This is a set of several e-mail questions/answers back and forth between myself and EP. I asked if I may share the information with the message board and she said certainly:

>Jennifer:
>Hi, I… am noticing an odd trend in that many parents (such as myself)
>are asking what to do about their baby who wakes up 30mins to 1 hour
>after bedtime, even with a great bedtime routine etc. Could there be
>some reason for this, that could be explained based on sleep patterns
>or sleep maturity or something?
>
>EP:
>Hi Jennifer,
>Nice to hear from you and very kind of you to be looking for answers
>for your friends. What you are seeing is a normal sleep-cycle
>process. All human beings go through sleep cycles throughout the
>night. Each cycle takes between 90 and 110 minutes. The first two
>phases of the cycle take 30-60 minutes and children in the early
>stages of sleep are very easily awakened. Remember the story from
>NCSS about finding yourself on the kitchen floor? That's the sleep-
>association thing. A baby who is parented to sleep will awake during
>a usual sleep-cycle change will wake looking for
>Mommy/Daddy/breastfeeding/rocking/pacifier, etc. If the baby wakes
>fully at this time than instead of going on to deeper sleep he wakes
>up and gets a "second wind" (as if it were a nice nap!) and may be
>awake for awhile until he goes through the sleep cycle process
>again...
>
>Jennifer:
>I hadn't thought of checking to see how these different Moms are
>putting their children to sleep. If they are put down awake then
>this works towards solving the problem? Could there still be babies
>who even though they were put down awake would like to see Mom or Dad
>if they wake up during a sleep cycle?
>
>EP:
>,,,,,,,,, I've discovered that very few babies are actually put to
>bed all alone and "awake" (which is a natural thing) and most are
>parented into at least that first stage of drowsy/lightest sleep. The
>baby/toddler/preschooler who can give Mommy & Daddy a kiss and go off
>to bed alone is rare. But, even THAT child will wake up between
>cycles (all human beings do) and may become
>scared/loney/hungry/uncomfortable and the natural response is to look
>for a parent to help. Even good sleepers may suddenly wake up when
>they older - they learn more about the world thus their fears, stress
>may pop up when they wake up, and also they have a desire to be awake
>and learning versus asleep!
>
>Regarding this wake up during the first two stages of the sleep
>cycle: A complete sleep plan can solve this so that a baby is able
>to fall back to sleep without calling for a parent's help each and
>every time he wakes between cycles.
>Does that answer your question?
>
>Jennifer:
>Re: "A complete sleep plan" - Do you mean having finished the
>plan,ie having gone through the various phases etc? I think you
>wrote it quite clearly, but I just like to make sure I understand.
>
>EP:
>Good question! What this actually means is that solving sleep issues
>is like a puzzle - if you only work on a few pieces you can't solve
>the whole problem. So it's smart to look at every aspect of your
>child's sleep and work on all areas, since the bits and pieces all
>work together to bring about better sleep.
>Hope this is helpful!
>Elizabeth
>
>Jennifer:
>Thanks so much! That's great information! May I share this with the
>Moms?
>
>EP:
>Yes, of course!
>=========================================
>
>Now it's Jennifer again. I read this info and thought "Oh yeah".
>She and the book are so great because I find I read it or info like
>she shares above and it just all makes so much sense and I wonder how
>I didn't think of it myself when I was having all the problems. I
>don't think it would have stopped my DS from waking after an hour
>because I really think his teeth were driving him crazy (he's 11
>months and he has gotten 14 teeth in the last 4 months... he looks
>like he has dentures... I guess he'll have all his adult teeth by the
>time he's 2... but I digress)... anyway, I don't think it would have
>stopped him from waking because I think he really wanted comfort...
>but at least I would have understood it more instead of banging my
>head against a wall trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.
>
>Hope this helps some people! I hope I asked the questions right... I
>was sort of basing it on my DS so it may be a bit different than the
>way other people would ask. - Zennifer

hi zennifer (or anyone whos listening),
it's me again... i feel like i'm hogging the whole message board, so i hope you don't mind hearing from me again. won't it be a great day when i'm doing more supporting than needing support!
further to your fantastic dialogue with EP...
-what if you can't even get to phase 1?
-what if you can't get your 'sleep plan' all happening and are only able to do parts?
-what if your baby won't be shooshed, rocked, patted, sung to, cue worded, lovied or gentle removaled. (i know they're all made up words, but do you get my drift?).
i've said it all before, but this whole settling him 'awake' business sounds like castles in the sky to me. i'm having soooooo much more success with my new removal technique, but even once asleep, keeping him that way is so difficult. naps have gotten better in the last few days, but at night he is still difficult to get down and startles himself awake every half hour until 10:30pm, then every hour all night. i can almost bare the all night part, but this 7:30, 8:00, 8:30, 9:00 etc stuff is driving me out of my mind. i can barely eat a meal or brush my teeth or post a new thread (but i make logging on to the site my priority incase someone has replied with a pearl of wisdom for me).
my husband asks why i'm still not in bed when he comes home at 10:00pm and i have to honestly say that i feel there's no point trying to go to sleep when i'll be up in 30min.
but this has to stop.
i know it will pass.
his top teeth are nearly through, maybe there'll be a big change after that.
tonight i stayed with him through the first wakeful time to check what was waking him. no noises or anything, he just spontaneously came awake. lots of clawing at his head, forehead & eyes which he's done for a long time.

help! ... again.

many many thanx,
love&light

Hi, I'm very glad I've found this forum online.
I have started the process of Gentle Removal of both breast and pacifier. And even got so lucky as to get Tim to fall asleep by himself in his crib, but...
What if he falls asleep by himself for the night or for naps, but doesn't stay asleep - every 40 minutes(naps and early bedtime) to 2 hours (at night TTT) or so he needs his pacifier or breast for just a minute and then gets back to sleep (if I am quick and don't let him to wake up fully). When I give him pacifier, I remove it after he closes eyes and slows sucking. I am also not sure if I use good timing to remove the pacifier so I'll open another topic on this question I think.

We have a few things that caused him to change his sleeping habits for worse, that's why I'm worried that he needs my help to return to his good 4-7 hours night sleep:
1. We moved 2 weeks ago (to a house with central a/c - different air completely in addition to different surroundings)
2. The very next day we moved, he had 2 shots and 2 more in a week after that.
I understand that this might be temporary, but how temporary can it be and does it have a potential to become a habit?

Anybody gone through similar?