Help us with our routine please!

[Luke-n-Me]

Kelly,

I by no  means have read the "other book" or really know much about it beyond how strict it is and what she recommends for nap routines, but I will tell you this, I have come to terms with the fact that Annika is likely going to keep that 45 minute a.m. nap a long p.m. nap and another 45 minute nap later.  That's just pretty much what she's always done.  I know other mom's on here who's lo's follow the same pattern.  It's not ideal and we drive ourselves crazy with it because we have read about that awful "45-minute monster", but truly, if you get 1 decent nap on a regular basis (and hopefully it will become more regular, Annika has become more regular in just the last week with this schedule) then that's great. 

When I look back, though we've had lots of all 45-minute nap days, all-in-all, Annika has always had the 45 min. a.m. nap and a longer p.m. nap with another 45-minute nap.  I really prefer my son's old nap schedule with a 2 hr. a.m. nap and 1.5 hr p.m. nap, but apparently that's not going to happen for her.  Work toward the one longer nap and  hopefully things will become more regular. 

One thing I can tell you I did, when Annika began to wake from naps happy, I had her lay in her crib until she had been there at least an hour, then I would go get her.  Then, for her p.m. nap, she again woke happy and I just let her talk to herself and sometimes it took 40-45 minutes, but she went back to sleep and now that nap has become more regular.  Just something to think about.  Hoping you have a  better day today!

[mickymuscles]

big (((((((((HUGS))))))))) to you!    It's so hard when these lo's don't do what we want them to do...   I went back to look at the notes I took when Jackson was this age.   He would be able to only do 1hr 45 min (sometimes 2hrs) in the am then by afternoon he was way too tired to make it past 1hr 35min.  We were trying to transition him to 4hr Easy and so there were a lot of days where half of his nap time I spent doing PU/PD!    It was sooooo tiring!!  Jackson was for sure still having 3 naps plus a catnap a day at Zanders age. By having a windown routine...it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to sit and snuggle with him.  Just that you do the same thing every time so they know what is coming next.  So for example, our windown routine when Jackson was younger and needed a longer windown was: brush his teeth, change his bum, put on a warm sweater, read a book, give him his lovey, turn out the lights and sing him itsy-bitsy spider, put him in his crib saying the same thing "have a good sleep, I love you, I'll come get you when you wake up".  The whole windown was about 15-20 min long but after a couple weeks of consistently doing the same thing, he started falling asleep as soon as you sit in the chair with him.  Now our winddown is changing his bum, sitting in the chair, giving him his lovey, turnigni out the lights and singing to him. It takes me about 5 min now to get him to his crib. 

Do you think you may be going to him too soon once he wakes?  I found that every now and again that if I left Jackson to talk to himself he would fall back to sleep.  Maybe you are rushing in and he is waking because he knows you will be in shortly? Just a thought.  I would leave Jackson in his crib until he started to complain then get him up.

[KellyC]

Thanks for your help again.

This morning Zander went down for his first nap after 2 hours and had a 1hr15 nap - yipeeeeee!  He's just gone down for his second nap after 2hr15 but of course I'm not so fussed if he wakes from this one early because we've already had a good nap today (I went back to bed too!).  This afternoon we're going to Tiny Talk (similar to Sing and Sign) so that should wear him out nicely too.

I definitely don't go to Zander too early.  When he wakes up if he's not crying I leave him and sometimes it's a good 15 to 20 minutes before he really cries out and then I go to him.  He never falls back asleep once he's up - not once has he done that!

He still woke a couple of times during the night but I can live with that.

I'll let you know how the rest of the day goes.

Kelly xx

[KellyC]

Hi guys

I just wanted to come on here to thank you all for your advice a couple of weeks ago and to give you an update.

I took your advice about getting one good nap a day and for the last 3 days we've done something very close to this;

E 6.30
S 8.30 - 9.15

E 10.30
S 11.30 - 13.45 (wow!)

E 14.30
S 16.00 - 16.45

E 18.00 (I was feeding Zander at 19.00 right before bed but he was tired and I don't think he fed properly)
S 18.45 - 19.00

DF 22.30 - 23.00 (I'm going to bring this forward to 22.00 tonight as he keeps waking before his DF)

On Monday Zander had a 2hr 15mins nap without my help but yesterday and today he woke after 45 minutes.  I'm finding it fairly easy to get him back down with PU/PD then he continues and has a lovely long nap.  It seems to be working really well and I'm loving having some more predictability in our lives!

He's still waking up during the night for a feed and I figure he's had a growth spurt at some point but instead of getting the extra calories during the day he's become used to getting them at night.  I can't get him to BF for any longer during the day, he just isn't interested.  So for the next 3 days I'm doing what Tracy suggests in her book and I'm pumping one hour after each feed then using that ounce or 2 to top him up after the next feed.  I'm also expressing a full 4 or 5 ounces whilst I give Zander the first feed of the day and at his DF I give him this bottle and then a BF.  Hopefully by the weekend we'll be able to rule out hunger as my milk supply will have increased and because Zander has learnt the art of falling asleep himself courtesy of pat/shush and PU/PD we might start getting him sleeping through the night again.  Wish us luck!

Kelly xx

[Luke-n-Me]

Sounds like maybe Zander is falling into the same routine as Annika, good luck and hope it continues!

[mickymuscles]

Yeah Kelly!
Sounds like your hard work has started to pay off!  Keep up the good work!