I mentioned in Noah's 19 month post that I had "fixed" Noah's nap strike (fixed doesn't seem like the right word, but neither does any other word I can think of). I said I would explain further, so here it is.
On Thursday October 6, when he was 18.5 months old, Noah began a b-RUTAL nap strike. He just would not nap. He would scream in his crib for as long as it would take for me to get him out (up to 3 hours on a couple of occasions). The nap strike lasted for 15 days.
On the 16th day, it ended. On day 16 I just plopped him in his crib. No comforting first. Just a bum change, telling him it was naptime, and then putting him in the crib. He cried for half an hour and then slept for 40 minutes. The next day he cried for 20 minutes and slept for 20 minutes. And ever since then he has just cried for a couple of minutes and then had a normal nap.
For the 5-7 days before the nap strike ended, I had stopped being so hardcore. I stopped letting him cry in his crib for so long (it was frying my nerves), and I was no longer forcing him to stay awake in the car if we happened to have to go for a drive to town after a failed nap attempt. However, Day 16 was the first day I just plopped him in the crib with no comfort first. I really didn't like the idea of that, because I liked nursing him and rocking him to sleep. But I had no idea what else to try, so I did it even though it felt wrong to me.
Apparently even though it felt wrong to me, it was the right thing to do, because the nap strike ended. It just goes to show that all those people who always say, "If it feels wrong to you as a parent, then it is wrong," - they can be wrong about that (I mostly hear this from judgmental people when they're discussing CIO). CIO feels wrong to almost every parent. It certainly felt wrong to me. But after trying everything else to get Noah to sleep, it was the only thing that worked. Yes, it felt wrong. But it was right, because none of the other methods got my son the sleep he so desperately needed (even staying on the boob constantly).
Putting Noah in his crib for naptime without any rocking or nursing beforehand felt so weird and wrong. And it still does (I have to make a conscious decision every single day to not try doing it again). But obviously it was the right decision, because he is napping again.
By the way, ever since the nap strike began I have been putting Noah in his crib awake at bedtime. Everyday. I still nurse him first, but only for about 10 minutes. Once he's done drinking, he goes in his crib. And since then, he has been sleeping straight through the night almost every night. I miss cuddling with my sleeping, nursing baby (ahem, I mean toddler), but at the same time I like nursing for only 10 minutes at night, instead of 20 to 30 minutes. I have more time with my husband this way. And that's important, too.
Showing posts with label Nap training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nap training. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Day 10... Sigh
We are on Day 10 of the Nap Strike.
Do you really want to know how it's going?
I am at the point that if someone makes even an offhand comment about their child taking a nap, I kind of want to punch them in the face. Because their kid naps. And they're either bragging (in my frustrated mind) or being whiny babies and complaining about nothing because if their child is napping at all, they are LUCKY!
We are so deep in the no-nap hole that I can't see us ever climbing out of it again.
But I will continue to try.
Do you really want to know how it's going?
I am at the point that if someone makes even an offhand comment about their child taking a nap, I kind of want to punch them in the face. Because their kid naps. And they're either bragging (in my frustrated mind) or being whiny babies and complaining about nothing because if their child is napping at all, they are LUCKY!
We are so deep in the no-nap hole that I can't see us ever climbing out of it again.
But I will continue to try.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Nap Regression Continued
Ok we're on Day 7 today and the sleep regression is officially now a nap regression. I pretty much fixed the almost 2 week long night time sleep issue on Friday(?) night when Noah woke up already at 11:30pm. Which I am so not down with. So I let him work it out himself, since that is the only thing that works for him. It took 2 hours of crying (!!!), and a couple of much shorter crying jags since then, and night time sleep is fixed.
Nap time is still a hot mess. A. Hot. Mess.
Unless we are in the car, Noah will not nap. He is not ready to be done napping, this I know. But he just won't nap in his crib. Since Thursday, unless we have been in the car, he has not slept a wink during the day.
Wait, yesterday, Tuesday, he might have slept for 15 minutes after he cried for 2 hours and 45 minutes. But I don't know for sure because we don't have a video monitor, so he might have just been sitting quietly in bed trying to fool me into thinking he fell asleep so I would come get him when he started crying again. (That's not a joke. He would actually do that.)
Seeing as I am obviously the person in the world who knows my son the best, I know there is nothing I can do differently that will make any difference to the outcome. So my plan is just to continue to try. I remind him that it's naptime, and if he closes his eyes and goes to sleep I will come get him as soon as he wakes up. But if he cries and doesn't sleep, Mommy won't come get him for a long time because he needs to sleep. Then I let him cry for 2-3 hours before I get him. (You might have to be Noah's mom to understand how I could possibly let him cry for that long. He is one stubborn child, and right now naptime is a battle of wills.)
Possibly the suckiest part of this regression is that I actually think I may have caused all of this. The very first day that it happened I nursed him but he wouldn't fall asleep, so I put him down awake, which is normal for us. He started crying, which is also normal for him, but usually he falls asleep in 5-10 minutes.
Well, after 5-10 minutes I decided to see if just going in there and reminding him it was naptime and time to sleep would help. I was never ever able to do this when he was younger, because if he saw me it would just make him cry even longer. However, it had been about 11 months since I had last tried it, and I thought MAYBE Noah was old enough that it would be helpful instead of harmful (even though I doubted that would be true, I thought it was worth a try).
