You could set your watch by Charlotte. Without fail she has exactly 40 minutes for her morning nap, and 25 minutes for each one after.
It doesn't matter if it's in her cot, her pram - even the car these days, which makes for very long car journeys (i.e. the six hours North we did at the weekend), as she understandably gets bored in her car seat for the hours she's not asleep and gets grizzly. And in my book, 25 minutes is not nearly long enough - averaging out at about 2 hours of naptime a day, if we're lucky.
And she seems increasingly tired and ratty - making for fussy or sleepy feeds, and less happy Charlotte time. So what can I do about it? How can I get her to sleep longer than 25 minutes at a time in the day?
I've looked at the 'Wake To Sleep' technique - but it goes against all my instincts, despite the fact I think it's worked a couple of times accidentally. For example when I've brought her out of the car just before she's about to wake up and she's stayed asleep for another 45 minutes in the flat in her car seat, or out in the pram when she's just about woken but I've rocked her a bit more and she's gone back down.
The thing I keep telling myself is that 10-15 years ago, Mums didn't have the internet or parenting books to turn to for advice or theories every time they thought their child was doing something not quite 'normal', They just got on with it and accepted that's how their baby is. And that's what I'm trying to do, in the hope that this is a phase that will pass and Charlotte will eventually nap for longer, or prove to me she doesn't need more than 2 hours in short spells every day.
She's also taken to waking at night, usually around 11.30pm, not for hunger. I'm not sure what's waking her - possibly very early teething or growing pains. We tried Calpol one night in case it was either of those things, but despite all other Mums telling me how brilliant it is at knocking babies right out to sleep for ages, it didn't work. For a few nights I ended up feeding her back to sleep, but I know that's a really bad habit to get into. Last night I put her dummy in (she goes to sleep without one usually) and soothed her - and on the third attempt she went back off to sleep for another three hours until she really did wake for a feed.
I have a new mantra to go with Patience and Perseverance... it's Relax and Enjoy. But that's proving harder and harder to tell myself the more she fights her sleep and sleeps on me instead of eating :(.
All 3 of my babies have done this, and occasionally number 3 (6 months) still tried it on! I generally used to go in and do some bum patting until they drifted off to sleep again! I have to admit to not doing it with number one and by 5 months she was so knackered she was a monster so had to do some sleep training (pick up put down - which is a miracle worker I might add)!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think they do get better at sleeping past that point but with a little patience you can help them do it earlier which will make ALL the difference - it's so much nicer when your baby is refreshed and happy! I loved the baby whisperer book (not all of it but most of it) take what you want out of it, it's quite middle of the road, and we've had great results and great sleepers out of it!!!
It gets better, and easier just make sure you have plenty of caffiene in the house until it does!!!
Thanks for your comments, Bothabunch. I'm so tired of taking 40 minutes of grizzling and crying (her and me!) just for 25 minutes sleep. I've tried to watch for her tired signs to get her down at the right time, but as she's constantly tired, she's constantly yawning which makes it very difficult. And the window between tired and overtired seems miniscule, so I'm always missing it. Not yet managed to find a way to get her back to sleep the few times I've attempted 'wake to sleep'. Really struggling to enjoy my beautiful baby, which makes me very sad.
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