overstimulation or not... & wind-down how to?

[nathansmum]

Hi!
I've been wondering if my little guy could be overstimulated before nap times... thus not helping in the putting down to sleep and 45 min. naps.
Going down has gotten better, but it's still a period where he's a little fussy or cries. I would so much like for him to enjoy going down, or at least know that this isn't a bad thing! 
So how can I make sure to rule our overstimulation? What could our last activities be? and when should I start them as he doesn't always stay up for the same amount of time?
Also, I was wondering how I could do my wind-down differently to make it easier on my LO... What do you all do for wind-down (how, when and how long) ?

thanks!

[Queen Mother]

To wind down, I go in to his room, close the door most of the way (to drown out any TV noise or phones ringing), keep the light off, and sit down with him in the rocker with a couple of books. I rock while I quietly read to him, and then I follow his cues.  My ds will get extremely still when he gets tired or put his arms behind his head.  That's when I put the books away.  I try to do this about 15 minutes or so from when I think he's probably getting tired.  As for getting him to extend his 45 minute naps, I tried EVERYTHING, and sadly the only thing that worked for us was to let him cry.  It only took one time for him to get the picture.  I know that Tracy doesn't recommend it, but he was extremely irritable and downright miserable, and we were desperate enough to go to our last resort. 

[Nikki~Nathanamp;Danielle]

I think the key is to work with your lo and hopefully CIO won't be an option (for me is isn't even under those circumstances) - in fact Tracy suggests if it gets to that to sit in a dark wardrobe with your lo to help drown out the outside world until your lo falls asleep. CIO in the arms of someone they love is OK, just not alone.

As far as overstimulation, yes definitely have a good 20mins of quiet, calm, dimmed room, gentle story reading, cuddling before you think your lo is likely to get tired. At first yawn lay him down quietly into bed and start patting. If you do think overstimulation is a problem, what I'd do is have a few days where you're at home, keep EVERYTHING low key at all times, observe closely and follow cues. Once you see what's happening, then you will probably find it a bit easier to add more stimulating activity back in.

How old is your lo? Do you think his 45min naps could be related to too short activity time and maybe he wants to be up longer? At some point too short an activity will mean short naps. OK, just noticed he's just past 3mths - are you in the process of changing his routine perhaps? Maybe looking at switching to the 4hr EASY?

FWIW, my dd has only ever done 45min naps in the morning, I've figured this is just her natural rhythm - my rule is, if she was happy I got her up, if she was grumpy I'd resettle her for a longer nap. She makes up for it by having a long afternoon nap.

[nathansmum]

Thanks!

We are starting to switch to 4 hour. We just decided at the beginning of last week that this was probably the answer to our grumpy baby. He had started fussing about everything and we couldn't figure him out! I didn't think that he was quite ready for the 4 hours just yet though, so we just decided that we would follow him. Now, we just never let him sleep more than 2 hours per nap (this is something Tracy said somewhere - can't remember where though...) and then feed him at that moment. So if he was up for 1.25 hours it would then be a 3.25 hour routine and so on... It took care of the fussiness but he still wakes up at the 45 min. mark. I guess this is just something that will take a little time to get taken care of.

I think I also started noticing more of when and how Nathan is tired so I hope this will help with going down. So many new things to learn, watch and look out for as a new mom!

thanks again!