Well, it definitely didn't work. He continued to cry for 3 hours. And has refused to nap in his crib ever since.
Nap time is still a hot mess. A. Hot. Mess.
Unless we are in the car, Noah will not nap. He is not ready to be done napping, this I know. But he just won't nap in his crib. Since Thursday, unless we have been in the car, he has not slept a wink during the day.
Wait, yesterday, Tuesday, he might have slept for 15 minutes after he cried for 2 hours and 45 minutes. But I don't know for sure because we don't have a video monitor, so he might have just been sitting quietly in bed trying to fool me into thinking he fell asleep so I would come get him when he started crying again. (That's not a joke. He would actually do that.)
Seeing as I am obviously the person in the world who knows my son the best, I know there is nothing I can do differently that will make any difference to the outcome. So my plan is just to continue to try. I remind him that it's naptime, and if he closes his eyes and goes to sleep I will come get him as soon as he wakes up. But if he cries and doesn't sleep, Mommy won't come get him for a long time because he needs to sleep. Then I let him cry for 2-3 hours before I get him. (You might have to be Noah's mom to understand how I could possibly let him cry for that long. He is one stubborn child, and right now naptime is a battle of wills.)
Possibly the suckiest part of this regression is that I actually think I may have caused all of this. The very first day that it happened I nursed him but he wouldn't fall asleep, so I put him down awake, which is normal for us. He started crying, which is also normal for him, but usually he falls asleep in 5-10 minutes.
Well, after 5-10 minutes I decided to see if just going in there and reminding him it was naptime and time to sleep would help. I was never ever able to do this when he was younger, because if he saw me it would just make him cry even longer. However, it had been about 11 months since I had last tried it, and I thought MAYBE Noah was old enough that it would be helpful instead of harmful (even though I doubted that would be true, I thought it was worth a try).
Well, it definitely didn't work. He continued to cry for 3 hours. And has refused to nap in his crib ever since.
This is what you should not do.
Let that be a lesson to you.
So while his stubbornness is the real "reason" behind all of this, I think my mistake was the catalyst. I went in there, and I ruined everything. I can't give up on naptime when he's only 18 months old and still needs a nap, but I also can't imagine him finally stopping this ridiculousness. He is incredibly persistent.
So while his stubbornness is the real "reason" behind all of this, I think my mistake was the catalyst. I went in there, and I ruined everything. I can't give up on naptime when he's only 18 months old and still needs a nap, but I also can't imagine him finally stopping this ridiculousness. He is incredibly persistent.
Note to everyone: ALWAYS TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS MIXED WITH YOUR SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR OWN CHILD.
If you don't, you will probably screw yourself over.
(No offense to anybody, but I am not looking for suggestions on what the problem might be. I already know that it's stubbornness.)
Friday, October 7, 2011
Fricking 18 Month Regression!!!!
Did you know this existed??? I just found out today.
Since Noah broke his leg two weeks ago, his night time sleep has been disrupted. He has had only three good, normal nights, but every other night he has gotten up and wanted to nurse twice, instead of once or not at all. This was ticking me off. However, things have gotten much worse.
The past two days Noah has flat out refused to nap. As in, not a wink of sleep. Yesterday he screamed his head off for 3 hours before I finally got him out of his crib. Today he screamed for almost 2 hours before I got him. He would not nap.
I am going insane. I absolutely refuse to start bad habits like taking him for a car ride everytime he needs a nap, or letting him nurse in my arms for his entire nap. I love and appreciate our nursing relationship, but I am NOT willing to do that.
I know everyone is going to want to give suggestions on what I should do and what might be wrong, but I have obviously spent many hours dissecting every possible reason for why he won't sleep, and I have come to the following conclusion:
He is being stubborn. If you have followed my blog for a good length of time, you are aware that Noah has never been a big fan of sleeping, much less napping. And he is old enough now to realize that he actually doesn't ever have to nap, because he can scream for 5 hours and someone will eventually come get him. It's not like when he was younger and would cry for half an hour or less and then give up. He realizes now that we can't ignore him forever. It's a battle of wills.
It's not hunger, it's not pain, it's not teething, it's not overtiredness, it's not undertiredness. It's frigging stubbornness. And I am going to flip my lid.
This weekend it's Thanksgiving in Canada, and we will be travelling long distance during Noah's naptime on both Saturday and Sunday. This will give me a break from wanting to throw myself out the window every afternoon because my nerves are so frayed from listening to hours of crying. Then we start again on Monday. Maybe two days of napping in the car will "interrupt" the ridiculousness and things will be back to normal, but that will surprise me.
I have recently been talking about how 18 months old is so far my very favourite age, that it's the most fun and the easiest.
I may take it back.
When he's supposed to be awake, it's fantastic. He is an amazingly, cheerful, intelligent kid. But this sleep thing is kicking my butt.
Hopefully Noah will soon realize that crying for hours every afternoon pretty much sucks, and that things would be a lot easier on him if he just SLEEPS.
