Sleep Begets Sleep?

I've read the HSHHB (or whatever the initials are) and really want to believe the "sleep begets sleep" theory. My babies seem to disagree. I am one of those lucky mommies whose babies take regular 2-3 hour naps twice a day, plus two 45 mins naps. That's a lot of sleep so why aren't they STTN?? They are hungry when they wake in the middle of the night, but that is probably b/c they won't eat much during the day.

So I have three questions:
1. Do you believe that the more sleep they get during the day, the better they sleep at night?
2. Should I shorten their naps?
3. How do I get them to eat more during the day? (they tend to go 3-4 hrs between feedings)

Thanks in Advance for the help!

 

Just curious, when they sleep during the day are you putting them in a dark room? Maybe their internal clock is messed up, thinking daytime is night time and vise versa.

 

I think that is too much daytime sleep.. I am no expert but my boys have slept thru since 3 mos old (2 adjusted). I think it has to do w/ the fact that they are HORRIBLE nappers!! I'm lucky to get two 45 minute naps and a 20 out of them. I can live with that tho due to the 13 hours straight they do at nite!!

They go to bed NO LATER than 6:00 pm and wake at 7:00 am ON THE NOSE!! They are 5 months old (4 adjusted) now and still going strong!

I guess you get one or the other.. Night time sleepers or nappers and for those of you that have both... Don't tell me about it! LOL.

But yes, I'd cut out the 45 minute naps if it was me

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ Mar 3 2008, 05:40 PM) [snapback]650455[/snapback]
I've read the HSHHB (or whatever the initials are) and really want to believe the "sleep begets sleep" theory. My babies seem to disagree. I am one of those lucky mommies whose babies take regular 2-3 hour naps twice a day, plus two 45 mins naps. That's a lot of sleep so why aren't they STTN?? They are hungry when they wake in the middle of the night, but that is probably b/c they won't eat much during the day.

So I have three questions:
1. Do you believe that the more sleep they get during the day, the better they sleep at night?
2. Should I shorten their naps?
3. How do I get them to eat more during the day? (they tend to go 3-4 hrs between feedings)

Thanks in Advance for the help!


I do agree that sleep begets sleep in this house. If I try and make the boys nap in the car because we want to go somewhere I usually pay for it in crankiness and rough whiny nights. They may not fully awaken at night anymore, but they are definitley fidgety.

You might try and cut out one of the 45 minutes naps and try and engage them in some floor time or exersaucer or whatever will keep them stimulated.

I think 3-4 hours is great at 5 months (3 mo adjusted). That is about where mine were.

I hate to tell you that if they are hungry at night and doing every 3 hours during the day, then they probably need that nightime feed. Mine did not fully STTN until they were 9 months old (7 months adj). I think its a bit of a preemie thing. And FWIW it wasnt until we were up to 3 solids a day (we introduced lunch last at about 9 mo) that they finally got on a nice schedule and bedtime and STTN came into play.

 

Couple of questions- how much do they eat during the day? how many times do they wake up at night? do they just eat and go back to sleep or are they ready to party down in the middle of the night?

My girls didn't STTN without eating or a dream feed until they were 8 months old (6 1/2 adj). When they started sleeping through they were getting 4 7oz bottles a day (plus some solids, but it doesn't really count toward anything).

Honestly I wouldn't mess with the naps you have because it may backfire and you have CRANKY overtired babies in the middle of the night. I would see how much they are eating a day and then see if you can slowly start to decrease the amount at night and increase the amount during the day. This is if you are bottle-feeding. If you are BF I don't know if thats possible (BF moms? advice?). GL and hang in there!!!

 

I'm so happy so many preemie mommys wrote! I hope this info helps a little.

QUOTE(Leighann @ Mar 3 2008, 01:07 PM) [snapback]650516[/snapback]
Couple of questions- how much do they eat during the day? how many times do they wake up at night? do they just eat and go back to sleep or are they ready to party down in the middle of the night?


They eat about 5 4/5oz bottles during the day and only wake once at night. At night they go right back to sleep after eating, usually. They go to sleep around 7pm, eat around midnight and are up again at 6am. I agree w/ cutting the 45min naps out and tried this today. Ryan slept for 3 1/2 hrs this am and Jake is going on his 4th hour. I'm going to wake him in a min. We're going to start solids in about two weeks and I hope that helps a little. Oh yeah, they sleep at night in their cribs in a dark room, but naps are in the family room w/ tv on and in bouncy chair and swing. It's the brightest room in the house.

Thank you all for the encouragement. It's amazing how knowing you're not alone helps so much!

