Another sleep question

[ashbash]

I need some collective Mommy wisdom here.......

C is a crap night sleeper, most nights look like this - bedtime routine (bath, jammies, books, nurse, swaddle, rock to sleep) this part is easy and he is asleep at 7/7:30pm with just a few minutes of rocking. Up at 10/11 to nurse, up at 2/3 to nurse then some nights he is up for an hour or more just hanging out, I lay him down until he starts to fuss then rock him to sleep, up for the day 6/7 am. Before the nursing DH goes in and tries to get him back to sleep with a paci and rocking its 50/50 if it works or not.

On the flip side C is a super napper, 2 hours in the morning, 15/30 min car nap when we are out and about and 3 hours in the after noon

So all of that to ask, could those big naps be messing with his night sleep? If you have a good napper what does their "schedule" look like?

[baytosa2013]

We don't have a good napper, good as in that many hours straight. She cat naps 3-4 times during the day at daycare. Generally they range anywhere from 15 mins to about an hour. She will come home from day care and hang out until her 7pm bottle unless she had a bad nap day then she will nap right after we get home. She's started falling asleep at around 8-8:30 now. We let her sleep on her play mat with us downstairs then we take her up at 9:00 for jammies, diaper change and a last bottle for the night. She sleeps till 5:30-5:45 when we get her up for daycare. I have noticed that she sleeps much more regularly for naps when she is at home with us than when she is at daycare.

[Widget123]

I let my LO take long naps in the morning (if he is home with me) but I try to avoid longer naps in the afternoon, especially around 4pm or later (cat naps are okay). I do believe that if you let your LO sleep too much during the day it may prevent them from sleeping as well at night. If I were you I would try to put a limit on the afternoon nap, i.e. wake up after 1.5-2 hours.

[ashbash]

Widget123 thats what i was thinking. It goes against the never wake a sleeping baby but if it means more sleep at night ill do it!

[billyhorrible]

I'm in the "sleep begets sleep" camp, and more/better naps usually means more/better sleep at night.

What problem are you most concerned with? The multiple wake ups or that 2/3am party time?

[Deleted]

+1 I'm also in the never wake a sleeping baby camp unless the last nap of the day is going past 5pm then I would wake your baby. your baby might just be going through the infamous 4 month wakeful period at night.

Also, babies change all the time so your good napper might take short naps next month.

[khaze]

So at this age, it's pretty standard for them to have a 2 hour wakeful period. Meaning, you'd want to have your baby awake about 2 hours before you'd want him asleep. I do bath/jammies/books/bottle at 7 and both my boys are in bed by 8. I always make sure the little one is awake by 6 if he's napping that late. He does a 3 hour nap either for morning or afternoon, the other morning/afternoon nap is @2 hours, then he does a cat nap at dinnertime (1/2-1 hours usually). Sometimes, he'll be pushing 2 hours of nap by the time 6 rolls around, but I've found that no matter how long he sleeps on that last nap, as long as he's up for a 2 hour window, nighttime sleep isn't impacted. For nights, he is asleep around 8, wakes around 2 for a feeding, then back to sleep until around 6:30-7:30.

If it were me, I definitely wouldn't try cutting the amount of sleep he is getting, but maybe try increasing the wakeful period right before bed. If he's currently getting 2 hours of wakeful time, maybe try 2.5 hours, etc and see if that helps at all. Also may seem counter intuitive, but maybe an even earlier bedtime? My first baby when he was this age, we found that he slept better (and longer) at night going to bed earlier at 7:00 instead of 8. FWIW I haven't noticed that in my second, so I think he's on a good schedule right now.

[carolyngrace]

That night doesn't sound bad to me, other than the 1 hour wakeful period MOTN. Personally I wouldn't mess with a good napper, and I wouldn't think that long nap at the end of the day is messing with him, especially since he goes down easily.

My DB is, and has always been, a sleeper. He still sleeps like 16 hours a day. 12 at night (usually up 2-3 times) and 4 hours of napping during the day (various how it is distributed). Sometimes it's even more. I'm not saying that to brag, I just don't think your baby is getting "too much" sleep during the day.

[ashbash]

Thanks ladies! I know part of it could be the 4 month sleep regression but he has never slept longer than 4 hrs at night, avg 2-3 hrs though.

Its mainly the 2 hour wise awake period that concerns me. His wake ups, although they are more frequent than I would like are quick so I can deal. I have always been in the good sleep equals good sleep camp as well but Im getting delirious with sleep deprivation and trying to find anything i can tweak to help things out. And DD1 was a crap napper and great over night sleeper so it got me wondering

Ive played with awake periods, he can stay awake a long time, the evenings can be 3+ hours, ive tried shorter and longer

I want to keep his great naps that he has always had so maybe ill just keep riding it out and hope he gets his nights better

[billyhorrible]

The wide awake in the middle of the night would bother me too. Super frustrating. That started for us around 4 months, so now when he wakes after I've put him in the crib after a feeding I have DH go in and get him back to sleep so I can get a little more sleep.

[Deleted]

DS used to do the wide awake thing in MOTN. He eventually grew out of it. He would do the wide awake thing after every wake up not just one. I think I used to just lay him down in the dark while he chatted to himself and then once he fussed I would rock him back to sleep.

[ashbash]

@poppyc8 thats pretty much how we are playing this, crazy babes

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2015 9:18:00 GMT -5 ashbash said:

@poppyc8 thats pretty much how we are playing this, crazy babes

Absolutely crazy. Ali woke up at 330am last night and was wide awake and chatting to herself. It took 1 1/2 hours to get her back to sleep. Then she only slept for an hour and was up for the day at 6am. I feel like a zombie today.

[ashbash]

Oct 20, 2015 12:47:19 GMT -5 @poppyc8 said:

Oct 20, 2015 9:18:00 GMT -5 ashbash said:

@poppyc8 thats pretty much how we are playing this, crazy babes

Absolutely crazy. Ali woke up at 330am last night and was wide awake and chatting to herself. It took 1 1/2 hours to get her back to sleep. Then she only slept for an hour and was up for the day at 6am. I feel like a zombie today.

Solidarity sister, we will sleep again one day! (Just probably not tonight )

[mcp6286]

Oct 19, 2015 15:15:47 GMT -5 @bubbs119 said:

Agreed that more sleep = more sleep. I would not wake a sleeping baby. LO is a hot mess if I wake her up or her nap gets cut short.

Same here. H takes one long nap and 3-4 short ones during the day and still sleeps 10+ hours per night (though right now we're regressing and she wakes up once per night to eat). I do try to keep her long nap around mid-day if I can though.