So i've started trying to do the Baby Whisperer EASY routine and ever since then, my baby (11 weeks) only takes 25 minute naps. guaranteed, after 25 minutes she will wake up. i've tried to shush pat her afterwards but that either doesn't work at all or she falls back asleep for 10 minutes and then she is up again. Anybody else gone thru this? I am obsessing over her nap schedule these days and I am stuck on a EASAES schedule because her naps never last long enough to the next E. Help!
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Sounds like maybe she is overtired. How long is she awake between naps? At 11 weeks, I think my LO could only stay awake for about 1 hour.
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@JessLC: are you swaddling for naps? I find little one sleeps much better/longer when I really commit to swaddling, shushing, and giving her her paci. It doesn't always work but it has a better success rate than just letting naps happen.
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I have no advice just want to say that I sympathize. My LO is 13 weeks and I can't get him to nap longer than 25 minutes either. I even try to put him down after he's been awake for 1 hour and I fight him for almost an hour just trying to get him to sleep! Argh. Although miraculously he just napped 2 hours but that's because I nursed him in bed and laid next to him the whole time.
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@NerdBee: i try to keep it between 50-80 minutes, but sometimes it goes longer because the EASY schedule gets all messed up early in the morning and then the entire day is just shot. i think i may be missing her sleepy cues. i see her yawn around an hour into wake time. i guess i just have to try again tomorrow. sigh. so did you start your nap routine at say 55 minutes so that your LO would be down at 1 hour? or you start your nap routine at 1 hour and LO is down at 1 hour+?
@MamaMoose: yep, i swaddle for every nap with the miracle blanket, i do a short routine. she goes down and falls asleep, but can't stay asleep.
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I am sorry. I have no advice, I had a 30 minute napper until 2 weekends ago.
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@mrskc: it is so frustrating! embarrassed to say i cried a few times today because i was so discouraged. i tried adopting the 4 S's of the baby whisperer which helps her go down OK, but she just won't stay asleep. i even went in there at the 20 minute mark to pat her and help her transition, but it didn't work. she was just wide awake. tomorrow is another day! DH thinks i'm crazy that i'm getting so worked up over this.
@mediagirl: how old is your LO? Did he/she just transition to longer naps on his/her own?
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@JessLC: it depends on your baby. For some babies, yawning is already too late. Try looking for more subtle sleep cues like quieting down and staring into space. For a 1 hour wake time, LO should ideally be asleep by the 1 hour mark. Depending on how long it takes for your LO to fall sleep, you should start your nap routine before the 1 hour mark and aim to have LO asleep by the 1 hour mark.
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@JessLC: just wanted to say we've fallen into the same thing at seven weeks! Although he doesn't usually need to eat again. It was really stressing me out too but matter what I do it's almost always thirty minutes. For now I'm just rolling with it and appreciating that he's going down pretty easily... And racing to get stuff done before he wakes again! Also I swaddle and start rocking around 50 minutes and he's usually asleep by one hour fifteen. He's not fussy when awake at least!
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@JessLC: so I had this problem for awhile now, Lo is 9 weeks and up until a week ago has not taken a nap longer than 30-40 minutes, unless it was in my arms. We recently transitioned her to the crib and we try to do the same routine that we do for bed....after active time I dim the lights in her room and rock and sing het a song..if she is overtired it takes awhile to get her down but if I catch her at the first yawn it helps a lot. Honestly the one thing that has helped tremendously, which is a little controversial, is that at my moms advice we started putting her down for naps on her tummy and ever since then she naps so much longer!!! Like 1-2 hours long. I have a video monitor tho and I basically stare at it the entire time to make sure she isn't facedown. It really helped a lot to get her to nap longer, she loves being on her tummy...I would never do this for night sleep though as I would be wayyy too paranoid
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i'm having nap issues too. some days she goes down wo a peep and some days she cries her eyes out! i skimmed through the baby whisperer this past weekend. what she said about sleep is that when your baby yawns the first time, you should start getting LO ready to nap. And i think she said your LO should be down by the 3rd yawn or else they'll start to cry. she didn't say much about transitioning from activity to sleep. just that there should be a naptime routine like there is a bedtime routine. i tried that today and it's worked well. i just dim the lights and read her the going to sleep book. then put her down. i'm also adding in a moms on call method where if they wake up or start to cry when i put her down, to wait 5-10 min of crying, then soothe wo picking her up (talking to her or putting your hand on her- i use a paci). after the 3rd time then pick her up and soothe her. but thats only if you're using cio methods. today has been a good nap day so i haven't had to get that far. but it may be a fluke. we will see this week!
