Hshhc followers i need your advice please?

Hi all,

The girls still need 3 naps a day, sometimes they could have 4 but i don't like to give an extra i would rather send them to bed early. Anyway they both had colic and it says in the book that about 4/5mths of age you can try and get postcolic babies on a 9 and 1 schedule if they are sleeping well at night. They have just recently started sleeping really well at night so should i give this a go?
I'm not sure they are ready to drop a nap tbh but the 3rd nap isn't always got by one or sometimes both of them lately, do you think this means they are ready to go on the 9 and 1? When they don't get the third nap, they turn into overtired monsters so to me they still could do with it. Any suggestions? When did you try for 9 and 1?
TIA

 

What time do they wake up in the morning? We did more of an 8 and 1 schedule b/c they get up at 5/5:30am. They then would also take a 45 mins nap around 4 and go to bed at 6:30/7. I don't think it was until they were 6/7 months that we were able to be really predictable with the naps. I still followed their sleep ques and if it wasn't 8/1/4 I would still put them down. I'd rather be off schedule than have an overtired baby. HTH!

 

That is great thankyou! They can be up as early as 5 or as late as 8 it really varies at the moment so yeah sometimes we would never make the 9. Its great when they get the 45 mins 3rd nap but lately they are really fighting it even though they could do with it.

 

We didnt go to "9 and 1" until about 9 months. That is when they dropped the 3rd nap. At 4/5 months mine were taking at least 4 naps a day.

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Jun 24 2009, 12:41 PM) [snapback]1366345[/snapback]
We didnt go to "9 and 1" until about 9 months. That is when they dropped the 3rd nap. At 4/5 months mine were taking at least 4 naps a day.


Thankyou!! That's good to know they didn't suit this schedule till they were older, i was worrying as my girls seem along way off getting on the 9 and 1. How did you know they were ready to go on the 9 and 1?

 

QUOTE(mummy2ambernruby @ Jun 24 2009, 07:55 AM) [snapback]1366356[/snapback]
How did you know they were ready to go on the 9 and 1?


When they dropped the 3rd nap due to them fighting it or just not wanting it. We just eliminated the 3-4 nap and they went to bed at 5:30 pm. It took some time to get them on a fixed 9 and 1 too.

 

Hey there!

We're in the same boat (as usual!). I just installed a room darkening shade in the girls' room so they will sleep a bit longer in the AM (usually till about 7) and then I try my best to do the 9 and 1. Most of the time, they still need their third nap, but I try to make it a short one if the other two have been a good length. Most days it evens out, but yesterday, naps were totally screwed up due to teething, I think.

I would stick to all your naps and focus on getting the nighttime sleep routine down before you try to mess with the naps. I think since our babies were a bit premature, they are lagging in their sleep patterns a bit and that's OK. I'm so glad nighttime sleep is improving for you! In my mind, I couldn't care less if naps are off as long as they STTN really well!

 

I started at 4 mos. to do the 45 min. of awake time and watched their cues at first. Then around 6 mos. I started forcing the issue a bit more. I think it took till they were about at least 7-9 mos. before I could do that.

I loved HSHHC! Worked well for me!!! Hope you have success too!! :hug:

 

we dropped to 2 naps around 8.5 months. like PPs, the girls started fighting their 3rd nap so we knew it was time. we also bumped their bedtime up - they went to bed at 6:00pm for a while. then as they adjusted we've moved their bedtime back to 7:00pm. the first couple of days or so were pretty rough, they were really tired & cranky. the rule in our house though is that we stick with schedule changes for a week before reevaluating & by the end of that week, they were doing really well on the new schedule.

 

Man, my girls still take 3-4 naps!! They get up early; between 5:30 and 6 and are usually tired within an hour so they go back to bed and sleep for an hour or so. Then we do a morning nap, an afternoon nap and then sometimes (depending on when they wake up from the afternoon) a third nap. Like others have said, if we can't squeeze in the third nap I put them to bed earlier (maybe 20-30 mins early). So far so good. I mainly focus on their awake time - they still don't tolerate much more than 2-2.5 hours.

 

Thanks everyone!!

Stacya i think your right, "if it's not broke don't fix it" i am thankful the nighttime issues are resolved!!! I'll worry about the 9 and 1 in a few months..

Right now i have enough to worry about, it is 3rd nap time here in the uk and it is Ruby's turn to all out refuse the 3rd nap lol

 

Oh wow, after 55mins Ruby finally dropped off!! I was 5mins away from getting them both up to do bedtimeroutine earlier!! I'm sure these babies are laughing at me lol

 

We're still on a 3-4 nap a day schedule. If they wake up at 7, they take 4 naps, and if they wake at 8, it's three. I find Caleb still needs to follow the 2 hour rule. After 2 hours he turns into a little monster, so I just know he's definitely not ready for the 9 and 1 schedule. Usually, he wakes at 7, goes down at 9, wakes at 10 or 10:30, goes for a catnap (30 min or so) at 12, and then goes down for a second, long nap at 2 and a catnap (30 min) again at 5:30ish. Bedtime is 7:00. The only thing is that he's still not sleeping through the night.

 

Thanx, sounds like our girls! They just can't tolerate much more than 1hr30mins of awake time yet and we are still feeding once in the night too. They can get to about 4.30am then i feed them and they are usually back down till 7.30ish, so long as they go back to sleep i don't mind feeding them at this time but i'm hoping they decide to stop waking for it soon! lol Still struggling with 3rd nap issues, they just fight it so much i tried eliminating it and going for a walk instead and they aren't dealing with that verywell either so i am clueless right now.

 

One thing I've always found with naps is that it is better to base them on the wake time interval than the actual clock time. At 6 months old, my guys were generally getting 3 naps, and that lasted from 6 months to just about 11 months.

 

Thanx Rachel! That is what i currently do, our wakeup and bedtime is different daily so i struggle to go BTC at present. They managed to take a 40min & 1hr 3rd nap today so hopefully they are still feeling the need for this nap, it really is awful when they miss it.

 

I think ours were 7 months or so when they went to 2 naps a day. I dropped the third when the no longer seemed to want or need it & were fighting it. Definitely try to get the night time routine down first, then start looking at naps. It's great that the nights are improving! :yahoo:

 

It sure is :yahoo: for long stretches of UNINTERRUPTED sleep!!

Your right things have been abit iffy with bedtime lately and it is since we are teething and having 3rd nap issues. The girls are fighting going down for sleep at bedtime now aswell so i'm going to concentrate on sustaining the bedtime routine now and keep on trying to get them to take the 3rd as they really do need it.