Since Noah broke his leg two weeks ago, his night time sleep has been disrupted. He has had only three good, normal nights, but every other night he has gotten up and wanted to nurse twice, instead of once or not at all. This was ticking me off. However, things have gotten much worse.
The past two days Noah has flat out refused to nap. As in, not a wink of sleep. Yesterday he screamed his head off for 3 hours before I finally got him out of his crib. Today he screamed for almost 2 hours before I got him. He would not nap.
I am going insane. I absolutely refuse to start bad habits like taking him for a car ride everytime he needs a nap, or letting him nurse in my arms for his entire nap. I love and appreciate our nursing relationship, but I am NOT willing to do that.
I know everyone is going to want to give suggestions on what I should do and what might be wrong, but I have obviously spent many hours dissecting every possible reason for why he won't sleep, and I have come to the following conclusion:
He is being stubborn. If you have followed my blog for a good length of time, you are aware that Noah has never been a big fan of sleeping, much less napping. And he is old enough now to realize that he actually doesn't ever have to nap, because he can scream for 5 hours and someone will eventually come get him. It's not like when he was younger and would cry for half an hour or less and then give up. He realizes now that we can't ignore him forever. It's a battle of wills.
It's not hunger, it's not pain, it's not teething, it's not overtiredness, it's not undertiredness. It's frigging stubbornness. And I am going to flip my lid.
This weekend it's Thanksgiving in Canada, and we will be travelling long distance during Noah's naptime on both Saturday and Sunday. This will give me a break from wanting to throw myself out the window every afternoon because my nerves are so frayed from listening to hours of crying. Then we start again on Monday. Maybe two days of napping in the car will "interrupt" the ridiculousness and things will be back to normal, but that will surprise me.
I have recently been talking about how 18 months old is so far my very favourite age, that it's the most fun and the easiest.
I may take it back.
When he's supposed to be awake, it's fantastic. He is an amazingly, cheerful, intelligent kid. But this sleep thing is kicking my butt.
Hopefully Noah will soon realize that crying for hours every afternoon pretty much sucks, and that things would be a lot easier on him if he just SLEEPS.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
9 Months Old
At 9 months old, here is where Noah is at:
-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked). This is about the 25th percentile.
-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile
-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.
-He wears size 3 diapers.
-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick). The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small. Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big. We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.
-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.
-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.
-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger. And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction. "See?? Look at my toy!!"
-His pincer grasp is getting better. He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger. He could still make improvement in this area. But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.
-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day. Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.
-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day. More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.
-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.
-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total. He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep. He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit. If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45. He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night. In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.
-Naps are still crap. A usual day has three 30 minute naps. We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent. It's bad, I know.
-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark. The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.
-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in. So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.
-He had his fourth haircut today.
-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding. No such luck for me.
-He's very capable, physically. He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now. He's a great climber, too.
-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.
-He waves!
-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT. He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed. He thinks it's hilarious.
-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet. As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."
-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face. He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever. It's so cute.
-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.
-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer. He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it. Whatever!
-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror. This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.
-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often. He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped. It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.
-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment. It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.
-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month. Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine. But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again. He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol). And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it. Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper. After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing. But getting the diaper on is HARD.
This past month has had ups and downs. Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me. I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out. As a SAHM, this gets very tiring. I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me. Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping. It got tough after several long days.
I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though. It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut). Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.
Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits. 3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes. This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training. There are several reasons for this. One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train. Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep. He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times). It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.
Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu. I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great. Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.
There have also been good times this month. Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long. Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted! I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part. Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people. That's how bad a sleeper I am. But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience. And that being your NORMAL? It's fantastic.
There have also been GREAT times this past month. The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son. The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big. Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate. Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow. Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over. Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is. Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep. Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us.
I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah. He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us. I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here. And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different. He completes my life. I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child.
I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst. I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different. THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.
(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters? I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post. What is the purpose of that limit? Let people label as much as they want!!)
-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked). This is about the 25th percentile.
-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile
-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.
-He wears size 3 diapers.
-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick). The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small. Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big. We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.
-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.
-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.
-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger. And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction. "See?? Look at my toy!!"
-His pincer grasp is getting better. He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger. He could still make improvement in this area. But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.
-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day. Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.
-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day. More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.
-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.
-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total. He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep. He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit. If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45. He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night. In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.
-Naps are still crap. A usual day has three 30 minute naps. We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent. It's bad, I know.
-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark. The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.
-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in. So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.
-He had his fourth haircut today.
-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding. No such luck for me.
-He's very capable, physically. He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now. He's a great climber, too.
-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.
-He waves!
-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT. He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed. He thinks it's hilarious.
-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet. As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."
-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face. He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever. It's so cute.
-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.
-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer. He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it. Whatever!
-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror. This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.
-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often. He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped. It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.
-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment. It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.
-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month. Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine. But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again. He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol). And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it. Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper. After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing. But getting the diaper on is HARD.
~~~~~~~~~~
This past month has had ups and downs. Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me. I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out. As a SAHM, this gets very tiring. I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me. Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping. It got tough after several long days.
I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though. It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut). Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.
Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits. 3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes. This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training. There are several reasons for this. One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train. Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep. He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times). It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.
Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu. I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great. Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.
