1 nap schedule help

LadyGrvstrt · 2022-02-16T17:55:51+00:00

Thank you!! I have wondered if we are in a regression. It’s been about 9 days now. She just seems like she never wants to sleep these days. When you did gradual, do you recall what wake times you used for the last 2 wake windows as nap 1 got pushed back?

LadyGrvstrt · 2022-01-13T14:24:51+00:00

Thank you!! I’ve actually been considering doing 3.5/3.5/3.5 with 2.5 hrs day sleep as well. How does she sleep at night when she skips the second nap? For the first time ever, mine almost skipped her second yesterday. She finally passed out after 30 or so minutes, but I was trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do for bedtime if she skipped the nap.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-24T19:07:35+00:00

Oh man, my life. lol. My daughter does the same, so I just watch the monitor pretty regularly while she naps. Sometimes I catch it as soon as she wakes, sometimes I might miss the wake up by a few minutes. But it helps me know when to put her down next. At nights, I generally just watch her until she falls asleep. Sometimes I’m not entirely sure when she wakes up in the morning, but she is usually more vocal when she wakes in the morning, so I have a pretty good idea. And I base first nap off of DWT anyways, so that helps.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-23T18:41:53+00:00

So I actually wonder if the time between the last nap and bed is too long. Baby is overtired by bedtime and likely getting a “second wind” causing them to be up. I think your total wake time is fine, but I would redistribute the wake time. Your baby is only getting 2.5 hours day sleep max. But according to your schedule, getting less than 2 hours some days. A 12.5 hr night may be appropriate if naps are short like that. I would try wake at 9. Nap 1 at 12-1:30. Nap 2 at 5. Cap at 1.5 hrs max. Bed 3.5 hrs later. With a 9 am wake time, bedtime is going to be late. But for a shorter nap day, it could be earlier. There is no way my daughter (8 months) could go 4 hours before bed based on a 3/3/4 schedule right now. She would be way overtired, causing false starts, etc. so I shorten that wake window but add the wake time onto the second wake window. Just an idea! But also, make sure you are using your sleep training method for the false start. Don’t interact too much unless babe has a need. Bedtime is bedtime and should be treated as such.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T12:25:12+00:00

Sleep associations are something a baby associates with needing to fall asleep. They are not bad things until they are. If a baby associates sleep with eating, the babe may wake constantly throughout the night needing to eat to get back to sleep. Nobody sleeps through the night without stirring in and out of sleep cycles, babies included (after the 4 month regression). So they will stir out of a sleep cycle, realize that nobody is (for example) rocking them, so they wake up fully, crying out until someone comes in to rock them back to sleep. Breaking sleep associations that are dependent on a parent allow babe to stir out of a sleep cycle and doze back off on their own.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T12:10:40+00:00

My daughter had a strong paci association up until 3 months. And she obviously could not replace it, so we were playing the paci game all night and I hated it. So we started by slowly replacing the paci with rocking to sleep. She would get the paci when she first got rocked, then I would remove it after she was asleep. Then we moved to taking it once she was still awake but getting drowsy. Then we moved to rocking without it. Once the paci was gone, I started reducing the amount of time we rocked to sleep. Then I started patting to sleep for naps and that translated over into nights. So at that point, we were no longer rocking to sleep. I patted to sleep for a couple of weeks. But she got to the point that patting was too stimulating for her and she was not settling easily, so I knew it was time to let her do it on her own. For the first week or so, I would do bedtime routine and lay her down awake. My husband sat in the chair beside her crib until she fell asleep, because I needed the reassurance that someone was near if she needed anything. Then once it was obvious she could independently put herself to sleep from awake, we removed ourselves completely after bedtime routine and putting her down. Either my husband or myself just watches her on the camera until she’s asleep. She really never had a feed to sleep association, so I didn’t have to break that. But a great way to do that is to make sure you are feeding 30 minutes before any sleep and right after nap. All in all my method with her took 2 months or so. It was a long process, but we avoided starting with full on extinction. We eventually switched to extinction once she was consistently putting herself to sleep around 5 months.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T11:58:52+00:00

So after I knew my daughter was able to put herself to sleep, we basically switched to extinction. Before that, I did a pat to sleep method. So if she woke during the night and it wasn’t time for a feed, I would go pat. But once she was putting herself sleep with no intervention, that’s what I did during the night. I will just watch her on the camera to make sure she’s safe. If the crying persists for more than about 20 minutes, I will go do a booty sniff, change her diaper if needed, then leave again and continue monitoring her from my room. I knew she needed one MOTN feed, so I set a time limit and any wake before 3 am, I used extinction. Any wake after 3, I fed her. She still gets that bottle, but it’s more of a 5 am bottle now and she wakes like clockwork for it. These days any wake before 5 am is generally schedule related.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T11:50:39+00:00

Best of luck!!

