Wake to sleep with an older baby?

[KellyC]

The funny thing is I always thought he was a really light sleeper!!  I'll give it a go - we'll get there one day 

[KellyC]

Yes the boobie bar is closed!!  He's started waking at around 6.45 which isn't much fun but works quite well as I'm maxing out his A times for WTS and he doesn't go down until 9.  I think I'm going back to 4 bfs as I gave it a go yesterday and he seemed much more content during the day and much less starving at meal times!  He sleeps through to around the same time whether he has 3 or 4 bfs anyway.  He still wakes randomly but it's much better now his cold is almost gone and those teeth will make an appearance one day!  How are you guys?

Kx 

[KellyC]

I love the name Kaleb - it was on our short list too!

I think your day looks fab - many of us would kill for a day which looks like that    You're right about feeding every 4 hours once they stay up longer but I don't believe feeding every 4 hours is so important once you introduce solids and I guess this is also around the time their A times extend to something way beyond what would fit into a 4 hour EASY routine.

Zander's just gone off to sleep so I'm going to make myself a big glass of wine - I think I deserve it today because for once I've been a good housewife and DH has come home to a clean and tidy house!  Zander's first swimming lesson tomorrow, now that will take some organising to get out of the house in the morning and remember everything 

Kelly x

[KellyC]

Tickling him on the chin worked this morning so I did again this afternoon and it seemed to work great - his body jolted but he stayed asleep.  Two minutes later he was crying but as he'd only been asleep for 25 minutes it was easy to get him back to sleep, the second day in a row I've got 2 decent naps out of him - this could become a habit!

Swimming was great - I was a bad mummy and put him under the water!!

Kelly x

[KellyC]

Well I've been doing WTS for all Zander's naps now for a week.  For the past 3 days he's had a 1.5 hour nap in the am and a 1.5 hour nap in the pm BUT I don't think WTS is working and I'm having to get him back to sleep when he wakes (still!) after 40 minutes.  For instance, this afternoon I went in after 25 minutes and stroked his cheek and wiggled his hand.  He definitely stirred and turned over and I was confident he wouldn't wake after 40 minutes but he did!  Is it possible that it's not working?  Could he be stuck at 40 minutes even if I disrupt his sleep cycle beforehand, since he's perfectly capable of getting through the 40 minute point?  Should I just leave him be and continue to soothe him back to sleep when he wakes?  I will crack this!!

Kelly x

[*Natasha*]

Kelly the 45min monster has visited us again in the PM 
I am also trying W2S at the moment but am finding she isn't always in a deep sleep when i go in to her so i can't do it. At least you can get Zander back to sleep if he wakes doesn't work for us anymore when she is awake that is it she wants to get up. At least she is generally happy until bedtime though, but i want her to sleep at least an hour not 45mins.

[*Natasha*]

You may be right Stacy we had to wake her after 1.15hrs this morning to go swimming and she had her PM nap at my parents house and she slept for 1.5hrs 
I just hate waking her from a nap in the morning as it makes her cranky so i guess i will have to be happy with a short PM nap. Also my parents put her down a bit earlier than usual so i am going to try that tomorrow.

[KellyC]

Sorry you're having problems too Natasha 

Today was interesting because we went out and Zander had all his naps in his carseat (it went surprisingly well and I managed not to be too uptight about it!).  We had to stretch his first A time to 3 hours because that's when we had to go out and he was quite cranky but went to sleep easy enough in the car.  At exactly 40 minutes his eyes pinged open (like when they give somebody an adrenalin injection for a drugs overdose on films - a la Pulp Fiction!) but he was quite happy.  We went and had his portraits done (no smiles today!) and then went out for lunch and by the time we got back in the car he'd been awake 3.5 hours and he zonked out.  I told DH to take a scenic route home and we made a 30 minute journey into 1 hour 40 minutes and Zander slept the whole time - he just took a deep breath after 40 minutes but didn't wake up    So I'm thinking maybe I should go with this pattern for his naps.  The only thing I don't want to do is let him wake at the 40 minute mark because I think that reinforces waking at the end of the first sleep cycle, so maybe I'll make it 35 minutes and get him down for his second nap after around 3 hours.  What do you think?  The last 2 nights he's been going to bed at 6.30pm due to his 6am wake ups and this morning he slept a little later (6.10am whereas the day before was 5.45am).  I've put a blanket over the top of his curtain rail tonight to block the light out and I just went in to see him because he was struggling to settle and I couldn't see him!  So I just stood by the cot and reassured him with my voice and it worked - it seems like mummy does have a magic voice afterall!