There have also been good times this month. Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long. Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted! I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part. Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people. That's how bad a sleeper I am. But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience. And that being your NORMAL? It's fantastic.
There have also been GREAT times this past month. The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son. The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big. Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate. Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow. Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over. Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is. Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep. Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us.
I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah. He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us. I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here. And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different. He completes my life. I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child.
I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst. I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different. THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.
(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters? I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post. What is the purpose of that limit? Let people label as much as they want!!)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Naps and a Snow Day
It's been an interesting day in our neck of the woods.
Noah slept straight through from 6:50pm to 6:20am (yay!). We woke up to a heavy blizzard and a 5 foot high enormous snow drift in our driveway and across our front lawn. About a foot of snow had accumulated overnight. When we woke up we could hardly see across the street and it hasn't let up all day. Not for a second. It's been snowing and blowing this heavily every second today. Winds have been blowing up to 90km/hr (that's about 55 miles/hr for all my American readers), with a minimum speed of 60km/hr.
The school busses were all cancelled but most of the schools in the district remained open. Which was very stupid. No parents were going to drive their kids in (they never do in high school anyway), and most teachers couldn't get to school! The ones who tried ended up stranded and stuck on the side of the road. But they NEVER close the schools where we live. It's so stupid. Oh, we're both teachers, by the way, (or rather, I was a teacher) which is why I'm discussing bus cancellations and school closures.
We now have over 2 feet of accumulation out in the county where we live, and the entire county has been closed down. The provincial police closed ALL THE ROADS. I have never heard of this happening before! Sure, a highway here, a highway there. But basically we're in lockdown. Even the side streets are closed! This morning the police pulled all the cruisers off the roads, and the 4 X 4's were going out ONLY for emergencies.
Justin has been out to shovel 4 times. It took two attempts, two neighbours, and a guy with a snow plow on his truck to clear our driveway of the 5 foot drift. We were the only ones with that kind of drift in our driveway, by the way.
Now the drifts and piles beside the driveway are over 6 feet tall. Justin is 6'5", and he can barely get the snow on the top of the piles.
It's been nice to have Justin around for the day, even though he was doing marking. And Noah had a great day for naps! He had his first nap on me (I'm a sucker). It was only 35 minutes. Nap #2 was the BEST nap we've had since he about a month old. It was an hour and 45 minutes long. He woke up twice, fussed a little, and went back to sleep. He has not napped that long while lying down in his crib since he was a newborn. Definitely not since he was 2 months old. And the last time he had a nap that was longer than an hour and 20 minutes (which we all know is a rarity in this house) was at the beginning of July when we were at the cottage. He had a freak nap that lasted almost 3 hours while he was swinging in his swing. It's been over 5 months since he's had a nap that lasted longer than 80 minutes. And sure, it was only like 25 minutes longer, but that is a BREAKTHROUGH in our house!
Nap #3 was a little over an hour. Again he woke up in the middle of it, fussed a little, then went back to sleep. His fussing in the middle of both naps was very minimal, but enough that he was awake, possibly sat up, changed positions, and then laid back down and went back to sleep.
I also put him to sleep for all his naps today. I think tooth #7 is really bugging him, because he had kind of a rough day. He was pretty cranky, and I keep checking his tooth and it's stayed at the same status it was at a few days ago. It's still only partially cut through his gums. So it must be bugging him. It's not like he would have been tired.
I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring. The snowstorm is supposed to continue overnight. It'd be nice to have Justin only have to go to work for 3 days this week. Then next week is the beginning of Christmas break! Having him home for 2 weeks will be wonderful:)
Noah slept straight through from 6:50pm to 6:20am (yay!). We woke up to a heavy blizzard and a 5 foot high enormous snow drift in our driveway and across our front lawn. About a foot of snow had accumulated overnight. When we woke up we could hardly see across the street and it hasn't let up all day. Not for a second. It's been snowing and blowing this heavily every second today. Winds have been blowing up to 90km/hr (that's about 55 miles/hr for all my American readers), with a minimum speed of 60km/hr.
The school busses were all cancelled but most of the schools in the district remained open. Which was very stupid. No parents were going to drive their kids in (they never do in high school anyway), and most teachers couldn't get to school! The ones who tried ended up stranded and stuck on the side of the road. But they NEVER close the schools where we live. It's so stupid. Oh, we're both teachers, by the way, (or rather, I was a teacher) which is why I'm discussing bus cancellations and school closures.
We now have over 2 feet of accumulation out in the county where we live, and the entire county has been closed down. The provincial police closed ALL THE ROADS. I have never heard of this happening before! Sure, a highway here, a highway there. But basically we're in lockdown. Even the side streets are closed! This morning the police pulled all the cruisers off the roads, and the 4 X 4's were going out ONLY for emergencies.
Justin has been out to shovel 4 times. It took two attempts, two neighbours, and a guy with a snow plow on his truck to clear our driveway of the 5 foot drift. We were the only ones with that kind of drift in our driveway, by the way.
Now the drifts and piles beside the driveway are over 6 feet tall. Justin is 6'5", and he can barely get the snow on the top of the piles.
