really frustrated with nap situation

eden/averymum · #1 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005, 10:01 AM

My girls are going down for their third nap of the day right now and it is not even 1pm. They can barely stay awake 2hrs most times, sometimes they do go 2.5 or even three hours awake but that is usually if we go out of the house, or out of necessity becaue I can't put them down to a nap because we have to pick up or drop off ds at school.

Today they woke at 620 and were in a nice mood and fine until about 730, they started fussing a little, we went to our room and read a little and had some cuddles then they got a short rock and lullaby and went in their cribs. They were put down at 750 and asleep shortly after 8 with minimal crying, mostly just whining. (This is day three of doing CIO BTW and they haven't cried more than 25 minutes and it isn't really worked up crying even, just whining/crying)They slept until just before 9am (so, 50 minutes total) and woke up fussing. I left them for a few minutes and they kept fussing so I got them, since it had been over an hour. They were mostly OK, but kinda cranky, so we switched from activity to activity and watched some baby einsteina nd had some cereal and then did the same nap routine and they went in their cribs at 1045, they were asleep by 11am after crying on and off but woke up at 1125 and cried until 1145 when I got them up. They were cranky almost the entire time I had them up, and finally not knowing what else to do I put them back to bed at 1245, they cried for about 10 minutes and now I hear one, maybe two babies babbling in there.

This is the same way things were before we started any sleep training, only I would be in there rocking them and trying to soothe them for about 30 minutes before they took their naps.

Yesterday morning went well, with a 630 wake up and nap from 830-930 and then fine until 1200 and nap until 130. then things went downhill back to crankies and poor naps.

I am frustrated with this, Dr. Weissbluth says they should only need 2 maybe three naps a day at 9ish, 12 or 1ish and maybe around 3 or 4. Why can't my girls stay awake very long and nap so poorly.

Do you think things are like this because they are overtired? Should I try to stretch them into a better scxhedule or just nap them on demand for now while doing CIO?

sarathan · #2 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005, 02:24 PM

Kristen,

From my own experience, napping on demand has never worked. Well, maybe it will work for some babies but it certainly never worked for mine and maybe not for yours either.

Most babies thrive on consistency and routine.

I can never remember what the exact "averages" are for babies and sleep (the hosts will know this), but I can tell you what my oldest was doing at that age and he was a very "textbook baby" as far as sleep goes. At 8 months, he was taking 2 naps a day...the first one would occur after 2 1/2 hours of awake time and the second one would occur after approx. 3 hours of awake time. He had a fairly early bedtime. I think the naps would occur at approx. 9:30-10:00 and again at approx 2:30.

I personally think you just need to set a schedule. Be consistent with when you put them down, how you put them down, and how you respond to them if they're crying after you put them down. They may be ready to stretch their awake time a bit after the first nap. So you could try 2 hours of awake time before the first nap, then every 2 1/2 hours after that. Or they may be ready for what my son was doing... 2 1/2 hours before the first nap then 3 hours after that.

Sorry, gotta go. DS is awake!

Kristen02 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-10-2005, 08:48 PM

I would not have your daughters nap "on demand", because it will result in short naps. I know this age is difficult- at least it was a very fussy age for both of my kids. Thankfully they both outgrew it around 15 months old, and were much easier to deal with. In the meantime, I had to realize that not all fussiness= tiredness. Sometimes babies are just fussy- they may need downtime- a walk in the stroller, a ride in the car- and then they may need stimulating playtime again, etc. It's really a guessing game figuring out how to make them happy during awake time at that age, and their moods will vary from day to day. It's very common to have a "fussy" time of day also, so that may be why you are having issues with crankiness in the afternoon.

I always went by the "average" awake time with my son, and it worked out pretty well. Some days I would think, "I KNOW he needs a nap" and would put him down earlier than recommended. It almost always resulted in a shorter nap, because he wasn't cranky from being tired. I watched the clock and his sleepy signs, and they usually coincided. I would recommend the first nap occur as close to two hours after waking as possible, and each additional nap 2.5 hours after each waking. Within a few days to a week, hopefully you will start seeing longer sleep cycles.

When you are looking at the naptimes Weissbluth is recommending, remember that your daughters are an adjusted age of 6 months old. What I did with my son when it was time for him to be able to stay awake longer, was to increase his awake times in 15 minute increments until he reached the recommended amount of awake time. This kept him from becoming overtired and allowed him to adjust to being awake longer.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Hope better napping days are there soon!