Author Topic: naptime  (Read 1388 times)

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Offline stopjo

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« on: August 24, 2005, 00:51:55 am »
I am trying to put my ds for naptime.  He doesn't care for shhh and pat after a while.  By the time he cries and cries and goes for a nap it's almost time for his next feed.   So he naps for 30 minutes and I wake him up for his next feed.  If I don't wake him up, I am lost with the schedule.  He sleeps through the feed.  He smiles and plays for may be 20 minutes and he is tired.  I put him in the bassinet he is quiet for 15 minutes then starts all over.  He doesn't like swaddling because he is trying to put his thumb.  He doesn't put his thumb continuously either.  He takes it off and screams.  I already tried music.  That doesn't work either.  It calms him only for the first 10 minutes.  I have tried fan, exhaust fan with no success.  I don't change the routine.  I spend 3 hours just shhhing in the night between 1:30 to 4:30.  I tried giving him 4 oz instead of 3.5 one day and that didn't help.  It made it worse.  Whenever I give him little bit more milk he wakes up @ 2:30 with full of poop.  I am really tired.

Please help
Jo

Offline HeatherC

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« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2005, 01:58:13 am »
I don't have an answer, unfortunately, but maybe you could try the nap board.  MatthewsMommy is great with advice on helping lo's learn to sleep.
Kelsey, Feb. 4, 2005
Landon, Jan. 2, 2007

Offline cwolff

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« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2005, 02:56:15 am »
Jo,
I am by no means an expert, and Matthew's Mommy will I'm sure have some great advice but a couple things I wanted to know are how old is your son? I'm thinking he might be older than 3 months?  Also, has he always had problems going down for naps, and how does he go down for bedtime?  If he always screams when you lay him flat on his back, maybe he might have reflux or something else that makes it uncomfortable for him to lay on his back.  In that case I can understand why pt/shush wouldn't make any difference.  But one thing I can say almost for sure is your little one is way overtired.  He needs way more sleep then he's getting if he's crying thru his naps and only taking 30 min naps in between plus waking up frequently in the night.

My suggestions are, that if he is crying thru his naps or otherwise not napping for more then 30 min that after waking him to feed him, do not do any activity time afterwards.  Immediately start your wind down and try to put him for another nap.  He's probably overtired from not napping long to begin with, so keeping him up even for 20min may push him over the edge again, hence the vicious cycle.

And find and keep doing a consistent winddown routine for the nap.  Sounds like you may need to do a pre-winddown ie: calm activities like reading books or looking at trees and then a winddown routine in the dark room.  Maybe your LO needs more "notice" that it's naptime, and more time to turn off.  You may find like I do that almost immediately after feeding is the pre-winddown activities.  Then the winddown and bed.  It won't always be like this, because once he's more rested he'll be able to stay up and play longer.  And I try to extend the naps before the wakeup by being in the room and putting the paci back in if it falls out, and putting my hands on my dd legs to keep her from jolting awake at 45min.  She hated pt/shush, it just woke her up. 

Keep us updated and good luck.  As always, parenting seems to be an ever changing work in progress.  You will find something that works for you and you will sleep!

Offline stopjo

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« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2005, 13:23:49 pm »
Thank you both for your reply. 

My son will be 8 weeks tomorrow.  Am I expecting too much at this age?

I suspected reflux and tried putting him on a wedge after every feed didn't help.

He doesn't cry when I put him to sleep in the night @ 7:30.  If I put him to nap after the feed, he sleeps for only 45 minutes and wakes up plays in the bassinet for 5 minutes and cries until the next feed and all my schedule is disrupted.

I don't keep his room very dark or very quiet.  It's kind of semi dark and he can hear the phone ring and also I have a 5-1/2 year old who I can't keep her quite all the time eventhough she is pretty understanding.  Also, I thought it might help him to differentiate between day and night.

When I put him in the bassinet for a nap, for the first 10 minutes, he sucks his thumb, looks at the checks in his bassinet and there is a bear hanging over his head from the bassinet, he watches and smiles at it.  ( I even thought that the bear might be stimulating and tried hiding it but didn't help).

When he was 4 weeks, he was sucking on the paci and pushed it down and I used to put it back.  Finally, he decided to put his thumb and I thought that would be a relief but he takes his thumb off and screams.  I tried sitting beside him rocking the bassinet for 40 minutes during the nap time.  Once I stop he wakes up in 5 minutes.

I feel bad that something is bothering him and I am not able to find that out :(

Thank you
Jo

Offline thitz

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« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2005, 13:34:39 pm »
Hi Jo,

I have some suggestions. 

I would darken his room almost completely.  If your doing EASY your lo won't have a hard time distinguishing day and night because he'll be on a consistent routine.

Also, check the signs of reflux in the BW book.  IF he does have reflux just putting a wedge in might not be enough to relieve the pain.  You might need medication.  But keep the mattress on an incline anyways.

Are you swaddling?  I would swaddle with one arm out so he can keep learning to suck his thumb.  I did this for a long time.  Then eventually we moved to swaddle with both arms out and we're now just stopping the swaddling altogether at 6 months.

As for patting/shush, you might have to keep up the patting for a good 20 mins or more until he falls into a deep sleep.  If he wakes up at 15 mins keep patting until he falls asleep and stays asleep.  It took my lo a good 5 days to start to get it on her own.  You must be consistent.  Stick with the patting and don't do any rocking and always place them in the crib while they're still awake.  It's a lot of work.  But will pay off in a few days.

Good Luck Tarri