cat napping

[JessandKirra]

well, we all seem to have our isssues on sleeping and they change so rapidly. As i sit here typing my problem my dd has just hit the hour mark on her 1st morning nap, breakthrough! Didnt do any thing different.

My problem, usually :p , is I cant get her to sleep for longer than half an hour, during the day. I have tried quite house, loud house, darkened room, light room, door closed, door open.

I find resettling quite hard during the day bt a piece of cake at night. Day time to resettle you walk in and she grinning and giggling like she has had the 2 hours she is supposed to. :confused: not interested in going back to sleep.

The sleep feed play scenario is quite hard to do, with half an hour naps.

Any thoughts?

[Benandrewsmum]

Hi Kirraandjess

I don't really have any advice but just wanted to empathise!! Your story sounds all too familiar!!

Ben is about 4 and a half months old and is usually a good sleeper at night (although has his phases) but I have never been able to get him to sleep through the day for longer than about 45 minutes.

Guess what...he is sleeping at the moment and has been asleep for about 1 and a half hours!! Yippee!! Maybe it is the moon!!

I too am interested in any tips people have for kirraandjess.

Cheers

[belinda]

sorry i ave no advice but my boy who is 5 months old hardly ever has a sleep through the day except maybe 2 half an hours if i am lucky... but i have been going for an hour walk in the morning and he is starting to sleep on the walk so he is atleast a little happier... yep thats the same as me i just can never resettle him after he has waken after like 10 mons but i have tryed everything too....
but i just look on the bright side he does sleep though the whole night so i find that good..

sorry i was no help

belinda

[Ethans_mum]

Hi Guys,

I had exactly the same problem with my little one a couple of months back. Ethan who is now almost 5 months would sleep OK during the night but refused to sleep for more than 45 mins during the day.

I think the main thing that helped, was me paying really close attention to his tired signs. As soon as I saw 1 yawn or he started to become cranky while playing with his toys I would go through the bed time ritual which is the same for both day and night.

I change his nappy, wrap him tight, give him his dummy, put him in his cot, close the blinds and turn on the same CD I have been using to put him to sleep since the day I got him home from the hospital.

I follow the feed, play, sleep routine which also really helps. Once he wakes in the morning which is around 6am he is awake 2 hours and sleeps 2 hours, this goes on all day until around 5pm. I noticed though that his last afternoon sleep before his bath he will only sleep around 45 mins, which they tell me is pretty normal.

I know you can't sit and watch for tired signs ever minute your bubs is awake but if you know approximately how long bubs plays for then half an hour before that just sit with them and watch.

Because Ethan has a pretty nice routine of 2 up and 2 down, I know pretty much when to start looking for the tired signs. Even if he has only been up for an hour and a half and I see his first yawn, then off to bed he goes.

Don't get me wrong every now and again he may wake after an hour. I just wait until he actually starts to cry (not whimper) before I go in. I have found that he may even have a mantra cry (small cry) but will go back off into deep sleep. If I do have to go into him I re wrap him and give him his dummy. I do all this without any eye contact, and I never talk to him while re settling, it wakes him too much. I know it is really hard if they start to smile and giggle, its almost irrestible but I try to be strong.

If I had any complaints about his sleep it would be the time he wakes in the morning anything from 5.30 - 7.00. I wish he was more like his mum and enjoy sleeping in. But you can't have everything :)

If all else fails I do recommend one book that I have find to be priceless called The Baby Whisperer - Solves All Your Problems. There are a couple of books by The Baby Whisper but this one relates to our babies age range. She talks alot about routines (not schedules, don't worry) and tired signs, plus many more helpful hints and tips.

There is also a website with a heap of valuable info:

http://www.babywhisperer.com/

Good luck, if you get a chance let me know if anything I have suggested has helped!

best regards
Ethans_mum

[Ineedsleep]

Mine is now 19m but when she was "new" she wouldn't sleep more than 20mins - sometimes i could pick her up and she'd sleep for an hour while i held her - very practical, not!! I was going insane, I couldn't go anywhere because she could only be up for 1.5 hrs and she'd get tired and cranky. At 4.5months I bought a baby hammock (yes a proper one!) and bliss. She slept 45mins 1st day then 1.5hrs per sleep the next and every day after.

Oh she never slept well at night either.

One day when there's a blue moon she'll sleep through the night....

[AM]

My son used to do the 40 minute nap thing, and I used a trick I got out of "The nocry sleep solution" which was to watch for waking up signs on the half hour or whatever, then use whatever technique to get him back to sleep, before he really woke up.
It was easy for me 'cos i just had to pop the boob in his mouth, and he'd go off for another 40 minutes or so.
After a week or so of doing that, he was consistently sleeping for 1 and a half hours.
I still use it today, and he is 19 months old, sometimes I can stretch his 2 hour nap out to 3 hours.

[TobyMsmum]

My bub was like yours when we first started to insist he slept on his back (ooh, insist sounds nasty!! I mean, when we made a big effort to encourage back sleeping) I used the technique by Tizzie Hall (website www.saveoursleep.com), where you let them cry for 2 minutes max, then go in, with no eye contact, roll them on to their side & pat/rub their back to soothe them to sleep. it takes persistance, but Toby now sleeps for up to 2 1/2 hours at a time during the day, and I've only been doing it for a week. He is also sleeping through at night. I found the technique in the Baby's First Year magazine put out by Practical Parenting mag, now in newsagents. Hope it helps you too :) And sorry if I sound like an advertisement!!