Good Nighttime Sleep but Not Napping

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Good Nighttime Sleep but Not Napping

Posted March 10, 2009

Hi Kitty,

I took your sleep seminar recently and it worked like a charm -- for nights. She is sleeping almost 12 hours (6 months old) and goes to bed like a dream.

Our problem is with the naps. They are horrible. I can't understand why, but she can sometimes scream right through the whole two hours. Other times she does fall asleep but then wakes up at the 45 minute mark. How can she learn everything at night and not put it into practice during the day? It's driving me crazy to hear her cry so much. It makes me think maybe she doesn't really need so much napping?

The problem of naps is huge for parents these days. Your letter is similar to many I receive and I wish I had a magic answer. You may remember me saying during the seminar that the nights will be great after 3 nights, but that naps can take up to 5 days to become smooth. Many parents find it hard to be consistent over 5 days where they can manage the 3 nights quite well. So lack of consistency can be one problem. Your baby will learn best from repeated practice times with two hour naps every couple of hours totaling three naps per day with regularity over about 5 days in a row.

Another solution comes with putting a baby down 15-20 minutes earlier than you might think you need to. This way he can lie down before he gets cranky or over tired and drift off to sleep or perhaps make do with less crying on the way.

An excellent article on solving naps by Elizabeth Pantley suggests other tweaking ideas that might just be the small change required to smooth out your baby's nap skills.

A really enjoyed watching a newborn baby "talking" to his mother on a friend's blog recently. It's a great demonstration of a way to interact with your baby that avoids over-stimulation and allows her to take the lead in the "conversation." Take a look.

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I am also sleep training my twin girls and am having trouble with getting them to nap. It seems as though they disturb each other and will cry straight through the two hours. How can I get them some much needed rest but still stick to the routine? Any advice?

By Heather on June 19, 2009

You may have this solved by now. Generally twins are remarkable capable of learning to ignore each other cries—as long as you are not going in at all. If the crying brings you in, then a child may come to associate the sibling’s cry with the arrival off adult attention and become “attuned” to it, deliberately waking him/herself up for the social reward.

By kitty on September 2, 2009

Since my post on Nov. 10, my son, has begun to use his nap times for sleeping again. It has been more than two weeks of nice long naps between 1.5 and 2 hours. There have been a few shorter and a few longer BUT overall the napping has been going great. Kitty thought the interuption was due to development. During 6 to 7 mos. old, my son starting crawling, standing up on things, and going up stairs. Sounds about right to me.

Raymond Parenting

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