DD will be 5 months on the 12th. I don't mind rocking her/helping her fall asleep to take a nap as it usually only takes 10-20 minutes, which is reasonable to me. BUT lately she has only been sleeping 10-20 minutes after putting her down & it's making me crazy! Sometimes she'll wake up smiling (she's a generally happy girl) but sometimes it's abundantly clear in her attitude that she needed a better nap. I've heard that nap training can lead to longer sleeps, is this true?
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Nope. We nap trained the same as night, with no cry sleep solution, so he was going down awake. No matter what his awake times were, or how long I left him happy in the crib after he woke up, he took short 30 minute naps until about 5.5. months when they started to lengthen on their own. Could she be dropping a nap?
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@scg00387: well, she has a schedule but I don't really watch the clock so she usually just naps whenever she starts acting tired, so it's not really like I'm forcing a nap on her that she's ready to stop taking.
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@Mrs. Sunshine: Gotcha. A 10-20 minute nap, waking up happy, just seems like maybe she was tired enough to fall asleep but not tired enough to take a longer nap? If I were you, I'd experiment with a little longer awake time and see what happens.
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@scg00387: thanks! We'll try it!
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Yes and no. Our biggest problem was that it took forever of rocking or nursing to sleep and then she would wake up on the transfer to the crib 50% of the time. We did CIO and her naps definitely got better, but we still struggle with short, one sleep cycle naps sometimes- one day it's all 38 min naps, the next she will sleep for 2 hours.
However, it was around 5 months that I started lengthening awake time. I watched a sleep webinar about sleep at this age and tegu warned not to get stuck in the newborn rut of putting them down at the first sleep cue. Try stretching to two hours and see what happens.
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Yes and no. The biggest reason we nap trained is because nursing/rocking to sleep no longer worked. So I needed him to fall asleep on his own. once he did, his naps at first were the same length as they were when I had nursed/rocked to sleep--30-40 minutes. But eventually they lengthened. I think part of that is developmental--it's normal for babies to have trouble stringing together sleep cycles at that age, and while sleep training might help with that, it might not and it might just take time. We used a form of the sleep lady shuffle at 5 months, and modified CIO/Ferber's method at 13.5 months.
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@Foodnerd81: ahh, I definitely worry about her getting "too tired" & try to out her down within 5 minutes of the first sleep cue...we will definitely try to stretch awake time!
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@Mrs. Sunshine: I know what you mean. I spent the last 5 months in fear of missing a sleep cue and having an overtired baby in 12 seconds flat, then suddenly it's all "Oh, hey, keep her awake longer, silly!" Now I wait until she really looks tired, not just the very first cue, and it's roughly 2 hours these days, longer from last nap to bed. But still, every so often she cries as we are trying to do a nap and I know I got the timing wrong. Did I do it too soon? Too late? I don't know, I just know I was wrong.
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@Foodnerd81: I noticed the other day that she went 4 hours between last nap & bed! I was so shocked & she was happy as could be the whole time
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It helped in the sense she could fall asleep on her own. But it was 9 months before she would take regular long naps.
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Now I don't know what our game plan for tomorrow will be. Never in her little life has she cried so much at bedtime. We just did the same routine we have done for months, it always works. Bath, diaper/cozies, nurse, swaddle, rock to sleep. She was wide awake after nursing which happens sometimes, so we told daddy goodnight, I took her to her room, swaddled her & began to rock & sing to her. After about a minute & a half she started screaming & wouldn't stop. So I went & out her in her bed awake (which we never do) & she "slept" for about 5 minutes. Then started screaming. This went on for about 30 minutes before I nursed her again & she fell asleep. I waited a while for her get into a good sleep & laid her down. She started crying again & continued to do so for the past 30 minutes. She's finally asleep now. The crying is off & on. Her sweet little face is swollen from crying & it makes me so sad. I have no idea what's up with her today. I have no idea how to handle tomorrow now.
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