It's been nice to have Justin around for the day, even though he was doing marking. And Noah had a great day for naps! He had his first nap on me (I'm a sucker). It was only 35 minutes. Nap #2 was the BEST nap we've had since he about a month old. It was an hour and 45 minutes long. He woke up twice, fussed a little, and went back to sleep. He has not napped that long while lying down in his crib since he was a newborn. Definitely not since he was 2 months old. And the last time he had a nap that was longer than an hour and 20 minutes (which we all know is a rarity in this house) was at the beginning of July when we were at the cottage. He had a freak nap that lasted almost 3 hours while he was swinging in his swing. It's been over 5 months since he's had a nap that lasted longer than 80 minutes. And sure, it was only like 25 minutes longer, but that is a BREAKTHROUGH in our house!
Nap #3 was a little over an hour. Again he woke up in the middle of it, fussed a little, then went back to sleep. His fussing in the middle of both naps was very minimal, but enough that he was awake, possibly sat up, changed positions, and then laid back down and went back to sleep.
I also put him to sleep for all his naps today. I think tooth #7 is really bugging him, because he had kind of a rough day. He was pretty cranky, and I keep checking his tooth and it's stayed at the same status it was at a few days ago. It's still only partially cut through his gums. So it must be bugging him. It's not like he would have been tired.
I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring. The snowstorm is supposed to continue overnight. It'd be nice to have Justin only have to go to work for 3 days this week. Then next week is the beginning of Christmas break! Having him home for 2 weeks will be wonderful:)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Not for the Faint of Heart
Nap training is not for the faint of heart. At least not if your child is Noah. I had to remind myself this morning that nap training takes longer than nighttime sleep training, and it could take several weeks to really see improvements in Noah's sleep.
I'm not sure if those first couple of days were flukes, but things have not gone terrific since then. A lot of crying is taking place, a lot of waking up early from naps and crying for over half an hour before finally falling back asleep.
Noah and I were at my parents' house yesterday. We were there for many hours, and Noah obviously had to go down for a nap. He'd been awake for 3 1/2 hours, so I figured it'd be pretty simple to nurse him to sleep and put him in the crib. Well, he nursed to sleep easily, but woke up as soon as I put him in the crib. I tried to get him to go back to sleep by putting the soother in his mouth and cuddling him while he was lying there, but it didn't work. So I had to pick him back up.
I was bouncing around the room to try and get him to sleep but he wouldn't close his eyes. I was getting really frustrated because the weekend beforehand at my parents' house I had to put Noah to sleep THREE TIMES for one nap because he kept waking up everytime he hit the mattress, and he ended up not napping at all.
I finally put a blanket over his face because he was refusing to close his eyes. I was incredibly sick of walking around, so I sat down on a bed (there are two beds and a crib in that room) right beside the loud fan, and just kind of jiggled a little. He fell asleep like that, and I didn't want to deal with him waking up again so I decided to just hold him.
I was getting soo sleepy with the sound of the fan (plus it was the time of day I always get tired), so eventually I moved enough blankets and pillows around so that I could lie down with Noah draped overtop of me. It was so hard to get in that position without waking him up, because he is not a sound sleeper, and he did open his eyes a bunch of times. But he ended up sleeping for over an hour, so I was in the dark, boring room for over an hour and a half instead of visiting with my parents. I only dozed for about 10 minutes of it. Then Noah jolted and woke me up. So the rest of the time I was just lying there awake with my eyes closed. It was dull. The sleepy/dozing part was nice, and the cuddling was nice, but I wished I had TV or a book or something!
I have a feeling this is how we're going to be spending all his naps at all the Christmas functions we go to. There is no way he's going to transfer into the bottom of a pack 'n play without waking up if he can't transfer into a crib with the dropside down without waking up. This is going to suck for me. I wish he would sleep in a room full of people like he used to.
I'm not sure if those first couple of days were flukes, but things have not gone terrific since then. A lot of crying is taking place, a lot of waking up early from naps and crying for over half an hour before finally falling back asleep.
Noah and I were at my parents' house yesterday. We were there for many hours, and Noah obviously had to go down for a nap. He'd been awake for 3 1/2 hours, so I figured it'd be pretty simple to nurse him to sleep and put him in the crib. Well, he nursed to sleep easily, but woke up as soon as I put him in the crib. I tried to get him to go back to sleep by putting the soother in his mouth and cuddling him while he was lying there, but it didn't work. So I had to pick him back up.
I was bouncing around the room to try and get him to sleep but he wouldn't close his eyes. I was getting really frustrated because the weekend beforehand at my parents' house I had to put Noah to sleep THREE TIMES for one nap because he kept waking up everytime he hit the mattress, and he ended up not napping at all.
I finally put a blanket over his face because he was refusing to close his eyes. I was incredibly sick of walking around, so I sat down on a bed (there are two beds and a crib in that room) right beside the loud fan, and just kind of jiggled a little. He fell asleep like that, and I didn't want to deal with him waking up again so I decided to just hold him.
