Does Wake-to-Sleep work for extending naps?

[MyBella]

I was wondering the same thing as well.  DD stirs and awakes at exactly 30 min!

[Travis' Mom]

My LO has been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks.  At 5 months, he was sleeping 11 hours and now he sleeps 12 hours!  I put him down at 6:30pm and he wakes between 6:30 and 6:45am.  He is content until his 7am feed.  I just love it!
If your LO is awakening at 30 minutes, set your timer for 20 or 25 minutes and go in then.  I didn't want my LO awake at all when I went in. (His sleeps were 45 minutes). I wanted to jostle him to be semi awake so he would put himself back to sleep.  On the first day, as I mentioned, I did have to use the PU/PD method as well and yes, it is tiring and hard work but it paid off for us.
Hope I answered all the questions.  Let me know.  You're doing great work. 

[MyBella]

Sheri - I cannot believe your lo sleeps that much during the day after a 12 hr night!  Mine sleeps 12 hrs at night, and I was thinking maybe that was why she doesn't sleep much during the day.  I guess that theory can go out the window.

Anyway, dh tried the wts in this morning's nap - went in at 23 min (lo typically wakes up at 30 min sharp), jostled her, and lo and behold she took a 1 hr 26 min nap!!!!  I was in a meeting at work, when my dh text messaged me this I just about fell off my chair.  I don't know if our 1.5 weeks of pu/pd, binky elimination, and extending awake time to 3 hrs helped or not, but there you have it. 

Her afternoon nap was 3 hours after she woke up from her morning nap, but that was only 20 min long and she woke up crying and 30 min of pu/pd failed to produce any more sleep.  Oh, well Rome wasn't built in a day.  I hope and pray that this long nap was not a fluke!

[Travis' Mom]

That is wonderful news!!!  So happy for all of you!  It won't be a fluke but just remember to stay consistent with what you are doing....the rest will be up to your LO.  A 3 hour nap is amazing!!!!  How old is your LO again?  If older than 7 months, you may want to think about putting your LO on a one nap a day as you know she can do it.  If younger, you may think about waking her after two hours to work on some consistency in your day.  Just more suggestions to think about.  Work towards what works for your family!  Way to go and keep up the good work....it's hard most of the time but the rewards are so amazing!!!
Sheri      :!:

[MyBella]

Quick correction, dd didn't actually sleep for 3 hours - she was awake for 3 hours before going down for her second nap and didn't end up taking a long 2nd nap, probably due to being overtired.  (But the first nap was a whopping 1.5 hrs!)

Even though she's just about 7 months she still gets tired pretty easily.  We're trying to put her down after 3hrs of awake time in the mornings, and 3 hrs between the two naps, but a lot of times she's tired at 2.5 hrs in the mornings and 2 hrs in the pm.  So I'm thinking she's not ready to go to one nap yet.  I'll be happy if we can consolidate to 2 naps at this point!

[Emmy's Mum]

Hi guys, I've just been following this thread as my dd has exactly the same napping style described by Mybella. She's 3 months old and has catnapped since she was about 6 weeks old and it has always been a real problem. Pat/shush does nothing for her as well - in fact it seems to stimulate her into full wakefulness. Might try this method as well - wish me luck!

[Travis' Mom]

Good luck to you!  It does take some patience but it does work!  If she doesn't consistently wake up at the same time, you will need to use the pu/pd method as Tracy describes as this does work as well!  Keep us posted.
Sheri :wink:

[MyBella]

Hi Emmy's Mum, my dd started with this pattern around 4-5 weeks as well.  Over time there have been weeks where it seemed like she was settling into a good nap schedule, but it has kept going back to the short naps.  I wish I tried this when she was 3 months old.  Please report back on your progress - it's great to hear how other moms are doing.

So we've now been doing this for every nap for the last three days, and yesterday she ended up napping 3 hrs in total!  We can't seem to get it to work for every nap and it doesn't help extend each nap the same amount, but we've begun to have some longer naps.  We're still going in at 20-25 min to jostle her, so I'm not sure how long we should keep doing that for before she starts extending on her own.  Any thoughts Travis' mom?

[Travis' Mom]

By now you've been going in for at least 5 days.  I would try not going in now and jostling her awake and see what happens.  Be prepared that she will wake up early but you have to try sometime.  Leave her be if she does wake and hopefully she will put herself to sleep.  Go by your gut feeling.  If you think she can do it alone, try it....if not, keep going in until you feel she can do it.  She should have her internal clock changed by now.  So glad it worked for you and yes, we will both be working on the one nap soon!
Take care, :lol:

[Emmy's Mum]

Hello ppl - I've tried the wts method today for the first time - I went in at 27mins (like Mybella's lo she wakes up at 30min sharp) and jostled her until she opened her eyes briefly then I watched from a position where she couldn't see me. At the 30 min mark, she stirred and let out a bit of a cry which I decided to leave to see if she would settle back into sleep herself and she did  ! And she's currently still asleep and it has been 45 mins so far! (This is with the vacuum going right outside her bedroom door!)

Mybella: how are you progressing? Does your lo have longer naps now?

Quick question to you both: How did you get your lo's to sleep through the night? My bb is just over 3 months and she still wakes up twice nightly!

[MyBella]

Emmy's mum,
So glad to hear your first experience with WTS was successful.  Keep trying for every nap for the next few days.  With us, it seems to be most successful on the first nap of the day, not so much on the others. 

Regarding sleeping through the night, I'm convinced what worked with us was the cluster feed - dream feed combination.  I implemented these when dd was 4 weeks old, and within 2 weeks she dropped one night feed, then within another 2 weeks she dropped the other one, started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and 3 days.  If you're not doing this already I'd highly recommend it!

[Emmy's Mum]

What does cluster feed-dreamfeed combination involve?

[MyBella]

Do you have TH's BW Solves All Your Problems?  On p 25 the program is outlined really nicely.  But basically eating times are 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm, and 11pm.  6pm and 8pm meals are "clustered" together to tank up lo because their tummies are too small to hold a lot of food and they don't have enought fat on their bodies to have fuel to get through the night.  All these meals are fed awake, and then around 10pm-11pm you feed lo in her sleep (hence the name dream feed), because you want them to move away from being awake at this time.  It may take a few tries to get lo take a df, but it's the most amazing thing.

[Emmy's Mum]

No, I haven't got her book - I've been meaning to buy it but my local bookstore doesn't stock it and I haven't had a chance to visit another yet! I might try that schedule - I'm pretty much going by that routine except for the cluster and dreamfeeds at the end of the day. Is there a particular method for dreamfeeds?

[Travis' Mom]

My ds was the same as MyBella's LO.  He has been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks as well but we dropped the dream feed around this time as well!  One night he just fed really well and my Mom said he could go through the night without us waking him up for the DF.  I was hesitant but tried it and he did!!!
The cluster feeds work wonders.  If you keep doing this, your LO will drop the night time feeds sooner than later!  Glad to hear the WTS worked for you as well.  So nice to see you adjusting your routine so early to make it work for LO and your family!!!