How do you put them down every hour and a half

We've been spoiled with long one, two, and evern three hour naps up until now. This week, they are doing 45 min. and even 30 min. naps. (That is what I get for posting on here and being stressed about whether to wake them up after 3 hours or not.)The problem is they cannot stay up longer than an hour and a half so.....what do we do? That would mean they will be taking like 5 or 6 - 30 mintue naps and they do not always nap at the same time...I would go insane.

I am trying to encourage longer naps with soothing but they seem to get SOOO MAD at that point.

So, I know a few of you have responded to my naps posts and I really appreciate your help. I am just curious if this is a stage that develops around the time they are ready to go to two solid naps like 9am and 1pm (Weissbluth) and how do I even do that if they need to go down within one and a half hours of waking up. I really believe in what Weissbluth says but sometimes I feel it is a bit hypocritical.

Jack and Lily are 4 mos. old on Sunday, is it time to start moving to less daytime naps and, if so, how do I do this? We used to have three long ones and now it is a 45 minute mess!

Thanks,
Amy

 

QUOTE
The problem is they cannot stay up longer than an hour and a half so.....what do we do? That would mean they will be taking like 5 or 6 - 30 mintue naps and they do not always nap at the same time...I would go insane.


I know what you mean! DD is totally maxed out after 1.5 hrs awake at MOST. And some days the naps are only 45 min. So we wind up having some 4-nap days. (If we're lucky - sometimes she desperately needs a 4th but nothing will induce her to take it, not CIO, not cuddling, not nursing, nothing.)

Just go with the flow. Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

Amy,

I don't have any advice... just wanted to let you know that we're dealing with the same thing. I think my girls are now ready to be up for about two hours. At least, this is what I suspect since they have started fighting naptime with all their strength. Today it took me 40 minutes to get them to go to sleep around 1pm. And by the time they finally fell asleep (on their own, I had given up and was just going to let them continue to play), it was just over 2 hours since they had woken up.

Nothing like having your schedule thrown out the window, right?

Trish

 

We're having 4 naps right now for the same reason. It is working just fine for now. I remember this being the case with my oldest....it wasn't till 6 months that he took fewer, longer naps. As long as they're napping and happy, I'd just go with it.

Reyna

 

My guys take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hour naps and they will take 3-4 a day still...

They usually take a 'catnap' before dinner (45 min +/-) with one of these naps and they sleep 10-12 hours through the night.

I read that the more rest they get during the day that they sleep better through the night.

I don't think this will be the case for them when they are older but it works for us.

They have always been on the same sleeping schedule but occasionally one will be up before the other, so I just enjoy the 1:1 time and try to have the other hear us playing and wake up sooner.

I also find that they are messed up during a growth spurt and we rely on 'The Wonder Weeks' book which breaks down which weeks that they will change and what games to play and such during these times (a friend got the book through ebay and I believe it is no longer published).

We just go with the flow mostly.......

 

Elizabeth is also taking about 4 45 min naps every day. I am working on the longer naps and hoping that around 6 months it will happen! She is teething right now too and that is messing everything up!

 

QUOTE(ahmerl @ Sep 27 2007, 02:50 PM) [snapback]426388[/snapback]
We've been spoiled with long one, two, and evern three hour naps up until now. This week, they are doing 45 min. and even 30 min. naps. (That is what I get for posting on here and being stressed about whether to wake them up after 3 hours or not.)The problem is they cannot stay up longer than an hour and a half so.....what do we do? That would mean they will be taking like 5 or 6 - 30 mintue naps and they do not always nap at the same time...I would go insane...


Well, I've resorted to a pad of paper on the kitchen counter with a line drawn down the middle of it. I write down the time each wakes up and the time each goes down. We're into serious "micro napping" these days, much to my chagrin. Most days my DS won't nap more than 45 minutes at a time. I just aim to keep the wakefulness to <= 2 hours and then hope and pray that one day all of this napping will consolidate into a couple of longer naps. I think I am already insane as my children don't nap at the same time. I just keep thinking...this too will pass. Hang in there!

Sotto

 

try counting to 20 before you go into their room, maybe they are just making noise and they aren't actually done sleeping. it's natural to have a 45 min cry. wait and see if they settle back to sleep. you might need to go in and say, "not time to wake up yet" and pat them down. you can start at this age to train them to sleep longer.

what else did i do at 4 months.... um... try keeping them up even 5-10 min longer . maybe they're not ready to jump from 1.5 to 2 hr wake time, maybe they are ready for 1hr and 40 min wake time. KWIM.