Anyone else trying to help their baby nap better using gentle methods?

[mumiloo]

I have decided to spend the next few weeks making a serious effort to see if I can help DS to sleep more and easier during the day. I was wondering if anyone else is currently trying to do the same thing and if they would like to swap stories/ideas with me or just provide updates to each other on how things are going?

The reason why I want to do this is because he often doesn't get close to the amount of "recommended" day sleep. Not that my baby needs to do everything "by the book", but napping could be beneficial for his health and brain development, so it's worth seeing if I can help him here. Also on the days where his sleep is a bit chaotic/not much sleep, he can get a bit cranky and I want him to have happy days. If I try a few different things for a few weeks and he still doesn't sleep so good, it'll be ok. I can live with things the way they are- I will just keep doing what we have been doing, which usually means putting him in a sling/carrier and getting on with things. But for a few weeks now I've been thinking every time I try to get my monkey to sleep, that "tomorrow" I'm gonna try something new.

My "disclaimer" is that if I get too stressed out or start getting cranky at him for "not" sleeping then I give myself permission to stop at any time and try again the next day .

I have been reading Dr Sears baby sleep book and have got a copy of 'no cry nap solution" which I haven't read yet. I'm gonna try some ideas from Dr Sears first, then maybe NCNS (don't want to try too many different things at once).

This is my plan starting tomorrow:
* Keep a log of his tired signs and nap times for a week to see if there is any pattern
* Try to put him to sleep as soon as I see the tired signs (and have everything ready to go i.e. nappy changed etc already)
* Use "music for dreaming" as a sleep cue
* Go outside and be active during "up time"
* Continue feeding to sleep for now, but if it's not working, to experiment with "wearing him down" in the sling and then transferring him to bed
* Wear him around in the sling or read books to him in bed 20 mins before I think he might get tired
* If I notice a pattern of tired times after a week, to start the "going to sleep" process 20 mins before I expect him to get tired.


What do you think?

I would love to chat with anyone else trying similar things.

[Arcadia]

Hi mumiloo...I am in the same boat, but my little one is much younger. I have tried some NCSS techniques and they worked at first, but I am having a SHOCKING week WRT naps. She only sleeps for 30mins at a time.

I would love to swap ideas and experiences. ATM I am at the stage where I am going to use the sling all this week, just to get her grounded again...then try again.

[mumiloo]

Hi anna, I thought I might see you here after your post about short sleep cycles!

Sounds like a good idea to "sling it" for a week if last week was pretty stressful. Does she sleep for long in the sling? My DS used to sleep for a couple of hours in the hugabub, it was great! I would just pop him in and go to the shops and we'd both have a good day. Unfortunately now he will only sleep about 20 mins in any of our carriers (even less than he usually does in the bed) so I need to try something new...

Well yesterday I spent about 1.5 hours each time to get him to sleep for 40 mins! Doh! I think it might be a good idea to sling him through for about 1/2 hour before nap time as it does seem to calm him down a bit.

This morning even though he seemed tired and was getting sleepy on the boob after about 15 mins he perked up and wanted to roll around instead. We went out today so I just got him up and got on with things. He slept 20 mins in the ergo while we were out. When we got home I tried to put him to sleep as he had been yawning etc. Basically I spent an hour getting him to sleep but tried to make it really chilled out so I wouldn't get too stressed. I put the music for dreaming on (this was the first time I had done that) and settled down on the mattress with him. He fed on and off but would roll around a lot too. I read him a book about sleepy time. I had a little break after 40 mins to text DP and get some toast to fortify myself, then went back in. He finally (relatively calmly) fell asleep.

At 45 mins I heard him yell and he had rolled off the bed!

He's done this a few times now (it is a mattress on the floor) and normally he doesn't even notice he just smiles and keeps rolling, but I think he must have gotten a shock.

I cuddled him and he calmed down and fed and then went back to sleep and has now been asleep for almost 1.5 hours now! (i keep checking on him though as I really hope he did not hurt himself rolling off the bed and that is why he is sleeping... but as he has done the same thing before and not even cried, and he calmed down so quick, i think he is ok)

[Arcadia]

Hi mumiloo,

Thanks for the reply. 1.5 hrs! Thats a great nap!!

For me its still all about the dreaded catnaps...all that settling for a 30min nap. It seems you know ALL about it!!

WRT the hugabub - DD used to sleep in the hugabub for hours, but she seems to have stopped that too...I only got 30 mins out of her today.

I was going along ok because night times were getting progressively better, with 5 or 6 hour stretches most nights, but yes the last week has been awful. Last night she woke almost hourly after 3am...Arrgghhh!

