been trying to keep him up and I think I over extended too far, so after some loud cries, we had cuddles and a story then back to bed. I've also been trying to leave him unwrapped, so thought I was better to wrap him again. Within about a minute after this he was asleep. He then slept 1h 20 mins. yay! When I went in he had unwrapped himself which is fine by me.

Hopefully his next nap will be easier for him.

[FrasersMum]

Hi guys,

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted - things have been a little crazy around here.

Fraser is getting better I think.  He surely is feeding better which is a huge relief.  However we are having dreadful trouble with naps.  I've posted the whole huge story on the getting back on track board so I won't bore you all with it but if you are interested in reading it it's at the following link:
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40983&highlight=
(OK, hope that worked!)

It is making life really quite difficult at the moment.  We also had 2 wakings last night.  I said to my DH as I climed into bed at 10.20pm "I am so over babies today, I can't deal with any more today.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day".  Fraser then woke at 12.04am - must have known to wait until it was a new day...     Woke again at 5am.  Thankfully I had just read Bianca's last post before I went to bed and thought "growth spurt" so I just went with it.

Anyway, I am "supposed" to be working from home today so I'd better get in and get some done.

Thanks to everyone for your wishes and support when Fraser was unwell, I didn't get much support from my family (I think they thought I was overreacting  :roll:) so coming on here really felt like there were people out there who cared.  Thanks guys!

Love

[Arwyn's mom]

Hello... so, after thinking Arwyn was ready for 2 naps, she went back to having her catnap (and I mean catnap of 30 min) today. So maybe she isn't. We just had two by accident I guess. However, I do sense she is changing her awake times. She seems to be more able to stay up longer now.

Traci... in my last post I neglected to mention her awake time before bedtime. It ranges from 1 - 2hrs before bedtime. She is typically in bed by 7pm. I changed this recently from 8 pm.

[kate585]

Hey, everyone!  Was so NOT trying to make anyone feel bad about the 2 nap talk...just freaking out from other sources.  Sorry!!!
Just wanted to let you know the big excitement over here.  We started swim lessons at the Y!!!  (I know some of you will think it's too germy or crazy, but I swear, it was fine.  Now you know Ryan will get some crazy pool disease since I said that.   :shock: ).  They're not really swim lessons, more like a Mommy/Daddy and me class where we jump around, singing songs, with lots of splashing and lifting them in and out of the water.  Not so easy with a 20 pounder!!!   :?   Ryan had THE BEST time.  Lots of smiling, cooing, and squealing. 
We also tried a gymnastics class this morning which would be so fun for mobile kids.  Ryan was the youngest by at least 6 months so I just carried him around and rolled him, scooted him, and slid him around.  The oldest one was 17 months!  Way too big of an age range.  I think it'll be fun in a few months.  Who knows...maybe this will inspire him to start crawling.   

[Erin M]

Kate - We're doing swimming lessons at the Y too starting on Friday!  Sounds like the same type of class that we're in.  They probably use a similar curriculum for everywhere.  I'm excited!  I hope Katie likes it.  We're got another class we're going to that's more of a music one that starts tomorrow. 

Jo - Glad to hear Fraser is getting better.  I dread the day Katie actually does get sick. 

All you 3 to 2 nap wonderers out there- I did read somewhere that dropping a nap is always an eventual process - as in, they'll skip it a few days in a row, need it a few days in a row and repeat the pattern until it's gone all together.  Katie only seems to need her third nap if her first two are short.  We've been working on longer awake time, but we don't always get there, hence the short naps.

This week we have been all over the place.  Schedule - what schedule?  I'm blaming it on her shots she got on Monday - took her a good week to get herself back together after the last time as well, so I'm just doing my best to keep her close to schedule right now.  I'm wondering if we're near a growth spurt too as she's been up at night a bit here and there lately.  Or it could be the solids.  Ah, the mysteries of a six month old.

Hope everyone is well!

[Arwyn's mom]

Glad to hear swimming went well Kate! Arwyn is registered for swimming lessons starting in October. We can't start before 6 months... the pool won't let us. Quick question... does Ryan wear disposable swim diapers or the special "all in one" diaper swimsuit?

Fraser's mum -- glad to hear that Fraser is doing well. My husband asked yesterday when Arwyn would get sick. I replied, hopefully never. He meant when they could get sick!

More poopy-talk. Arwyn had one so big it woke her up and stunk up her room at 6 am. GROSS! Needless to say, she did not go back to sleep so our day started then. But... she was tired just 1h 15m later so, down for a nap... 45 minutes later and she is good to go.

She is playing with some peek-a-blocks and roll-a-rounds right now and it is amazing... she has figured out which one with roll far away when she tosses it off the tray. She has abandoned the blocks now, for the entertainment of throwing the ball off and waiting for mommy to pick it up. Funny, she will even look in the direction the ball rolled until I pick it back up for her. Hmm... will the novelty wear off before mommy gets tired of it?

[Arwyn's mom]

Judy,

Can't console you on the 45 min. nap thing. Arwyn was just over 4 months old when she started doing that and we have been trying to overcome them ever since. Very frustrating. Occasionally though, she sleeps 1.5 hours and sometimes she can be pat/shushed back to sleep. Most times now, I just look for tired signs. If she wakes up crying, I try to put her back down. If she seems happy, I let it go. It doesn't seem to affect her night sleep now so I'm okay with it. It used to affect her night sleep so I became a "nap-timer" and still am. She needs at least 3h15m daytime sleep to be a good night sleeper. I used to drive myself mad trying to get 5hrs like the book recommends but I gave up in the name of sanity.

Well, on that note, guess I'll go pu/pd my screaming child who can't seem to put herself to sleep today. We are having a "horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day". (BTW, it's a good book for toddlers!)

[Little Bear's Mum]

Judy, my ds started that at 5 weeks and didn't stop until I extended his awake time, even though he was so tired after 1h 15m awake I didn't think he could stay up any longer. Anyway, maybe they're trying to tell you they want to be awake longer? Just a thought.

It's funny, cos I keep advocating this is how I fixed my problem with my ds napping, but I don't know if it's worked for anyone! I hope it has and that I haven't suggested to mums to try it and all it's done is made their lo's miserable. If you've tried it and it works, please let me know. Thanks.