Hi all,
The past few days have seen troubles with our second nap. As I was going to come on here and post about extended naps anyway, I thought I'd strike while the iron was hot. Up till three days ago, this was our routine:
6.30am wake & b/f
7.30am solids
9.15am nap #1 (45 mins)
10.00am wake
10.30am b/f
12.00pm solids
1.30pm nap #2 (1hr 20 mins incl. w2s @ 20 mins in)
2.50pm wake
3.00pm b/f
4.30pm solids
6.00pm b/f
6.15pm bed
one b/f in the night, between 3am and 5am.
For the past two days, DS' second nap has seen him screaming himself awake at the 1 hour mark; today at 30 mins.
Normally if he takes a longer first nap, it's difficult to get a second sleep cycle into the second one, but all the first naps have been one sleep cycle long. Soothing him is weird; he'll settle a little, start sucking on his thumb and acting as if he's going back to sleep, but then about 15 seconds later, he'll give a little whimper, followed by several louder ones, then all of a sudden go into a hysterical squealing. It's not a mantra cry by any stretch of the imagination; nor is it his normal "mum, can't you HEAR me in here" fuss upon waking up. I'm kind of at a loss. Yesterday I PD'd for 40 minutes, today for an hour. And he was no nearer calming down at the end of it, let alone going back to sleep.
The only thing I can think of that has changed is that a couple of times this week we've tried to push bedtime back to 6.30pm (trying to get ready for the clocks going back already!). But that's always been when nap #2 has been a little later for some reason, so we're not stretching his final A time or anything. But could that slightly later bedtime be throwing things off?
He is teething (first eight already in; possible molars?), but I gave him some tylenol, gel, and tabs before today's nap, just in case. Crawling is also just about there; he's certainly learning how to move around the crib as I try to PD
So if you anyone can throw any light on why nap #2 is proving so difficult, I'd really appreciate it.
In addition, a quick nap extension question -- if I want to try any of the techniques to extend this second nap (assuming w2s fails), how long do I go on for after DS wakes up? For the length of the nap that I originally wanted him to take? Till he falls asleep again?
Thanks so much!
Katy
p.s. need to add that we had an early wake up at 5.30am this morning, which would indicate overtired when put to bed at 6.15pm last night. but he was happy as a clam till i went in and got him at 6.30am, then happily stayed up till 9am when he went down for his first nap -- again 45 minutes long.