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@NerdBee: okay. thank you! i will try watching more closely tomorrow.
@scg00387: my LO wasn't too fussy before when we would just let her nap on her own, but i realized she has started to becoming more fussy lately if she is overtired, which is why i've started actively trying to get her to nap. the last two nursing sessions of the day, i'm struggling to keep her awake because she is so tired. this nap business is tough! in the last 2 days, she hasn't napped more than 25 minutes even on me actually. argh.
@NovBaby1112: that is interesting about the sleeping on the stomach thing. my LO absolutely hates tummy time, i always thought she would hate sleeping on her tummy too. does your LO like tummy time?
@kodybear: i don't think i'd mind doing CIO, but my LO rarely CRIES, she just fusses and then she is awake the entire nap. so i don't know if CIO would work for us!
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@JessLC: let me know if you find a solution!
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My daughter is like this, and there wasn't a solution. It was just the way she was. Still is at 16 months - a 2 hour nap is a treasured rarity. An hour is more common, and 30 minutes is still very normal. She sleeps far better with a parent with her, as well.
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@sarac: this is what DH keeps telling me, that maybe LO is just a short napper. the only reason i think this isn't true is because she is super tired at the end of the day, really lethargic. is your LO pretty engaged/alert all day?
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what happens when you leave LO in the crib past the 30 min? in the moms on call book they mention around 8-12 weeks babies wakeup 30-45 min into a nap bc of "twilight sleep" stage. they say if you let them fuss for 15-20 min they'll go back to sleep.
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I hear you! I've resorted to taking LO (~16 weeks) on a 2-hour walk in the park most days just so he'll have at least one solid nap. It's been great for me too - exercise, quiet time, nature. But he usually won't stay asleep too long if he's in his crib.
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@kodybear: hmm okay. i will have to try that tomorrow. what is "twilight sleep"?
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@hummusgirl: i wish i could do that! whenever i've taken walks with LO, the cold air keeps her up and the bumps in the sidewalks just jolt her awake! i wish i lived near a mall so that we could be indoors and on smooth tiled floors!
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@JessLC: i have no idea what it means. i tried to google it but nothing came up. i kind of think they coined the term themselves. now that i think about it tho my LO did this for her first nap today. she kept waking up but wouldn't cry and then would just fall back asleep. i usually leave her in the crib till she starts crying or when its time to eat again.
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@JessLC: I never thought it would work bc she hates tummy time, but loves sleeping on her tummy....I think it makes her feel more secure and keeps her from flailing or jolting awake....most babies prefer sleeping on their tummies or sides....but I only feel ok doing it bc I can watch her on the monitor
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I'm sorry! My son was a 30 minute mapper from 4-6 months and it was brutal. Easy was all a mess and he took like 5 naps a day. I tried everything but in the end he just had to outgrow it on his own.
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@JessLC: She is. I've recently stopped giving her a second nap to get her to bed earlier (8pm versus 11pm), but if she gets her desired 2 30-60 minute naps she's happy as a little clam. She'd prefer to nap 11-11:30 and 4:-4:30, and then sleep 11-7.
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Mine also does this. 1.5 to 2 hr naps are my goal but I've resigned myself to the fact I can't do a whole lot about it. At 7 weeks she's too young to nap train, and if she won't go back down In her crib i put her in the swing or carrier. If you find something that works, please post it!
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@winniebee: YES! EASY is completely a disaster. they make it sound so simple, but by the time afternoon rolls around and EASAESASE etc, i'm like this EASY stuff is not so easy.