I was getting soo sleepy with the sound of the fan (plus it was the time of day I always get tired), so eventually I moved enough blankets and pillows around so that I could lie down with Noah draped overtop of me. It was so hard to get in that position without waking him up, because he is not a sound sleeper, and he did open his eyes a bunch of times. But he ended up sleeping for over an hour, so I was in the dark, boring room for over an hour and a half instead of visiting with my parents. I only dozed for about 10 minutes of it. Then Noah jolted and woke me up. So the rest of the time I was just lying there awake with my eyes closed. It was dull. The sleepy/dozing part was nice, and the cuddling was nice, but I wished I had TV or a book or something!
I have a feeling this is how we're going to be spending all his naps at all the Christmas functions we go to. There is no way he's going to transfer into the bottom of a pack 'n play without waking up if he can't transfer into a crib with the dropside down without waking up. This is going to suck for me. I wish he would sleep in a room full of people like he used to.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tooth #7 and Nap Training Update
Tooth #7 (his right left tooth right next to his front teeth) is cutting today.
For the past week Noah has been an absolute angel. The week before he was a huge pain in the bum, really cranky, really clingy, temper tantrums... not fun. But for the past week he's been perfect. Cheerful, silly, fun, and no temper tantrums.
This morning he woke up after sleeping over 11 hours straight last night, and he was pretty fussy. That didn't fit with the sleep he had gotten and the fact that I had already fed him twice. So I checked his gums. This is pretty hard to do, because he really doesn't like me gently moving his lips out of the way to see in his mouth. It took a few tries, but I knew where to look because I had seen that tooth close to the surface when he cut his last tooth.
Sure enough, the gums were starting to split apart there. I gave him advil since he was clearly miserable, and he's been great ever since it kicked in. I haven't checked since just after his first nap, but the tooth moved considerably further out between the first check and the second check. Hopefully it'll be done cutting by tomorrow.
Both of his naps so far today have been about an hour. Nap #1 I nursed him to sleep. He woke up after 35 minutes, fussed for a minute, then went back to sleep. Nap #2 I nursed him but didn't let him fall asleep in my arms. He had popped off because he was done, but I put a soother in his mouth and he cuddled up against me with his eyes closed. I wanted to cuddle with him, but I didn't want to miss a chance to put him down full, dry bum, drowsy, but awake. He FREAKED when I put him in his crib, but only for 2 minutes and went back to sleep. He woke up after half an hour, cried for 3 or 4 minutes, then went back to sleep for about half an hour.
Hopefully things will continue to improve. They already seem a lot better, but I would really like to get rid of the crying in the middle of his naps!
For the past week Noah has been an absolute angel. The week before he was a huge pain in the bum, really cranky, really clingy, temper tantrums... not fun. But for the past week he's been perfect. Cheerful, silly, fun, and no temper tantrums.
This morning he woke up after sleeping over 11 hours straight last night, and he was pretty fussy. That didn't fit with the sleep he had gotten and the fact that I had already fed him twice. So I checked his gums. This is pretty hard to do, because he really doesn't like me gently moving his lips out of the way to see in his mouth. It took a few tries, but I knew where to look because I had seen that tooth close to the surface when he cut his last tooth.
Sure enough, the gums were starting to split apart there. I gave him advil since he was clearly miserable, and he's been great ever since it kicked in. I haven't checked since just after his first nap, but the tooth moved considerably further out between the first check and the second check. Hopefully it'll be done cutting by tomorrow.
Both of his naps so far today have been about an hour. Nap #1 I nursed him to sleep. He woke up after 35 minutes, fussed for a minute, then went back to sleep. Nap #2 I nursed him but didn't let him fall asleep in my arms. He had popped off because he was done, but I put a soother in his mouth and he cuddled up against me with his eyes closed. I wanted to cuddle with him, but I didn't want to miss a chance to put him down full, dry bum, drowsy, but awake. He FREAKED when I put him in his crib, but only for 2 minutes and went back to sleep. He woke up after half an hour, cried for 3 or 4 minutes, then went back to sleep for about half an hour.
Hopefully things will continue to improve. They already seem a lot better, but I would really like to get rid of the crying in the middle of his naps!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Nap Training
(Noah is 8 months and 3 weeks old)
Around the time that Noah turned 2 months old his napping went in the crapper. Before this time he was a normal napper. Some long naps, some short naps, but he was a newborn, it was all normal. Then right around the 2 month mark he stopped having long naps. He only took four 30-40 minute naps a day (I've never understood this 45 minute mark people speak of... Noah has never had a 45 minute mark). But at that time he was sleeping 12-13 hours at night.
Since then he'd occasionally have a good nap. He's had a week or two where I could almost count on 1 good nap (of about an hour) each day. He even had a week where he had TWO good naps on most of the days. I think this occured around 5 months.
For the past long while I have been very lucky if he has two "long" naps in a week. That means out of 21 naps he takes in a week, 2 of them are about an hour long. Maybe. That's not very many.
It doesn't even matter how long he's been awake before his naps. I've tried shortening his awake times and lengthening them - he still only naps 30 minutes (rarely - almost never - does he make it to 40 minutes). This past weekend we had Christmas festivities at my parents' house (which I have yet to post about) and Noah only had two half hour naps on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he was awake for FIVE HOURS between his first and second nap, and he STILL only slept 30 minutes max. This 5 hour awake period was not by my choice; he had woken up as soon as he hit the mattress everytime I put him down in the crib, and since he wasn't in his own room he refused to just close his eyes again, which is what he does 90% of the time that we're at home ever since I used CIO at night.
