Lengthening Naps

[mushi]

try letting her cry for about 20 mins....if she is still sleepy she would derfi go abck to sleep ....if she doesn;t then i don;t think she really needs any extra sleep.....u can progressively go in and pat her every 5 mins if the crying gets to u....but i would suggest to just let her be and see if the crying is dying out....i did this for my son;s night sleep and it worked well to amke him sleep thru the night.....but his naps are still 40 mins....after waking up every hour in the night for 7 months i am really not complianing!!!!

 

[Suv]

Hi Megan2008,

I have managed to lengthen the 45 min nap (one sleep cycle) time with the following suggestion- for a couple of days you have sit by your baby's side right about the time you know they are about to get up. At the first sign of waking up, pat them down. Since they are already in a sleepy state, its easier for them to move into the next sleep cycle. Its a little tiresome to just sit around but it worked pretty well for me (it took me about 3-4 naps to help him sleep longer) because my son also would start getting cranky after the effect of the power nap was over.

Elizabeth pantley also had the suggestion that you do anything and everything you can incl. feeding the baby to sleep for a couple of days and not let them get out of the sleepy stage, and you will probably teach them to nap longer.

Re: crying when she gets on her tummy- is her hand is not stuck underneath? My mom said I used to get very upset as a baby when I started rolling over as well because I used to get both my hands stuck under me till she taught me how to get my hands out!!

 

[Suv]

Sorry, LeahH had the same advice.

 

[megan2008]

Thanks for the advice. She actually goes to bed quite well now (knock on wood) and can nap for more than 45 minutes sometimes which makes me think that she does know how to fall back to sleep yet doesn't???? She still isn't consistant with how long she naps and has even gone shorter for 30 min and I know that she is tired As for the night wakings of every hour.....she was teething and it has gotton much better. Still not sure about the naps. Do you think that maybe she just doesn't need it despite the fact that she looks tired? If she does need it, then why does she sometimes sleep for two to three hours sometimes? Is it even realistic to have a set nap schedule b/c sometimes she wakes at 6am and sometimes 7 which makes a huge difference on when she takes a nap. Sorry, I just don't know if I will ever have a solid nap schedule ( and am not sure if I want to go through the stress of it)...... sigh

 

[southside852]

some moms feel totally comfortable without having a "firm" schedule. babies will sleep when they want to, but for me personally, a routine helps me get on with my life and helps me plan our day together (i.e. market runs with him, playgroup times etc...)

our son wakes up from anywhere between 6 - 6:45/7am these days. 45 minutes is a huge difference. He normally shows signs of tiredness at 8:30am (with a 6:15am wake-upt time) so if he wakes up later, I just push the nap back. So if he wakes up at 7one morning, his nap will be around 9/9:30am.