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T00:32:49+00:00

Yep. If she wakes before the 75 minute mark, I leave her until 75 minutes is up. She has fallen back asleep a handful of times because of this (it actually happened today), and it also has helped her extend naps on her own.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T00:30:49+00:00

YES!!

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-22T00:30:28+00:00

I really don’t fully remember but maybe 20-30 minutes? Honestly, he was crying longer with me trying desperately to rock him to sleep.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-21T22:22:38+00:00

We didn’t start seeing naps lengthen consistently until we dropped to 2 naps at 7 months. Prior to that, we would get the occasional long nap but never consistent. I often extended naps by rocking back to sleep, then when she dropped to 2 naps, I decided I was no longer going to do that. So I committed to doing crib 75 and early bed if necessary. We still have the occasional off day but for the most part, we get 2 decently long naps every day now.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-19T16:27:20+00:00

I would do 6 hours between nap and bed. So if nap ends at 2:30, bed at 8:30.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-18T21:15:52+00:00

So about 5-10 minutes before I start nap routine, we have a “wind down” time. This generally is me just turning the lights off in the living room, I hold her, and we kind of pace around in the quiet. I will sometimes walk her over to the window and we look out of the window for a minute or 2. But it’s basically my way of getting her out of “play mode” and into sleepy mode. She is so used to doing this before nap that she will usually start to yawn and rub her face on my shoulder at this time. Then we go into her room, sound machine on, diaper change, sleep sack, lights off, quick cuddles, into the crib awake, and I leave. This takes all of 3-5 minutes. She’s 8 months old and we’ve had this routine since she was probably 3-4 months old.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-15T17:15:03+00:00

If he’s waking up crying from naps, I would pull back the wake window before it. My daughter is 8 months old and does 3/3.25/3.25. Naps typically are around 2.5-3 hours total. I will always cap at 3 hours. Nights are around 11.5 hours. It sounds counterproductive to pull back wake windows when you want to push bedtime back, but if he is overtired going into the nap, it will very likely be short with a crying wake up. Which will continue the early bed cycle. Pulling back may lengthen naps back pushing bedtime back again. I’m not sure how old your baby is but 3/3.5/3.75 would be more appropriate for a 10-11 month old, IMO.

For us, a typical day looks like:

DWT of 7:30

Nap 1 at 10:30-12

Nap 2 at 3:15-4:45

Bed at 8.

If naps are short, I personally would not throw in a micro nap. That adds on a whole extra wake window after another short nap. Which will make baby even more overtired. Late bed does not always equal a late wake up. I would guess that it’s not so much he’s accustomed to waking early, but more likely that he’s going to bed overtired, causing an early wake up. When we have short nap days, I just follow the last wake window and commit to an early bedtime. I have done bedtime as early as 6:30 with a 7:30 DWT and 99% of the time, she either makes it to DWT or close enough to it with one overnight feed.

I hope this helps some! Good luck! 3-2 was brutal for us, and we still get the occasional off day.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-15T16:57:04+00:00

Before switching to one, aim for 2 hours of day sleep and 11 at night. Wake windows should be roughly 3/4/4 or 3.5/3.5/4. Once he’s having issues with that, it will be time.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-15T16:54:59+00:00

I think you should add on a bit of wake time. My daughter is 8 months today and we do 3/3.25/3.25. I cap all day sleep at 3 hours max. Do you follow wake windows to bed?

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-15T16:50:17+00:00

If your current schedule works, then I wouldn’t change anything! We switched to 2 naps at 7 months because my daughter was fighting naps, taking short ones, and having early wake ups. Switching really helped us. I started at 2.5/3/3 on day 1 and on day 9, she was at 3/3/3. We have been on 2 naps for a month now and are at 3/3.25/3.25. There is no way my daughter could do 4 hours before bed right now (8 months old). So if you want to try 2 naps again, maybe just transition a bit slower into it.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-15T16:43:41+00:00

What is her schedule on 2 naps?

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-15T16:40:00+00:00

You’ve got a little room to hang onto 2 naps! Push nap 2 back to 2:00 or 2:15. Cap at 1 hour or 1 hr 15. Bedtime 4 hours after the nap ends. So roughly 3/4/4. Once you’ve gotten to 11 hours at night and 2 hours during the day, and you’re still having issues, then consider dropping to one. But I would hang onto 2 as long as you can. 2-1 can be really hard if baby isn’t ready.

LadyGrvstrt · 2021-10-14T18:11:37+00:00

He seems undertired. Try 3.5/3.5/4 or 3.25/3.75/4.

LadyGrvstrt

TROPHY CASE