For quite awhile now Noah has been not even hitting the 30 minute mark for most of his naps - including the time that he spends sleeping in my arms. So since he can only fit in three naps a day because he refuses to go to sleep before he's been awake for at least 2 hours and 15 minutes, sometimes longer, that means he's getting about an hour and 15 minutes of naps each day.
That's it. And it's not like he's even sleeping 12 hours at night. He sleeps about 11 hours most nights, often a little less, occasionally a little more. But he never sleeps 12 hours at night. So if you do the math, my 8 month old is getting 12 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. That is on the low end of what a child over a year old is supposed to get; most children over a year old get a lot more than this.
I have been getting AWFULLY tired of him waking up from his naps after 20 or 25 minutes, regardless of how long he has been awake. I am also getting concerned, because as he gets older his awake times are going to lengthen even more. Currently his awake times are usually about 2.5 hours (although he often goes a lot longer than that before bedtime). That's already pretty long considering how short his naps are. But when his awake times length again and he needs to go down to 2 naps a day, he is STILL only going to be sleeping for half an hour per nap. So then he'll only nap an hour each day.
I've been hoping Noah would self-correct his crappy naps. I don't know why I would hope this, because all his tendencies lean toward him being a crappy sleeper. But people would always say "Oh, as he gets older and more active he'll nap longer" (BULL! He's been on the move since 5 months and he's been a little spider monkey since 6 months, bear crawling, real crawling, standing, climbing stairs, trying to climb couches and beds, HE NEVER STOPS MOVING). Also, a lot of the research I've done has said that it's VERY common for young babies to have 30-45 (again with the 45!) minute naps, and this often self-corrects around 6 months of age - so don't sleep train if you don't have to.
Well, Noah was 11 days early... and not every baby follows the same timetable... so I was hoping maybe the self-correction was still coming.
It's not. In 10 days he's going to be 9 months. I'm done waiting. I have decided to take matters into my own hands. We are now nap training.
I'm not using any specific method. Yesterday was the day I made this decision. Noah woke up from a nap just as I was getting out of the shower. He immediately started crying, and he had only slept 25 minutes, so I decided he could CIO. It was kind of a decision by default. I was annoyed with his super short naps, and I didn't want to run and get him while I was in a towel and then have to comfort a disgruntled baby and not be able to get dressed or brush out my hair until after he was happy enough to play on the floor in my bedroom. So I let him cry. Then by the time I was all ready for the day, he'd been crying for 25 minutes. I didn't want to go get him then, because I didn't want to teach him that if he just cries for a really long time then Mommy will come. I want him to realize that it's okay to cry for Mommy, but if Mommy doesn't come in a couple of minutes, she's not going to come and you should go back to sleep. This is the same idea I use at night. When he wakes up to eat I get him within a couple of minutes. If he wakes up earlier than he actually needs to eat and decides to cry, I don't go get him and after a couple of minutes he realizes that and just goes back to sleep because there really wasn't anything wrong with him.
So at this 25 minute mark I was feeling bad because I didn't know if he would go back to sleep, but I also didn't want to get him and teach him to cry for a long time. I was describing the situation to my friend who had just called, and about 2 minutes later Noah was asleep. He slept for another 50 minutes.
Nap #2 yesterday was the same. Noah woke up after half an hour and I let him cry. He only cried for 7 minutes that time and then went back to sleep - although only for 25 minutes for that second chunk. There was no nap #3 because there was no time for it.
Today I had really made the decision to nap train. So for nap #1 I nursed him, changed his diaper, put him in his sleep sack, and cuddled, rocked, and sang to him. His normal naptime routine. But this time, about 30 seconds after he closed his eyes I put him in his crib and left the room. He was drowsy, but awake. He started crying, I got in the shower, and 10 minutes later he was asleep (he had slumped forward from a sitting up position). 35 minutes later I heard him kind of grunt/whine, but nothing else. I checked on him after a minute and he was lying flat on his tummy. He slept another half an hour, then got up.
Nap #2 I did the same thing. Nursing, diaper change, sleep-sack, cuddle, rock, sing. About 30 seconds after he closed his eyes I put him in his crib. I am fairly certain he was still awake, and he squirmed a lot on the way down, but he just rolled onto his tummy and went to sleep. He slept about an hour.
Nap #3 I just put him all the way to sleep. We were on a time crunch and I didn't want him to cry for half an hour and miss his nap window and then be awake for 5 hours before bed.
I'd say today was a success. We'll see how things go tomorrow!
Around the time that Noah turned 2 months old his napping went in the crapper. Before this time he was a normal napper. Some long naps, some short naps, but he was a newborn, it was all normal. Then right around the 2 month mark he stopped having long naps. He only took four 30-40 minute naps a day (I've never understood this 45 minute mark people speak of... Noah has never had a 45 minute mark). But at that time he was sleeping 12-13 hours at night.
Since then he'd occasionally have a good nap. He's had a week or two where I could almost count on 1 good nap (of about an hour) each day. He even had a week where he had TWO good naps on most of the days. I think this occured around 5 months.
