Well it has been a hectic two weeks with my LO. About two weeks ago I finally decided to cut out her third nap. You know the one, the late evening nap usually somewhere between 5-6pm that lasts only about 45 minutes max. At first I was excited as she never really went down well for this nap and selfishly I could not wait to have more time in the evening and actually go out for dinner at a normal hour (instead of late night or early-bird special).
Day one I prepared myself for some crying. She napped well for her first two naps 1 1/2 - 2 hours a piece. Then came 5:30pm, the time I would be getting ready to put her down for her evening catnap. She was getting tired (having been awake 2 1/2 hours) and rubbing her eyes. Playing independently was not going to happen so I resorted to walking around the home holding her to stall and "use up" some time. We looked in the pantry, talked to ourselves in front of the mirror and took a walk in the backyard. She was BEAT and it had only been 20 minutes. I knew I needed to nurse her and then try and do some kind of nighttime routine in order to help her know it is bedtime not naptime. I went to the back room to feed. I had the lights dimmed to set a calm ambiance and light music on. She did not care.....she whined/whimpered the entire feed and did not feed well. I gave her a mini-bath (bad idea) and then put her down. In total she was awake 3 hours and 20 minutes (instead of her normal 2 hours and 30 minutes) and her bedtime moved from 8:30 all the way up to 6:20pm.
I wondered if the change in her bedtime would backfire and if she would wake early in the middle of the night. She did not HORRAY!!!! BUUUUUTTT I did not escape totally scott-free. For the past week her daytime sleep has been off. Her normal daily naps began to shorted to 45 minutes to an hour and ten minutes. This really messed with her active time as at each active time she was up much longer. She did not like this but if I put her down for her next nap early her bedtime would have been 5:30pm (which is CRAZY). My other option was to go back to 3 naps again but that was not ideal either. I could not figure out what to do and really thought I just needed to give up the whole dropped nap thing. Then it occurred to me....she was sleeping too much at night. I reflected back on my reading from Secrets of a Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg and Dr. Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems and remembered that they both noted that a 6 month old needed approx. 13-15 hours of sleep total. No wonder she did not want to nap during the day. With her new bedtime she was getting about 14 hours of this total sleep time at night. This sounds in theory like an okay situation but in reality what I had was a baby who was not very well rested during the day and would get fussy quite easily. I knew what I needed to do. I knew what I had to do. I had to keep her awake a little more at night to create a later bedtime AND I had to get her up a little earlier in the morning (good-bye 8:00am wake time).
I started by keeping her up only 15 minutes more at night and I also stretched each daily active time by about 10 minutes as well. I also woke her at 7am to be sure she was not getting too much sleep at night. TA-DA...within two days, problem solved. I kept extending her bedtime by about 5 -10 minutes a day until she finally got to a 8:15ish bedtime. All is well and naps are restored!!! :-) Happy Baby= Happy Mommy
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FIXING YOUR BABY'S NAP/SLEEP PROBLEMS CLICK ON THE "SLEEPING" TAB ON THE RIGHT!!!!
Showing posts with label EASY routine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EASY routine. Show all posts
19.3.12
9.3.12
E.A.S.Y Routine
If you are looking for information regarding putting your LO on an E.A.S.Y. routine, then click on the "sleeping" tab on the right side of this page. It has a ton of information regarding putting your baby on an E.A.S.Y. routine and also includes some sample routines/schedules.
24.1.12
Adventures in UNSWADDLING
Over the past few weeks it has become clear to my husband and I that our 4 1/2 month LO needs to learn to sleep without her swaddle. Let me begin by saying I LOOOOOVE swaddling. Our LO has always slept well swaddled and it has helped curb her desire to look around and move around during nap/sleep time. However now that she can roll over we feel very unsafe with her arms pinned at her side when she rolls onto her tummy.
She has always been very aware and if she can see anything she will look at it and not sleep (so we removed the mobile from her crib) she also loves to grab at things (primarily her face and ears) so swaddling has been a dream. Currently we follow a 4-hour EASY routine and she sleeps about 2 hours each nap and has slept through the night since about 10 weeks. HOWEVER we knew when it was time to unswaddle her, everything would change.
I read recommendations from our favorite books, Happiest Baby on the Block, On Becoming Babywise and Secrets of a Baby Whisperer and each had different recommendations for weaning our LO from her swaddle. The suggestions ranged from swaddling her lightly to swaddling one arm out and then moving to both arms out.
