A New Approach to Napping

Posted on October 1, 2015 by playinghousewi

Things have continued to be a little nutso with Charlotte’s sleep schedule. Today and yesterday, she slept from between 7/8 pm to 8 am.

This morning, we decided to try to go back to our original sleep bible, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” for some advice on handling the nap debacle. The book confirms that this transitional period sucks… surprise! But it also suggested putting the babe down for a 1-2 hour “rest” in the morning and then a nap in the afternoon.

The “rest” is essentially quiet crib time. If she sleeps, great. If not, no biggy. But regardless, you limit the time. Charlotte did not fall asleep during her rest time today, but she was quiet (after she screamed for the first 2 minutes) and happy for the full hour.

Then, we played a little, had lunch and hung out and started the wind down/bottle/book/pre-nap routine at aroud 1:10. By 1:30, Charlotte was totally out. Now, it’s 4:30 and she’s just waking up.

Not too shabby!!

I think tomorrow I’ll try to start the pre-nap routine closer to 12:45, but otherwise, I think things worked really well.

Fingers crossed that bedtime goes well tonight and she manages to sleep until 8 again tomorrow.

TWO NAPS!!

Posted on September 28, 2015 by playinghousewi

I know, I know… can I talk about anything else?

Apparently, no. I’m all naps all the time.

This weekend was another couple days of weird schedules. Charlotte has been waking up at around 6/630 every day for the past weekish. Every morning, her little baby diaper is totally soaked through, as are her clothes. After 4 mornings like this, we started to think, “hey… I think she’s ready for the next size!”

Duh, right?

Anyway, I think that might be why she’s been waking up so early, which could also be throwing off her whole schedule. Bad sleep perpetuates bad sleep.

I’m not 100% convinced, but it’s something to try.

I bought her new (bigger) night diapes that we’ll try tonight!

So anyway, on Saturday, Charlotte took a 3-hour nap, from 11-2. This was her only nap of the day and it worked great. She was a little doll the whole day. Only trouble? 11-2 is not a sustainable nap time and I don’t think she’s ready to push it back until 1.

On Sunday, we went back to trying for two naps. Charlotte napped from about 940-1140 I believe… or something like that. Then, we put her down for her second nap at around 330/4. She fell asleep at around 5p and we ended up having to wake her up for dinner at 6:45. Ugh. Needless to say, she didn’t fall asleep until about 10:30 pm last night. Unsuccessful.

BUT!!! And here’s where things start looking up… today, Charlotte napped from around 10-1130 AND AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON! It’s currently 4:30 and she’s been asleep since at least 3 pm! I’m so excited. Hopefully it’s not just a fluke. But even so, I’m feeling relieved. This tiny person was definitely in need of a little rest.