more nap questions

[jennc123]

I already have a post but its somewhere...anyway how long do you keep trying for them to nap, my daughter is notw not napping at all during the day, she is obly 5 months....its really starting to wear, after i put her in her crib she plays and won't sleep, how long should I let her play or do i just try again at a later nap time.  I am sick of rocking her to sleep, its getting old and now I can see she is relying on me to do so, she is so tired too, she is rubbing her eyes alot and her eyes are glassy etc.....she just won't give in!

[NatalyaW]

I only have a 7-week-old, so I can't vouch for its effectiveness, but have you tried PU/PD?

[tylersmommy]

Jenny-

Can you post what her daily routine looks like? That might help us figure out if the problem lies somewhere in the routine. Also, have you been rocking her to sleep all along, and you're now giving it up? If so, how did you do it? Sometimes abrupt changes, like giving up rocking cold turkey, can wreak havoc...it's better to gradually wean her off the rocking. I'll check back after you've posted some more info...hopefully I'll be able to help!

[jennc123]

well i am trying to follow the 3 hours easy slowing moving to a 4 hour easy, I am still rocking her, when she is just at that passed out state i put her down and no matter what 10 miutes later she wakes up and plays in her crib, babbling and such.  I really am starting to wear out here, she used to go down for her naps with no fight whatsoever...now she can roll over and its beena pain....

[tylersmommy]

Jenny-

"3 hour EASY" can look really different at different ages...a newborn on 3 hr EASY is going to have a dramatically different routine than a 5 month old. How many naps does she take? How much awake time does she have? Does she sleep through the night? There are a number of different things that could be causing her nap issues, and if I can get a better sense of what her day looks like, I might be able to help shed some light!

[jennc123]

well naps are hard, she used to (a month ago) go down ever morning for a great 2 hour nap, and the afternoon nap was always a struggle, if i was lucky she would have 3 naps . rare. I don't keep her up past 2 hurs between naps, and if she shows signs of crankiness, sleepyness i try putting her down earlier than that.  i have to always rock her for at least 20 minutes till she is at a somewhat very sleepy state, and of course she wakes up most of the time when i put her inher crib.  the waking has recently started more, its been worse since she turned 5 months and she used to sleep thru the night and now she is getting me up at 4, 5 am and not going back to sleep.  I usually have her in bed between 7:30 and 8 and she sleeps til i wake her at 11pm for a dreamfeed.  I have tried feeding her more thruout the day to avoid this 4 am waking stuff but its not waking, and she is breastfed so i can't ell how much she is getting.  She is a very active baby and I am wondering if this is just her tempermant.  when she naps good, she eats better etc....it just seems like there is no end in site here.  I may have to lock myself in the nursery and really do the PU/PD routine, but when i do it she gets even madder :cry: sorry for rambling, hope this makes sense.  I hope she is just going thru a phase but its probably my fault she is the way she is when it comes to napping and sleeping.

[jennc123]

you know when I put her in her crib awake and not crabby, she becomes crabby and or wants to play, even though she is so tired, eye rubbing etc...then she throws a fit and I know its because i rock her to sleep, not all the time but enough that she now relies on it ...I wonder if I need to have alonger wind down routine, for naps its pretty simple, i close the shades and rock her, maybe nurse her , which seems to calm her down, i know thats the wrong thing to do.    :?

[Arwyn's mom]

Hello Jenny,

My lo is 4 months 1 week and I just switched to the 4 hour EASY last week. My daughter was doing exactly what your lo is doing now. She used to sleep great for her naps and wake only once in the night. Then, starting about 3.5 weeks ago, she started having only very short naps or refused to nap at all and woke up 3 or 4 times a night! :shock:

1.5 weeks ago, I switched her to 4 hour EASY and really tried to stick to it (I found it hard to extend her nap before feeding). It took about 3 days for her to adjust to the eating schedule... then another 2 or so to adjust to the naps and night sleep. Now, she will nap during the day (although the 3rd nap is a little bit of a struggle) and puts herself to bed at night.

