Two part question about wind down and extending A

[becky1969]

First of all, I can't thank this forum enough. I've learned SO MUCH this past week! I read the BW before my LO was born so started using the techniques right from the get go, but really have found these boards invaluable as we've been transitioning from 3 hour to 4 hour EASY lately! you all have been lifesavers while dealing with trying to sleep thru the night and the 45 minute nap demon!

My new question is this: how long should my wind down be as I'm extening his awake time? The reason I'm asking this is because I've got the type of baby who doesn't really need much wind down before he goes to sleep. He goes from awake to sleep in about 5 minutes. Our usual wind down consists of removing to a quiet setting, setting the stage, singing a song a couple of times, swaddling (at the very last minute because as soon as I swaddle it really makes him want to go to sleep)! and then placing in the crib. I only allow about 5-7 minutes for this. We're extending his awake time now to about 1 hr 45 minutes, which means he's REALLY tired by now, almost overtired at this stage - but I feel like I have to push the envelope a little bit since we're trying to move from 3 hour EASY to 4 hour EASY. Since my baby is a super easy sleeper, I think a long wind down phase would just get him too sleepy too fast! But am I doing it wrong? Should I be getting him relaxed sooner? Would this help him perhaps skip the 45 minute jolt altogether? I guess what I'm asking is: would a longer wind down avoid the overtired baby at 1hr45 and perhaps get him to nap better? or since my baby is such an easy sleeper (not needing the 20 minutes to get to sleep) is a fast wind down OK?

We're still having the 45 minute jolt, but he's doing MUCH better at either putting himself back to sleep, or else he's allowing me to put him to sleep again. In other words, I'm getting at least 2 sleep cycles out of him each nap again! yesterday we had a 1 hour nap, a 2 hour nap! and then a 45 minute nap. Not too shabby considering all our naps before that were 45 minutes followed by an hour of 5-10 minute intervals of broken sleep.

[Mom to M&M]

Becky - I'm so glad you're making progress. Great news!

Personally, I think a longer windown might help. My DD is also the type that can go from 60 to 0 very quickly and never took long to fall asleep. However, when we were dealing with 45 minute naps a couple of months ago, I did use a longer wind-down period and it not only helped extend A time but it also seemed to help extend naps. We used to go into her room about 20 minutes before I wanted to put her into her crib and do a light feed (she was in a growth spurt at the time), then read a book and sing songs and cuddle. I also put her in the crib tired but awake.

I no longer do such a long wind down - now it's bring in room, read story, let her chew on the book afterward, then diaper change and one lullaby and into crib.

Can't hurt to give it a try. Keep up the good work and keep us posted!

[becky1969]

Thank you very much. I do feel like with the longer A time, I'm running a bigger risk of him becoming overstimulated now. I definitely find that by our last awake period of the day, he's ready to go down for the nap after only 1 hr 30 minutes, and I know it's just because we're doing too much. So, I actually strapped him in the Bjorn and vacuumed with him for awhile! It really relaxed him and served to wind him down before nap. Then we went upstairs and finished wind down and beddy bye. He ended up having a slightly longer last nap then he usually does. Yay!

Tomorrow I'll try starting wind down at 20-25 minutes before our nap time starts. We'll just do quiet stuff in his room. I think that would be good for him.

[Mom to M&M]

Great!!! Let us know how it goes.