first week of baby whispering, questions

[ghrkin]

Hi all,

first post here.  Started baby whispering on tuesday of this week (dreaded first day but first day was way better than i had expected)  second day was fairly consistent, third day was great until nap #3 which was a mega scream fest.

today is day 6.  My son is 6.5 months old.  Have a couple questions to see if i can tweak things this early, or if i should just keep working on one thing at a time.  thanks.

he was always a nursed, swung, stroller or carseat sleeper.  august was brutal, he cut 4 teeth in 3 weeks.  he stopped sleeping most places, day and night.  with shhh/pat and pu/pd (mainly pu/pd) he is now going to sleep without nursing/swing etc.  very excited.  a few times he has now gone to sleep oin his own between 3 and 20 minutes of mantra fussing. 

one question - i start wind down for naps when he has rubbed his eyes twice.  most often this is only about an hour after having been up.  he then proceeds to have a 30 minute nap... should i extend his A times by 15 or 30 minutes to see if that helps?

question two - the last three nights, at his second night time feed (when he wakes in the night, i'm nursing back to sleep)  which is between 3:15 and 4 a.m. he feeds, i put him back in the crib and proceeds to party hearty for a while.  her is happy, not even mantra crying, just hanging out, the occasional squeal etc.  i can't sleep if he's making any noises (he sleeps in his own room and i don't use a monitor and i still hear far too much)  the first night he did this he was awake for at least 90 minutes before falling asleep.  second night he was awake over an hour and last night again it was almost an hour.  is this something to be discouraged, or is it okay since he's happy and going to sleep (eventually) on his own?

previous to this week, although not officailly on any schedule, if i had to classify it was approximately EAESY

this week we are working towards EASY but still not there yet.  i know for his age he should be on a 4 hour EASY, but i worry he won't get enough feeds through the aday and rely too much on night time feeds. 

Jacob says i've been online long enough, must go,

thanks!
andrea and jacob (6.5 months)

[macsmum]

hello,
I am no expert as we are only just getting it right with ds, but could it be when he rubs his eyes you have already missed the first sleep que, i know if my ds is rubbing his eyes i am too late so then he only has a short nap and will struggle to get past 45mins.

As for him playing in the cot for a while at night ds also did this when i first started to try to sleep train but he has since grown out of, well he may wake now but only plays for a few mins and i like you cant sleep cos i hear everything.

cant think of anything else at the moment if i do i will let u know
well done though u seem to be doing great and it is so much harder to implement easy when they are older

Emma

[Jaime]

hi & welcome!

let's see...

1) i would bet that you need to extend your A time.  the majority of 6-month olds have 1.5-2hrs before their first nap.  sounds like that nap may be short because he hasn't been up long enough to be tired enough to sleep longer, if that makes sense.

2) if he will go to sleep on his own, let him go in his crib.  yes, it will drive you crazy (i know that all too well!    ) but you want to encourage any falling asleep on their own!

and you didn't ask, but just wanted to comment.... 

EAESY is okay, you just want to make sure that the 2nd E and the S are well separated; you don't want him to associate feeding with sleeping.

once you get his daytime sleep in order, you will probably be able to drop that 3rd nap.

good luck & HTH