LIGHT SWADDLING
First we tried swaddling her lightly. This was a mess. She was completely unswaddled in less than 2 minutes and rolling all around in her crib. Her arms were flying in the air as if she was doing back strokes or making snow angels in the sheets and her legs and butt kept lifting to the sky. It took her over a hour to calm down and then she only got about a 15 minutes nap. Well like anything I know how important consistency and perseverance is so we tried it for several days in a row. Nothing was getting better and the poor little girl was cranky and sleep deprived.
ONE ARM OUT SWADDLE
Next we tried using her swaddle and leaving one arm out. This also did not help. She would roll over and have one arm flopping around. Without the other arm out of the swaddle she had a hard time rolling back over or pushing her head up (which for safety reasons made me VERY uncomfortable). Again she took FOREVER to wind down and only slept due to pure exhaustion. We tried it for a few days just to give it a chance, and like the loose swaddle experiment, she was not getting used to it and her sleep was compromised.
Searching for a solution I called friends and read online blogs and articles. Nothing new seemed to be coming up BUT I was realizing that I was not alone in this search. So many moms were seeking a solution for their squirmy little sleeper who was getting too big to swaddle.
ZIPADEE-ZIP
On one blog site I read about a product called the Zipadee-Zip. It was sort of a "transition" sleep sack. It contained her arms but had room for them to move about and allowed her to push her head up if she rolled over (which she always did). It also contained her feet so that they would stay warm and it still gave her a bit of the safety feeling of being swaddled. The first time we used it, it too her about 30 minutes to wind down and fall asleep but once asleep she did not wake. A FLUKE? So we used it at her next nap and again she rolled around for a bit and giggled and wiggled but then fell asleep on her side. It took several days and a little crying here and there but by the third day she was sleeping like a dream and most importantly SAFE when she she rolled over one her tummy (since she could use her arms). We are back to soundly sleeping little baby which makes for a VERY happy mommy. I will let you know how it goes when she hits her next milestone and starts sitting up in her crib...:-)
She has always been very aware and if she can see anything she will look at it and not sleep (so we removed the mobile from her crib) she also loves to grab at things (primarily her face and ears) so swaddling has been a dream. Currently we follow a 4-hour EASY routine and she sleeps about 2 hours each nap and has slept through the night since about 10 weeks. HOWEVER we knew when it was time to unswaddle her, everything would change.
I read recommendations from our favorite books, Happiest Baby on the Block, On Becoming Babywise and Secrets of a Baby Whisperer and each had different recommendations for weaning our LO from her swaddle. The suggestions ranged from swaddling her lightly to swaddling one arm out and then moving to both arms out.
LIGHT SWADDLING
First we tried swaddling her lightly. This was a mess. She was completely unswaddled in less than 2 minutes and rolling all around in her crib. Her arms were flying in the air as if she was doing back strokes or making snow angels in the sheets and her legs and butt kept lifting to the sky. It took her over a hour to calm down and then she only got about a 15 minutes nap. Well like anything I know how important consistency and perseverance is so we tried it for several days in a row. Nothing was getting better and the poor little girl was cranky and sleep deprived.
ONE ARM OUT SWADDLE
Next we tried using her swaddle and leaving one arm out. This also did not help. She would roll over and have one arm flopping around. Without the other arm out of the swaddle she had a hard time rolling back over or pushing her head up (which for safety reasons made me VERY uncomfortable). Again she took FOREVER to wind down and only slept due to pure exhaustion. We tried it for a few days just to give it a chance, and like the loose swaddle experiment, she was not getting used to it and her sleep was compromised.
Searching for a solution I called friends and read online blogs and articles. Nothing new seemed to be coming up BUT I was realizing that I was not alone in this search. So many moms were seeking a solution for their squirmy little sleeper who was getting too big to swaddle.
ZIPADEE-ZIP
On one blog site I read about a product called the Zipadee-Zip. It was sort of a "transition" sleep sack. It contained her arms but had room for them to move about and allowed her to push her head up if she rolled over (which she always did). It also contained her feet so that they would stay warm and it still gave her a bit of the safety feeling of being swaddled. The first time we used it, it too her about 30 minutes to wind down and fall asleep but once asleep she did not wake. A FLUKE? So we used it at her next nap and again she rolled around for a bit and giggled and wiggled but then fell asleep on her side. It took several days and a little crying here and there but by the third day she was sleeping like a dream and most importantly SAFE when she she rolled over one her tummy (since she could use her arms). We are back to soundly sleeping little baby which makes for a VERY happy mommy. I will let you know how it goes when she hits her next milestone and starts sitting up in her crib...:-)
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