My son is 10 months old. We've always had trouble at naptime - getting to sleep and staying asleep. Since buying the books, I've learned that part of the problem is not knowing how to handle his temperment (spirited or touchy in terms of sleep, but not necessarily in other aspects like eating or activity), and therefore resorting to props (rocking and bottles at naptime). Nighttime sleep is pretty good. He goes down either with his bottle or if still awake after his bottle, he can get himself to sleep after playing for a while. He rarely cries at bedtime - but we've also had a good bedtime routine in place since around 3 months. He sleeps for 10-11 hours straight and so far we haven't had trouble with night waking. Naptime is another story and I need to learn how to fix it because he's visibly tired (and cranky) during the day yet, takes very short naps and is very hard to get down and wakes up crying. We're weaning to a sippy cup (which he's doing great with) so he hasn't been getting bottles at naptime anymore (for a couple weeks). I think he might need a better winddown routine to help him settle in, but I don't know what's appropriate for his age. I do usually close his shade and turn on light classical music at naptime, but swaddling and shushing/patting at 10 months are not going to work. Any ideas for his age? Can I do some rocking until he's settled down (he usually starts crying when the shades close or when the rocking starts), or is that too stimulating? I'm guessing most days at naptime he's either overtired/overstimulated (I need to work at reading his cues better too). Other ideas? Also, his two naps used to be 45 minutes and have recently shortened to 20-30 minutes, with longer (60-90 minutes) happening sporatically. I think I need to pu/pd to lengthen them. Again, how do I do this for his age? If he's crying, do I stay with him until he stops (not making eye contact)? Do I maintain physical contact the whole time? In what manner? A firm hand on him somewhere? He does fight and push me away frequently if I'm holding him while trying to soothe at naptime so I'm guessing most of the time, he'll be not held. His daily routine is something like this:
Wake between 5-6 am and have a bottle at that point
7:00 breakfast (he's a great eater and does mostly tablefood for all meals)
9:00 naptime
Formula after nap (in a sippy usually - was at naptime until a couple weeks ago)
11:30 lunch
1:00 naptime
Formula after nap (used to be at naptime until a couple weeks ago)
3:00-3:30 snack and a bit of formula or water
5:00 dinner
6:30-7:00 start bedtime routine which includes bottle. Usually sleeping by 7:00
If you've stayed with me this long, you're a saint! I tried to be thorough to eliminate follow up questions, however if I haven't covered something, please let me know. I'm optimistic about this approach (I've tried several other books with no luck as they don't address the temperment part). Please help me set my expectations in terms of how long it might take to see results.
Thanks for any insight or experience you can offer. I just want my baby to be well-rested so we can enjoy his otherwise happy, smiley personality and teriffic giggle again!
Jenny
Mommy to Sam 12/18/04