As I mentioned previously, we've been working to transition Jackson from his bouncer to his crib for naps and we've also been trying to help him give up his catnaps in favor of longer naps. I'm excited to say we've made HUGE progress on both fronts over the past few weeks.
For all three daytime naps, he's been in his crib for almost the last two weeks. The key was finding the right timing to put him down for a nap --- he needs to be drowsy but not too tired and thus too cranky. I also started a nap time routine so that he starts to understand when it's time to go to sleep. I swaddle him and then rock him for a few minutes until his eyes get nice and heavy. Then I drop him off in his crib and let him drift off to dreamland. So far, it's been working pretty well. We still put him in his swing or bouncer for his evening nap as that tends to be his more fussy time and when he seems the most tired and we want to ensure he gets some good napping in, which both of these guarantee.
As far as longer naps, he's had some FABULOUS naps the past three days and I really hope he keeps this up rather than going back to the 43-minute catnaps. Yes, I had them timed down to the minute - for nearly every nap over the last 3-4 weeks, he would wake up fussing or crying at 43ish minutes. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't mind if he was a cat napper and woke up rested, but he was waking up clearly still tired and was fairly cranky.
After scouring the Internet and reading several sleep books to find a resolution, I learned that he was probably having trouble transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next during his naps. (Side note - they actually have a name for this napping issue --- the '45-minute intruder'.) I had no idea why, since he is able to put himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime (we try put him down drowsy but awake so that he knows that it's up to him to fall asleep) and obviously during the night when he wakes up since I'm assuming that when he sleeps 8-10 hours overnight, there have to be some wake-ups in there that we aren't even aware of.
Turns out it could be because he's overtired when he goes down for a nap, just a phase or there could be something distracting him from falling back asleep. Since I've played around with the times I put him down for a nap, I didn't think it was that he was overtired, and since it doesn't matter where he's sleeping, whether it's light or dark, etc, I didn't think it was from any specific distractions. So I figured it must just be a phase and based on what I read, it sounds like it's something most babies eventually outgrow. After trying some suggestions I read about - like trying to soothe him back to sleep as soon as he makes a peep at the 43-minute mark - he suddenly started sleeping much longer over the last three days and waking up less tired and fussy (and an added bonus is that I have been able to get more done)! I did have to occassionally help soothe him a bit if he woke up in the middle of the nap, but he went from getting about 3-4 hours of naps per day to 5-6.5 hours --- he's had several 2-hour naps, a few 1-hour naps and a couple 1.5-hour naps!
Yay for naps that help J wake up happy and yay for being a more productive mama! Fingers crossed he keeps it up!
For all three daytime naps, he's been in his crib for almost the last two weeks. The key was finding the right timing to put him down for a nap --- he needs to be drowsy but not too tired and thus too cranky. I also started a nap time routine so that he starts to understand when it's time to go to sleep. I swaddle him and then rock him for a few minutes until his eyes get nice and heavy. Then I drop him off in his crib and let him drift off to dreamland. So far, it's been working pretty well. We still put him in his swing or bouncer for his evening nap as that tends to be his more fussy time and when he seems the most tired and we want to ensure he gets some good napping in, which both of these guarantee.
As far as longer naps, he's had some FABULOUS naps the past three days and I really hope he keeps this up rather than going back to the 43-minute catnaps. Yes, I had them timed down to the minute - for nearly every nap over the last 3-4 weeks, he would wake up fussing or crying at 43ish minutes. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't mind if he was a cat napper and woke up rested, but he was waking up clearly still tired and was fairly cranky.
After scouring the Internet and reading several sleep books to find a resolution, I learned that he was probably having trouble transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next during his naps. (Side note - they actually have a name for this napping issue --- the '45-minute intruder'.) I had no idea why, since he is able to put himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime (we try put him down drowsy but awake so that he knows that it's up to him to fall asleep) and obviously during the night when he wakes up since I'm assuming that when he sleeps 8-10 hours overnight, there have to be some wake-ups in there that we aren't even aware of.
Turns out it could be because he's overtired when he goes down for a nap, just a phase or there could be something distracting him from falling back asleep. Since I've played around with the times I put him down for a nap, I didn't think it was that he was overtired, and since it doesn't matter where he's sleeping, whether it's light or dark, etc, I didn't think it was from any specific distractions. So I figured it must just be a phase and based on what I read, it sounds like it's something most babies eventually outgrow. After trying some suggestions I read about - like trying to soothe him back to sleep as soon as he makes a peep at the 43-minute mark - he suddenly started sleeping much longer over the last three days and waking up less tired and fussy (and an added bonus is that I have been able to get more done)! I did have to occassionally help soothe him a bit if he woke up in the middle of the nap, but he went from getting about 3-4 hours of naps per day to 5-6.5 hours --- he's had several 2-hour naps, a few 1-hour naps and a couple 1.5-hour naps!
Yay for naps that help J wake up happy and yay for being a more productive mama! Fingers crossed he keeps it up!
Apparently the nap time routine works on Roxy, too...
1 comment:
Hooray for good sleepers! It's amazing what you can get done when they take good naps, isn't it?!
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