For the past long while I have been very lucky if he has two "long" naps in a week. That means out of 21 naps he takes in a week, 2 of them are about an hour long. Maybe. That's not very many.
It doesn't even matter how long he's been awake before his naps. I've tried shortening his awake times and lengthening them - he still only naps 30 minutes (rarely - almost never - does he make it to 40 minutes). This past weekend we had Christmas festivities at my parents' house (which I have yet to post about) and Noah only had two half hour naps on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he was awake for FIVE HOURS between his first and second nap, and he STILL only slept 30 minutes max. This 5 hour awake period was not by my choice; he had woken up as soon as he hit the mattress everytime I put him down in the crib, and since he wasn't in his own room he refused to just close his eyes again, which is what he does 90% of the time that we're at home ever since I used CIO at night.
For quite awhile now Noah has been not even hitting the 30 minute mark for most of his naps - including the time that he spends sleeping in my arms. So since he can only fit in three naps a day because he refuses to go to sleep before he's been awake for at least 2 hours and 15 minutes, sometimes longer, that means he's getting about an hour and 15 minutes of naps each day.
That's it. And it's not like he's even sleeping 12 hours at night. He sleeps about 11 hours most nights, often a little less, occasionally a little more. But he never sleeps 12 hours at night. So if you do the math, my 8 month old is getting 12 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. That is on the low end of what a child over a year old is supposed to get; most children over a year old get a lot more than this.
I have been getting AWFULLY tired of him waking up from his naps after 20 or 25 minutes, regardless of how long he has been awake. I am also getting concerned, because as he gets older his awake times are going to lengthen even more. Currently his awake times are usually about 2.5 hours (although he often goes a lot longer than that before bedtime). That's already pretty long considering how short his naps are. But when his awake times length again and he needs to go down to 2 naps a day, he is STILL only going to be sleeping for half an hour per nap. So then he'll only nap an hour each day.
I've been hoping Noah would self-correct his crappy naps. I don't know why I would hope this, because all his tendencies lean toward him being a crappy sleeper. But people would always say "Oh, as he gets older and more active he'll nap longer" (BULL! He's been on the move since 5 months and he's been a little spider monkey since 6 months, bear crawling, real crawling, standing, climbing stairs, trying to climb couches and beds, HE NEVER STOPS MOVING). Also, a lot of the research I've done has said that it's VERY common for young babies to have 30-45 (again with the 45!) minute naps, and this often self-corrects around 6 months of age - so don't sleep train if you don't have to.
Well, Noah was 11 days early... and not every baby follows the same timetable... so I was hoping maybe the self-correction was still coming.
It's not. In 10 days he's going to be 9 months. I'm done waiting. I have decided to take matters into my own hands. We are now nap training.
I'm not using any specific method. Yesterday was the day I made this decision. Noah woke up from a nap just as I was getting out of the shower. He immediately started crying, and he had only slept 25 minutes, so I decided he could CIO. It was kind of a decision by default. I was annoyed with his super short naps, and I didn't want to run and get him while I was in a towel and then have to comfort a disgruntled baby and not be able to get dressed or brush out my hair until after he was happy enough to play on the floor in my bedroom. So I let him cry. Then by the time I was all ready for the day, he'd been crying for 25 minutes. I didn't want to go get him then, because I didn't want to teach him that if he just cries for a really long time then Mommy will come. I want him to realize that it's okay to cry for Mommy, but if Mommy doesn't come in a couple of minutes, she's not going to come and you should go back to sleep. This is the same idea I use at night. When he wakes up to eat I get him within a couple of minutes. If he wakes up earlier than he actually needs to eat and decides to cry, I don't go get him and after a couple of minutes he realizes that and just goes back to sleep because there really wasn't anything wrong with him.
So at this 25 minute mark I was feeling bad because I didn't know if he would go back to sleep, but I also didn't want to get him and teach him to cry for a long time. I was describing the situation to my friend who had just called, and about 2 minutes later Noah was asleep. He slept for another 50 minutes.
Nap #2 yesterday was the same. Noah woke up after half an hour and I let him cry. He only cried for 7 minutes that time and then went back to sleep - although only for 25 minutes for that second chunk. There was no nap #3 because there was no time for it.
Today I had really made the decision to nap train. So for nap #1 I nursed him, changed his diaper, put him in his sleep sack, and cuddled, rocked, and sang to him. His normal naptime routine. But this time, about 30 seconds after he closed his eyes I put him in his crib and left the room. He was drowsy, but awake. He started crying, I got in the shower, and 10 minutes later he was asleep (he had slumped forward from a sitting up position). 35 minutes later I heard him kind of grunt/whine, but nothing else. I checked on him after a minute and he was lying flat on his tummy. He slept another half an hour, then got up.
Nap #2 I did the same thing. Nursing, diaper change, sleep-sack, cuddle, rock, sing. About 30 seconds after he closed his eyes I put him in his crib. I am fairly certain he was still awake, and he squirmed a lot on the way down, but he just rolled onto his tummy and went to sleep. He slept about an hour.
Nap #3 I just put him all the way to sleep. We were on a time crunch and I didn't want him to cry for half an hour and miss his nap window and then be awake for 5 hours before bed.
I'd say today was a success. We'll see how things go tomorrow!
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