ds' early nap wakings

[maricar]

hi... am i doing wake to sleep okay?  or should i stop?

ds had been waking up from his naps after 1/2 hour so i figured i'd go in there and try to get him to the next sleep cycle.  for yesterday's morning nap, i went in & just sat on the chair next to his crib.  i figured that if he stirred, i'd put my hand on him to help him settle.  well, what ended up happening was his eyes shot open so fast, i didn't even get a chance to put my hand on him.  and then when he saw me, he was awake for good.

yesterday afternoon, i went in again.  but his time, i put my hand on him while he was still sleeping.  i stayed this way for about 20 minutes at which point i left and he ended up napping a few minutes short of 2 hours.  woo hoo!

this morning, i thought, i'll do a repeat of the afternoon nap.  well, he started stirring while i had my hand on him.  i tried to keep it firm but he ended up opening his eyes and seeing me.  so i closed my eyes & pretended i was sleeping while keeping my hand on him.  after about 10 minutes, he thankfully went back to sleep, which he is still doing at the moment but it's only been 5 minutes since i last left the room.

anyway, my question is... should i keep trying to do this?  and if he just keeps waking up and seeing me there, am i not going to become a prop in the room?  if so, then how else would i get him to nap longer than 30/40 minutes?

i'll try again this afternoon and try to post an update but any advice, suggestions, help  :shock:  would be much appreciated 

[Meg's Mom]

When did the 30min naps start?

[maricar]

before i started him on easy a week & a half ago (sun. oct. 30), he would either nap on our bed or i'd even nap with him.  the times of the naps were pretty inconsistent lasting about 30 - 60 minutes but more on the lower side.  since we started easy:

sunday - nap1 =  1h45m;  nap2 = 40m + 1h10m;  nap3 =  1h35m
monday - nap1 = 40m;  nap2 = 40m + 5m + 35m;  nap3 = 30m
tuesday - nap1 = 2h;  nap2 = 25m + 50m
wednesday - nap1 = 1h50m;  nap2 = 1h
thursday - nap1 = 2h;  nap2 = 1h55m
friday -  nap1 = 1h15m;  nap2 = 30m + 30m
saturday - nap1 = 1h;  nap2 = 30m + 40m;  nap3 = 25m
sunday - didn't keep track
monday - nap1 = 40m;  nap2 = 1h55m
tuesday - nap1 = 35m + 40m;  nap2 = 35m + 30m

sorry if it's hard to read.  wherever i've added a + means he woke up & i managed to get him back to sleep.

and sorry if it's way more info than you asked for... i just thought it might be helpful  :?

[Meg's Mom]

That was helpful info, thanks!

he would either nap on our bed or i'd even nap with him.

  How does he fall asleep now that you are on EASY?

What EASY are you on?  4hr?

[maricar]

we're on a 4hr easy & he now falls asleep in his crib on his own.

thx

[Meg's Mom]

Good work!  So he falls asleep independently now?  Eg: he is awake when you put him in the crib?

anyway, my question is... should i keep trying to do this? and if he just keeps waking up and seeing me there, am i not going to become a prop in the room? if so, then how else would i get him to nap longer than 30/40 minutes?

To answer your question...if he was doing the short naps for a while then he will need help learning to sleep thru the next sleep cycle and awake to sleep/shh/pat are great techs. for that.  You will want to start backing off and see if he can do it himself after a week or so.

If he still does the short naps then i would look at his A time and increase it gradually.

[maricar]

thanks michelle...

yup, he falls asleep independently now... and more often than not - without a problem

today, i thought i'd back off b/c i wasn't sure what else to do.  i seemed to be disturbing him by going in.  anyway,  today his naps were 1h10, 1h15, then 55m.  i thought this was pretty good although i wished they were longer.  i'm not sure if it was just a "today" thing or not.  i think i'll try doing the same thing tomorrow & see what happens.

but if the short naps persist,  i guess i could start doing wake to sleep again.  and do you think that gradually increasing his a-time should help as well?  right now, his a-time is between 2h & 2 1/2h.  what is the ideal amount of a-time at this age?

again, thanks!  i really appreciate the time you're taking to help me   

[Meg's Mom]

My LO started the 45min nap at about 3 months.  I search high and low for information and found Tracy’s work, then this site.  By this time Megan was now well into 4mos and I moved her to 4hr EASY as Tracy recommends and the short naps got a bit better.  I then used shh/pat, pu/pd (very little) and wake to sleep techniques to get her body used to sleeping thru the 1st sleep cycle as by now it was a well ingrained habit.  We saw improvement almost immediately (although small, but it was improvement) and I was convinced Tracy’s work was a godsend. 

We worked on her naps for 2 weeks solid and after much shh’ing and back aches we started sleeping about 1.25-1.50 for most naps.

Things were great for 2 wks after beating the 45min nap monster.  But then the monster came back.  I thought I would fall off the deep end.  What I didn’t take into consideration was that she was older now.  So I increase her A time by 15min and poof…the monster was gone again.  At 5mos 2.25hr of A time was the magic number for us. 

We have now been thru the 45min battle several times over, every time she is ready to increase her A time she starts the short naps.  So when that happens I know it is time to adjust her schedule or prepare to drop a nap.

The ideal A times for his age are:
2.5 after am wake up – nap usually 1.5-2.0hr in length
2-3hr after end of am nap – same as above

Hanging back and see what happens is a good plan.  Let me know if you need more help.