Question about HSHHC re: naps

Our little ones are 11 weeks old. I try to have them take a nap within one hour of their morning wake up time- something I read to do in the book healthy sleep habits happy child. Anyway, in your experience, when do they stay up a little longer to reach closer to two hours of wake time for their first nap. They get up around 7 and take their first nap around 745/800am at the present time, although, it doesn't always happen. I've read in the book to have a wake time around 7am and to take the first nap around 9am. I'm just curious when that time frame starts happening (i.e. at what age) at least in your experiences. THANKS!

 

Our little ones are 11 weeks old. I try to have them take a nap within one hour of their morning wake up time- something I read to do in the book healthy sleep habits happy child. Anyway, in your experience, when do they stay up a little longer to reach closer to two hours of wake time for their first nap. They get up around 7 and take their first nap around 745/800am at the present time, although, it doesn't always happen. I've read in the book to have a wake time around 7am and to take the first nap around 9am. I'm just curious when that time frame starts happening (i.e. at what age) at least in your experiences. THANKS!

 

I couldn't get from 7-9 until around 6 mos. or so! I started watching at 4 mos.... I would get from 7 - 8:00 and sometimes to 8:30 at first.

 

I'm curious about this too. My boys are 2mo today, and I've just started trying to get them to take naps. The thing is, they generally don't want to nap right away after their 7am wakeup. Today, I put them down around 10am. Why is it important for them to nap so soon after waking up?

I'm also wondering how you get them to take naps. Mine would stay up all day if I let them (they don't just doze off). I have to swaddle, rock and usually give them the paci for them to really nap. Do yours just go to sleep or do you need to PUT them to sleep?

Sorry! Realize I didn't answer any of your questions and just added more. Hopefully someone else knows more about this than me .

 

quote:
Originally posted by tracymcg:
I'm also wondering how you get them to take naps. Mine would stay up all day if I let them (they don't just doze off). I have to swaddle, rock and usually give them the paci for them to really nap. Do yours just go to sleep or do you need to PUT them to sleep?


My ds is a little easier to put down for a nap. At first, before reading the book, I would let a couple to three hours pass before putting them down for a nap. WELLLLL, after reading the book, I didn't realize that I was missing some of their sleepy signs to go down sooner for a nap. When I started paying attention, they were telling me that they wanted to sleep. They show their sleepy signs differently between the two. My ds doesn't really yawn, rub his eyes, etc...instead, he has reduced play activity on the boppy or blanket, an indication that he's tired. When I noticed that a few weeks ago, I just nursed him a little and placed him down. He didn't even really fuss. It was surprising. My dd is a little trickier. I usually nurse her and put her down awake but drowsy and sometimes in light sleep. I now swaddle them both (note: started swaddling around 7 weeks I think) and that seems to lengthen their sleep time. I sometimes walk around with them in my arms for a few minutes before putting them down and cuddle a bit. Once I started putting them down within the first hour, I noticed that they generally started napping better throughout the day. It took about a week or so. It takes time to notice a difference in their sleep patterns, especially so young. Also, at first, it was challenging putting them down for naps, but it does get easier. HTH!

 

Any more thoughts would be appreciated!

 

Heck no mine wouldn't stay awake for two hours at that age! I thought the book says not to let them stay awake for more than two hours, not that they need to be awake that long. I kept the 1 1/2-2 hour rule until they were almost 6 months old. Now, I try to do 2-3 hours and they are 8 months old.

The thing that I found really helpful was that if they don't sleep, don't put them down until the next scheduled nap. This helps them understand the biological rhythms in their bodies. At that age, we were still doing a 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 10 feeding schedule with naps interspersed.

Good luck!

 

I started doing that around 4 months of age with my oldest (and that's kind of he says in the book as well). Sometimes a little earlier if necessary. She could do it after 12-13 hours of sleep (she was sleeping through the night very quickly).

At this point I have to put my twins down after an hour or so. They are starting to make progress with soothing themselves to sleep (YAY!!!) during the day. He told me to start as early as possible, since it's learned behaviour and you can't rock 2 babies to sleep especially when you have a toddler already.

He also says that in the early weeks they may not able to be up for 45 minutes or so, so it's very normal what you are experiencing.