Natasha - let me know how it goes with Catherine and how her new routine looks .. and you've just got a new one sorted too - typical!!

Kelly x

[*Natasha*]

Ok today was a great day i think i have things worked out. The phone rang right at the 45min mark of Catherines PM nap i checked on her she had woken  so i left her for 15mins and would you believe it she went back to sleep for another 30mins  So i think i was putting her down to late for her PM nap and she was overtired. Lets hope she keeps it up 
So this is how things looked:

6.30/7am - Wake
 Eat
9.45am - Sleep 1.5hrs
Eat
2.15pm - Sleep 1.5hrs
Eat
7.15pm - Will go to bed.

[*Natasha*]

Ok we did it the W2S worked again. The other day she woke from her PM nap screaming after 1hr couldn't settle her, then found tooth no.2 that night 
YEsterday we were out for her PM nap so today i decided i should try W2S again for her PM nap to help her get past the 45mins again and IT WORKED. She opened her eyes when i moved her arm so i ran and she settled back again and went back to sleep. Just had to share that very excited 
How are you going with everything Kelly?

By the way this is how the day looked:

6.30am - Wake
9.45am - Nap 1.5hrs
2.30pm - Nap 1hr 20mins
Bed will be 7.15pm

Last few days bed had to be 7pm as PM naps have been to short and she has been to grumpy.

[KellyC]

That's great Natasha 

Zander is still getting up super early - it was 5.45am this morning!  I brought him into our bed to feed him and thought he might fall asleep afterwards (in our bed but hey I was tired!) but he just wasn't sleepy anymore.  I even tried going through his whole naptime routine and putting him back down in his cot but that was also a no goer.  The problem with the early wakings is that he finishes his pm nap fairly early which makes it a struggle to get to bedtime.  I've just put him down for his first nap at 8.50am so that's not too early.  Yesterday he took 2 long naps    I had actually planned to wake him after 45 minutes in the morning so I went in and opened his curtains etc. but he didn't wake up for another half an hour!  I also decided to do WTS in the afternoon but when I went in after 30 minutes he was already in a light sleep and I woke him up walking into the room.  I got him back to sleep fairly easily and he went on to have a long nap.  Bedtime was at 6.40pm but he was so tired.  I'll have to see what today brings - at least I have a happy little baby even if he is keeping funny hours at the moment!

[KellyC]

Oh Stacy don't confuse me?!!  Today he's had a total of 2 hours naps and his last one finished at 1.45pm - how on earth will we make it even to 6pm?!!  If he didn't get up so early his first nap would be later and so would his bedtime, how do we get out of this viscious circle?

[KellyC]

I think your routine would work from us if Zander would get up later!  His A time is betwen 2.75 and 3.5 hours - he's pretty easy to stretch and I can still get him to sleep well if he's overtired.

[KellyC]

I think you're right Stacy.  So this is today;

5.45 Wake
8.50 (was aiming for 9) - 9.30 Nap (only 40 minutes  )
12.30 - 1.45 Nap (woke at 40 minutes but got him back to sleep within seconds!)
4.45 - 5.00 Nap - I took your advice and went out with him in the front carrier, after 15 minutes of arching and whinging and plenty of pat/shushing he fell asleep.  I'm not sure my back will ever recover!

Do you wake Kaleb after an hour in the morning?  On the off chance he decides to take a long nap I guess I'll have to wake him - actually we have swimming tomorrow so I'd have to wake him anyway and hopefully the swimming will wear him out for his pm nap.  Do you think I should wake him after an hour in the pm too?  What a pain going back to the catnap, I always hated that.  But we do what we have to!

He's had his dinner and we're waiting for daddy to come home and bath him - it's just gone 6pm now.  We'll aim for 7 - 7.30 and see how it goes.  If he's up before 6 tomorrow I guess I'll just try to get him back to sleep until 6 or feed him if he's hungry and then attempt to put him back down.

Thanks for your help again. K x

[KellyC]

I'll let you know tomorrow - almost 6.30pm and he's still happy and DH has just walked in the front door so that's good!

Thanks again x