Not everything is peachy just yet though. We are still working on extending naps so they are longer than 45 minutes but at least she only wakes once in the night now. I usually nurse her at that time because she is an EBF baby.

This has been my experience in the last week and a half or so. I hope this helps.

[jennc123]

i am starting to do the 4 hour EASY schedule.  She is napping right now so i am going to write down how i want it to go, and try to stick to it. problem i am running into is this, when i put her down for her naps at a scheduled time and she fights me and screams and dosen't nap how long do I try to get her to nap , do I stay in that time range and give up when its time to eat again??? then she misses a nap?! is this what you do to get it to work?  I am going to see how this goes today, right now she is so tired but I will only let her sleep 2 hours, even though she had me up at 5am and didn't go back to sleep :cry:

[jennc123]

i know I am posting alot but I am wondering if i need to move her bedtime to ealier in the evening?  would that make sence?  when she was going to bed at 8:30 9pm she actually would sleep longer till 7 or 8 am, but if I keep her up that late she is sooooo cranky!  whats a mom to do???

[Arwyn's mom]

Hi Jenny,

Arwyn has not resisted going down for a nap for the entire duration of a nap time. In the beginning when I started EASY, she would resist but eventually went down after 15-20 minutes of pu/pd. Just recently, I pu/pd for an hour to extend her nap. Torture to her her cry but I really wanted to extend her nap time.

When Arwyn does miss a nap due to visitors, etc. and it is close to nursing time, I nurse her as close to her scheduled time as possible (and try not to let her fall asleep cuz she will) and then change her diaper (as her activity) and then put her to sleep. This messes up the EASY a little bit but I loathe to have her miss a nap. Also, I don't wake her up if she wants to sleep longer unless it is the late afternoon nap.

Good luck with this. I printed a 3 & 4 hour EASY off this website. I believe it is under "announcement" in one of the forums. I have this posted beside my computer and I just tweak it for when Arwyn gets up or goes down for a nap.

I try to get in her naps whenever I can even if her schedule is disrupted. For example, we were out this morning and she only napped for 45 minutes in her stroller (after putting herself to sleep) and so she is napping now (hopefully for another 45 min) before I nurse her at 3. If we stay at home, I try to get her naps as consistent as possible by trying to extend them with pu/pd.

Just stick with it... you're doing just great!

[jennc123]

so far today she has had 2 little naps, and is crying right now for her third, the first one was a little over an hour and the 2nd was 45 minutes, this is so horrible..she fights it so much..off to PU/PD for the third :roll:

[tylersmommy]

Hi Jenny-

Sorry you're having such a hard time right now! Based on what you've told me, I'd go to a 3.5 hr routine and stick to that for a week or so and see what happens. I had Tyler on a 3.5 hr routine around that age for awhile and it worked out great...4 hr EASY didn't click well for us until he dropped his 3rd nap, but that's just us. Once you get to 3.5 or 4 hr EASY, whichever you do, stick with it. Consistency day in and day out will help her body adjust and hopefully get those naps to lengthen. She may just be a short napper, though...Tyler was, and our routine most days was more EASAE. I just kept his feeds on schedule, waking him when necessary and ensuring I wasn't feeding to sleep.

As for skipped naps, yes, you'd continue doing PU/PD or pat/shh or whatever it is for the duration of the whole nap, if needed. If the nap gets skipped, you may have to readjust the rest of the day. Keep in mind, now that she's getting older and more aware of the world, she may be needing a bit more wind down before sleeps. Make sure she's getting some quiet activity time before the nap routine starts to help her wind down a bit.

Keep us posted...HTH!

[jennc123]

thank you, yes i am thinking I am going to do a 3 1/2 hour easy, the 4 just isn't working right now.  I took her for a walk for her wind down and then we played in the grass, which she loves but she is a very perceptive baby and I may have to incorporate more of a longer downtime for her.  Is it true that when you put themn down earlier at night they sleep longer? or am i imagining this?

[tylersmommy]

Is it true that when you put themn down earlier at night they sleep longer? or am i imagining this?

Generally speaking, yes, this is true. I'd venture to say that's how it works for most babies. It never worked that way for us, though! :roll: