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  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by HannaAddict View Post
    Mine took "lap naps" quite often at that age after nursing to sleep, and I rested too. I don't know many babies IRL who actually take long naps in cribs at that age. Only in books! My second slept great in her papasan swing even though it was right in between the living and dining room so I could watch her. But of course her brother was at preschool so it was pretty quiet. Good luck. I'd try suggestions and if not, keep nursing. I'd even take a nap next to baby at that age if it helped mine sleep. Exhaustion is hard, hang in there.
    Thanks for the suggestion. I'll do as suggested. It makes sense because I use to hold him and sleep with him when he was newborn

  2. #12
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    Default working on lengthening nap

    So, today he woke up at 6 am and last feeding was 12 am. So we started the day at 6 am and he started getting tired at around 7 am so I nurse him and he fell asleep by 7:45 am and I put him in the swing and he's awake, but I let him stay in the swing and I had to send DD to school and asked my husband to watch him and by 8:45 am he's still not sleeping and we realized that his swing wasn't fully swing because we didn't set it up correctly, so we messed up his morning nap and he was overtired and very difficult to settle so I nursed him to sleep and he only took 20 minute naps and I nursed him again and he's down for another 15 minutes. 1 hour later he's tired again and I nurse him and he's asleep and I held him in my arms this time for 30 minutes hoping I could help him past that first cycle, but no, he's wide awake by 30 minutes in my arms, tried to nurse him back to sleep and he's not sleeping anymore. I'm hoping with 3rd nap he can at least take 1 hour nap or it is going to be difficult to drop to 3 naps. Is it because he was overtired at first nap ? it's quite challenging trying to figure out that window of wakefulness
    I hope it will get better....

  3. #13
    Philly Mom is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    I will tell you what we did/are doing. DD2 is 4.5 months old. Neither of my kids could sleep for any length of time in my arms by 4 months. I could get 20-30 mins tops. My kids hit a point, around 4 to 4.5 months when they need to nap in their crib and not on the go or in the swing. Being in the swing or the stroller are too stimulating. I can only get cat naps out of either place. So reading your last update I wonder if the 6am wakeup, is just a wakeup and not a wakeup for the day. Most days when DD2 wakes up before 7/7:30, I can nurse her and put her back down to sleep. She will often go back to bed for another hour or two even. She seems to do better during the day if she is in her bed until 8. I had to try putting her back down in her crib a couple of mornings before she started to reliably go back to sleep. I treat it the same as I treat the middle of the night feeding. When she wakes up later than 7, I treat it differently, turn on lights, get her dressed, etc. I then find that she is good for at least 2 hours of awake time, and sometimes even a bit longer if I really engage/entertain her. I then decide whether or not to nurse her. Even if I only nursed her an hour earlier (we have a growth issue), I often will nurse her if I think she needs a top off. Regardless, around 10, I put her down in her crib. In the beginning of this process she did cry for a couple minutes but it was more like a fussy cry than a hysterical cry and I cap the amount of time I will let her fuss before I go in and try again. If she doesn't settle fairly quick, I just nurse her to sleep. Of course, then she only naps for a short period. We are having less of that now than we did 10 days ago. I now tend to get an hour to two hours of napping from her. When she wakes, I nurse her, and try to really engage her. At that point, I take her for a walk in the stroller if it is nice enough, or walk her in the baby carrier or take her to lunch with friends, anything to keep her engaged. I then try to hold her off until 2 but often need to put her down by 1:30. She then wakes up between 3 and 4. I nurse her when she wakes up. If she is exhausted and has not napped enough, she will fall back asleep in my arms and nap for 15-20 more minutes. At that point we are up for the duration. We play, pick up her big sister from school, have dinner, bath and she is in bed by 7. Between 6 and 7 I feed her quite a bit but again we have weight gain issues so I am trying to make sure she is getting plenty of calories. She starts daycare in a few weeks and hopefully they can stick to the same schedule. We used this schedule with my 2.5 year old at 5 months, nap at 10 and 2 and it worked well. If she has not napped well during the day, around 3:30 or 4, I will put her in the swing and hope to get a small nap from her then. It did take a week for her to get used to napping in her crib and I would often just start with one nap and once she was going down well for that nap, I added in the other nap. Any bit of a cat nap, throws this off entirely especially in the afternoon. If she falls asleep in the car, she will wake up as soon as we get home and I can't get her to nap in her crib or anywhere else at that point.

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philly Mom View Post
    Regardless, around 10, I put her down in her crib. In the beginning of this process she did cry for a couple minutes but it was more like a fussy cry than a hysterical cry and I cap the amount of time I will let her fuss before I go in and try again. If she doesn't settle fairly quick, I just nurse her to sleep. Of course, then she only naps for a short period. We are having less of that now than we did 10 days ago. I now tend to get an hour to two hours of napping from her.
    I know a cat nap in a car also throws off my 3-year old DD's nap (yes, she's still taking 2-hour nap).
    So, it sounds like I need to try to extend his wake time close to 2 hours it seems like. All this time I watched his cues, which worked perfectly when he was younger. I managed to get him to nap for 1 1/2 hours for 3rd nap earlier after nursing him for 30 minutes and put him down on a regular bed (not his crib or swing) that we have in his room. And after waking up from that long nap he's still rubbing his eyes and yawning, which kinda tell me, I can't really go by his cues anymore, but better go by wake time ?

    I always started to sooth him by nursing 15-20 minutes before 90 minutes are up all this time or when I started seeing him getting a bit cranky which is usually less than 90 minutes. But when he is distracted or any of us entertain him he'll still be laughing and playing with us and when we have playdate, he can stay awake longer than 90 minutes. If I remember correctly I read somewhere that starting from 5 months it's better to go by wake time appropriate for age but not to overtired them of course.
    I need to try that maybe because he might be tired but not tired enough to take a long nap and just cat napping on me ever since he turned 4 months.

  5. #15
    Philly Mom is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by babyfiorina1 View Post
    I know a cat nap in a car also throws off my 3-year old DD's nap (yes, she's still taking 2-hour nap).
    So, it sounds like I need to try to extend his wake time close to 2 hours it seems like. All this time I watched his cues, which worked perfectly when he was younger. I managed to get him to nap for 1 1/2 hours for 3rd nap earlier after nursing him for 30 minutes and put him down on a regular bed (not his crib or swing) that we have in his room. And after waking up from that long nap he's still rubbing his eyes and yawning, which kinda tell me, I can't really go by his cues anymore, but better go by wake time ?

    I always started to sooth him by nursing 15-20 minutes before 90 minutes are up all this time or when I started seeing him getting a bit cranky which is usually less than 90 minutes. But when he is distracted or any of us entertain him he'll still be laughing and playing with us and when we have playdate, he can stay awake longer than 90 minutes. If I remember correctly I read somewhere that starting from 5 months it's better to go by wake time appropriate for age but not to overtired them of course.
    I need to try that maybe because he might be tired but not tired enough to take a long nap and just cat napping on me ever since he turned 4 months.
    I found that once I can get my kids used to going down for naps at the same time every day, their naps get better. I am aiming for 10 and 2. When I can get her to those two times, even if it means she is up for 3 hours, I get better naps.


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  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philly Mom View Post
    I found that once I can get my kids used to going down for naps at the same time every day, their naps get better. I am aiming for 10 and 2. When I can get her to those two times, even if it means she is up for 3 hours, I get better naps.


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    I plan to try that starting today. My difficulty is when it's nearing bed time. When I make him skip the 4th nap, and move his bed time a bit earlier, he'll treat that as 4th nap and I usually nurse him before bed time and make sure to tank him up (can take up to one hour) and he usually won't be awake until 6 hours later to eat. But if he's too tired to nurse and fall asleep on me, I wonder what should I do ? To keep nursing him pass that 30 minutes time then he's awake (because he takes that as 4th nap) to eat and proceed to bed time ? because usually after 4th nap, he's ready for bed time really soon too, less than 1hour.

    So, my question also is if he misses nap, should I still stick to a schedule or need to move next nap earlier ? or pretty much just stick to a schedule whether he miss nap or not or if his nap is short ? I'm going to try 9, 12, 3 pm nap for him for now... Thank you

  7. #17
    Philly Mom is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by babyfiorina1 View Post
    I plan to try that starting today. My difficulty is when it's nearing bed time. When I make him skip the 4th nap, and move his bed time a bit earlier, he'll treat that as 4th nap and I usually nurse him before bed time and make sure to tank him up (can take up to one hour) and he usually won't be awake until 6 hours later to eat. But if he's too tired to nurse and fall asleep on me, I wonder what should I do ? To keep nursing him pass that 30 minutes time then he's awake (because he takes that as 4th nap) to eat and proceed to bed time ? because usually after 4th nap, he's ready for bed time really soon too, less than 1hour.

    So, my question also is if he misses nap, should I still stick to a schedule or need to move next nap earlier ? or pretty much just stick to a schedule whether he miss nap or not or if his nap is short ? I'm going to try 9, 12, 3 pm nap for him for now... Thank you
    If we miss a nap or have a bad one, I don't move bedtime earlier. Bedtime is 7 everyday. For bedtime, we take a bath, dress, nurse, bed. So the routine is different than naps but I don't move bedtime. Yesterday we were out so I didn't get her down for her first nap until 11. She passed out while nursing and only napped 45 mins. I put her down at 2, another 45 minute nap. After that, I kept her up until bedtime. My husband locked us out of our house so that helped. Had we been home, I may have tried the swing around 4:30 but would have made sure she was up by 5.


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  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philly Mom View Post
    If we miss a nap or have a bad one, I don't move bedtime earlier. Bedtime is 7 everyday. For bedtime, we take a bath, dress, nurse, bed. So the routine is different than naps but I don't move bedtime. Yesterday we were out so I didn't get her down for her first nap until 11. She passed out while nursing and only napped 45 mins. I put her down at 2, another 45 minute nap. After that, I kept her up until bedtime. My husband locked us out of our house so that helped. Had we been home, I may have tried the swing around 4:30 but would have made sure she was up by 5.


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    He's already up at 6:30 am today and wouldn't go back to sleep. My hope was he would awake by 7, because he's been consistently doing that and his bed time is around 6 almost every night. So, I'll try to keep him awake until 9 am and I'm sure he will need to eat before 9 and usually i nurse him in his dark room, but I can't do that now, because if i do, he'll sure nap on me by 8 or something. I probably need to try nurse him at other room or brighter room, he's a bit distracted now, so that's challenging

    and I think this may take a week or so before he get used to the schedule change ? Thanks. I'm entertaining him now and it's almost 8
    Last edited by babyfiorina1; 03-23-2014 at 08:48 AM.

  9. #19
    Philly Mom is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Quote Originally Posted by babyfiorina1 View Post
    He's already up at 6:30 am today and wouldn't go back to sleep. My hope was he would awake by 7, because he's been consistently doing that and his bed time is around 6 almost every night. So, I'll try to keep him awake until 9 am and I'm sure he will need to eat before 9 and usually i nurse him in his dark room, but I can't do that now, because if i do, he'll sure nap on me by 8 or something. I probably need to try nurse him at other room or brighter room, he's a bit distracted now, so that's challenging

    and I think this may take a week or so before he get used to the schedule change ? Thanks. I'm entertaining him now and it's almost 8
    Getting them to eat, not be distracted and not fall asleep is hard. I try to feed a good bit (20-30 mins) before the nap time. When naps are off, it is hard to keep her awake/engaged. I unlatch if she seems to be falling asleep and either relatch after a second or change a diaper and then relatch. As I said up thread, DD2 is small and a slow gainer so I feed fairly often during the day. I hope that it helps both with growth and sleep. Not sure it is actually working for either though we were up at 1 and 5:15 last night.



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  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philly Mom View Post
    Getting them to eat, not be distracted and not fall asleep is hard. I try to feed a good bit (20-30 mins) before the nap time. When naps are off, it is hard to keep her awake/engaged. I unlatch if she seems to be falling asleep and either relatch after a second or change a diaper and then relatch. As I said up thread, DD2 is small and a slow gainer so I feed fairly often during the day. I hope that it helps both with growth and sleep. Not sure it is actually working for either though we were up at 1 and 5:15 last night.



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    6:30 am wake up but don't want to eat
    8:00 feed and then play
    9 - 9:30 first nap (nurse to sleep)
    9:30 feed and then play
    11:30 - 12:00 second nap only managed to keep him up until 11:30 this time as he just super crabby by then nurse again and only fall asleep for another 15 minutes

    I have a feeling he's treating that 11:30 nap as his short second nap as usual and the 3rd one is usually a longer one and then 4th nap. sigh.

    So next nap will be at 2:00

    I started to wonder if I'm trying too hard to fix his cat naps as he's 5 1/2 months as some friends told me their babies organized their sleep as they reach 6 to 7 months without them doing anything. Oh gosh...it just makes me feel if I'm doing the right thing or not...should I continue..or not...but this is just day 1 though....

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