@sarac: that is a good point - the one benefit of having her so tired at the end of the day is that we've been able to move her bedtime up an hour in two days. hah.
@kml636: i will let you know! right now it seems hopeless! 7 weeks is def too young...LO is 11 weeks, so it might be doable for her, or so my friends have told me.
@NovBaby1112: that is really interesting! so no swaddle then, right?
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@kml636: how long do you try to stretch naps by putting her back in swing or carrier? I've gotten maybe ten extra minutes rocking and shhing but he definitely seems to associate waking with sleeping so its not long before he is wide awake and ready to eat if he's on my chest!
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Miss A has days when she all 30-45 minute sleeps and days when she has three hour sleeps!
Do you shut LO's curtains when she goes down for a nap? My Plunket Nurse suggested if for us because now that Baby is more interested in the outside world the darkened room can help her transition into the second sleep cycle.
Another suggestion might be to try feeding Baby before putting her down, I know that the Baby Whisperer frowns on it but it might be worth giving it a try for even one nap a day?
ETA I leave a radio going on A's room as background noise during the day so maybe you could try that too?
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@sarac: Same thing here!
Our baby never napped more than 30 minutes at a time until very recently. (She is now 9 months.) These days she still usually naps for 30 minutes, but she has been showing signs that she is finally ready to take longer naps.
I drove myself absolutely insane trying everything to get her to nap longer. We tried EASY, but it just doesn't work if your baby only naps for 30 minutes. For us *nothing* worked, and I only finally settled into parenting once I accepted the fact that my daughter was not going to nap for more than 30 minutes, and that was just something I would need to get used to. -
@skibobrown: That's pretty much where we are. His first nap is usually an hour-an hour and a half, and every so often he'll nap longer (yesterday he napped for 2 hours!), but by and large his naps are around 30 minutes.
It would be nice if babies would all act by the book, by my baby definitely does not act by "the book" (he refuses to be swaddled, take a paci, etc) It can be inconvenient for me for sure, but I just decided to go with the flow. To quote my MIL "Babies come into the world with their own agenda. Just go with it."
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@scg00387: even if she won't nap, I try to keep her eating every three hours. She's usually pretty happy in the swing even if she won't sleep.
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Have you read the No Cry Nap Solution? It sounds like your LO is waking up after her first sleep cycle and not going into a deeper sleep. In the book they suggest when it's getting close to the time your LO will wake up from their nap, you go in and comfort them and help them fall back asleep. It didn't work for us but it makes sense.
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@littlek: i haven't read that one, but i've tried going back in there before she wakes up and patting her, but she's just wide awake by then. did the whole technique not work for you? or just the part about soothing them?
ok today is a new day right? so we got up at 8am, i fed her...watched for her sleepy cues. yawn at 8:35am. while i'm doing her routine which takes about 8 minutes, she yawned 2 more times. i put her down and she's just been awake in her crib for the last 10 minutes because she got the hiccups (which actually happens pretty often). i'm hoping she falls asleep on her own, otherwise its another day of messed up EASY. did i miss her nap window?
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We are having the same problem with naps @ 8 weeks. She naps in her crib/bassinet for about only 20-25 minutes (40 mins if I'm really lucky), but has no problem whatsoever taking long naps in our arms or in her carseat or stroller while we're out running errands. She's not a fan of the swing or bouncer, so that's not an option for us either.
Hubs was off work for a few weeks around the holidays and was constantly letting her nap in his arms. Not sure if this is what did it?...I always read that you couldn't spoil a baby or teach bad habits in the first couple months. Pffft, yeah right!!
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@JessLC: correct, no swaddle...her crib is at an incline due to reflux so its a similar position to her laying on my chest when I'm reclined.
I don't think you missed the window today, but those darn hiccups always keep my Lo up.!
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@JessLC: I hate the hiccups!!
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@JessLC: ugh i hate when they get the hiccups RIGHT as you're trying to get them to go to sleep! So annoying!
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