I have decided to try the "Pantley gentle removal technique" to try and reduce DD's suck to sleep association. Pantley recommends doing this in the night, so I will have to stay awake through the night feeds

I think I am going to write up a plan based on a few ideas in the NCSS to see if I can get some regularity to her settling/sleeping, such as some sleep cues and varying the methods by which she goes to sleep. So far though I have struggled to find anything that settles her like my bbs...people keep telling me to pat or stroke her in her cot, and they honestly don't believe me when I say, she HATES it. Yep, will scream her head off!

She has to be in our arms to settle.

Your plan with a music cue is a good idea. I might try that too...

[Kristin27]

Hi, my DD is 9 mths old so older than your bubs, but I have spent the last month breaking the feeding to sleep habit. I decided to do it gradually. I refuse to do CC despite being told I HAVE to. Anyway I digress.

I now put DD in her cot sleepy but awake and she will most often go to sleep on her own.

Here is what I did:

Continue BFing to sleep but removing her before completely falling asleep. Once she was okay with that I moved to BFing her, then waking her and rocking her to sleep in my arms, then no BF just rocking her to sleep, then started putting her into bed after rocking more awake each day.

Establish a pre- nap routine. Before naps I sit her in her bouncer for 10 minutes (to keep her from crawling so she winds down), then go to her room, close the blinds, sit on the couch and read a story. Then into sleeping bag, dummy in, cuddle/rock/shhh, then when she's calm into her cot. This has helped lots because she knows what coming.

To extend her nap time:

She often woke about 45 minutes into her nap, so I would wait next to her cot and when she first stirred i'd put her dummy in and pat her bottom, she would often drift back to sleep. If that didn't work I'd get her up still sleepy, (no talking keep things quiet) and BF her back to sleep. She would usually sleep another 45 minutes.

This was quite easy, no tears and she has adjusted really well because I haven't just suddenly changed things on her. Although it's not an overnight solution so you need to be committed.

And you're so right Mumiloo, if something isn't working or stressing either of you too much, BF him to sleep or do whatever you need to to get him to sleep for that nap. Then next nap try again. HTH.

[mumiloo]

Hi Anna re catnaps... I found it was about 2.5 months that I first started to try and extend his naps and at that point the "waiting around till he wakes up and settling him straight away" thing seemed to work, but then stopped working recently

Good luck with night time, I sort of tried the "Pantley Pull Off" as well when DS had a few nights of waking 5 or more times... it seems to help, although I am not sure if I do it "properly" as he has his eyes closed etc by the time I do it. Sometimes I find it less tiring to fall asleep when he feeds, even if it means waking up more times. He still has the odd night where he will wake up many many times, but usually around 3 times or so which I am ok with. He just seems to have these more tricky nights every now and then but usually it gets better without me neccessarily doing much, hoping it is the same for you?

Writing up a plan sounds like a great idea, it helps to actually decide on the ideas you are going to try I think because otherwise I get a bit overwhelmed and confused with all the different ideas.

Kristin thanks so much for writing in here and telling us about your experience I am glad it has been so successful for you guys. I had a question- Did you think it was essential to stop feeding to sleep in order for DD to have better naps?

(I am not neccessarily wanting to stop DS feeding to sleep, I would just like him to settle down easier and sleep longer)

Great idea about the prenap routine I think we really need to do something like that too. We have a set bedtime and prebed routine at night and it works really well, usually no matter what the day has been like he is asleep by 8pm. That's why I thought I would try get a bit more routine to the day as well, because it seems to work well at night. My problem now is his days are so chaotic that I have no idea what time he should be sleeping- I'm trying to watch for tired signs and track it so i can see if there is a pattern. It's hard because he wakes up at different times in the morning and sometimes has long, sometimes short naps.

Did you find DD had a set nap pattern or did you just decide on a time and start putting her to sleep then? With DS's bedtime we noticed he naturally seemed to go to sleep around 8, so started the bedtime routine at 6:30pm. But cos his days are a mess, I wouldn't know where to start.

The bouncer idea is a good one too, DS is very active at the moment and I think it would chill him out a bit, that's why I tried reading on bed because he will lie still for me when I'm reading.

I don't use a dummy at the moment, he had one for a little while when he was little but never really took to it, do you think it is essential to use a dummy?

And you're so right Mumiloo, if something isn't working or stressing either of you too much, BF him to sleep or do whatever you need to to get him to sleep for that nap. Then next nap try again.

Yes yes yes!! This morning was a shocker... not sure if I read the tired signals wrong or what but I spent the whole morning trying to get him to sleep and he had 2 naps of 10 and 20 mins... (and rolled off the bed again ) so I picked him up and HAB'ed him for a walk...