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ Mar 3 2008, 06:20 PM) [snapback]650561[/snapback]
I'm so happy so many preemie mommys wrote! I hope this info helps a little.
They eat about 5 4/5oz bottles during the day and only wake once at night. At night they go right back to sleep after eating, usually. They go to sleep around 7pm, eat around midnight and are up again at 6am.


IMO if they are eating it all and going right back to sleep, I think they still need to eat and I would continue to feed them. Hang in there...you will sleep all night long eventually!!

 

Wow, those are some long naps. I would maybe try cutting them off at the 2 hour mark and see if that helps. We are currently doing 3 naps (totalling 3.5-4 hours of sleep total between all 3). The babies can sleep 12-13 hours at night, but more often will go down at 7, eat at 11, and then sleep until 7:30 the next morning.

It sounds like if they are only waking up once and go right back down after eating that they still need those extra calories and aren't ready to go that long between feedings yet.

 

Sleep begets sleep for us, but my boys don't sleep through the night either. But since we started them on the regular naps ( two 2hour naps a day, at least) they go to bed earlier (6:30 - 7pm)and are way happier and I think my boys really need that bottle in the middle of the night.

good luck and keep us posted

Erica

 

QUOTE(ivfbound078 @ Mar 3 2008, 12:56 PM) [snapback]650489[/snapback]
I guess you get one or the other.. Night time sleepers or nappers and for those of you that have both... Don't tell me about it! LOL.



What if you have neither :unknw: :laughing: !

Megan, no advice as mine are so unpredictable and neither is STTN since Cassidy has regressed, but you sure do have some champion nappers! 3 Hours ?!

I agree with most of PP though that maybe they still really do need that extra feeding :hug99: .

 

I have two scenarios going on in my house so I will tell you how it works out for us.

First, we have not been able to drop the middle of the night feed. We can move it around and get them to take less and a dream feed has been successful if it timed right.

I have the twins home with me Fri-Sun and they nap really well: 90 min in the morning, an hour around noon, another hour in the afternoon and 45 min- an hour in early evening. They are so happy and fun when they get these good naps all day and into the evening. The problem is that they don't go to bed well and don't sleep so soundly.

Then on Mon - Thur they are at daycare and they are lucky if they get 1-2 hours total napping all day. They are cranky and tired when they get home and I have to bath and change them quick before we feed them because then they are out for the night. They sleep hard and if we can do a good dreamfeed around 11-12 will sleep through until 4-5 am.

So does sleep beget sleep? I don't know if it does with us. Maybe when they were tiny it did, but not so much now. It seems if they get too much sleep during the day they don't do long stretches at night. I guess it has to do with some delicate balance between the perfect amount of naps during the day and the perfect number of calories taken in during the day.

 

You are NOT going to believe this!! They are asleep again! They weren't even awake for 2 hours! Tonight will be my true test. Last night Jake woke up twice before midnight. Will I sleep 4 hours straight tonight?? Okay, since I spent their entire last nap on ts, I better do the dishes or DH will think I did nothing all day! Wait...I really didn't do anything today. Better fix that!

 

I have nap envy...

 

I haven't read the other replies so apologies if it's been said already.

I think sleep does promote sleep -- in the sense that, if you let them get overtired it is much harder to get them to go to sleep and stay asleep. BUT, I also think there is such a thing as "too much sleep" and the amount that your babies are napping, seems too much to me.

If I let mine nap too much (total hours during the day) or too close to bedtime, they sleep poorly at night. If they nap too little, they get overtired and also have bad sleep at night. For us there seems to be a "happy medium" -- too much or too little are both no good.

 

That is funny you wrote DH will think you didn't do anything. LOL

I know we talked about this and I too have nap envy. But I found that in the last two or three days that I have done my new schedule I am putting them to naps before they get cranky and that helped them sleep better and longer. Then at night we do the same thing. They get cranky for a few but then settle down.

That said, there are still some nights when they waken and only a feeding will get them settled. I think they too need those extra calories since they don't meet their daily calorie requirements everday.

Hope it gets better for you soon!

 

Babies sleep is the most difficult science.
my boys were text book sleepers last week and are rotten pains in the butt this week cranky and overtired...
they STTN beautifully last week but were shocking the last two nights.........ahhhhhhh!

Moomymeg please advise how your babies slept last night!!! Im curious

 

The more my girls sleep durin the day the better they sleep at night. But i do wake them if it goes over sleep time inthe afternoon. Maybe your babies have their night and days miced up.

 

I would start with cutting the daytime naps to 2 hours each--wake them if you need. My boys from 3 months on, would wake at 8, nap from 10-12, and again from 2-4, then down at 7ish for the night. Also, when they wake at night, don't run in. They may just fuss themselves back to sleep. I do think they are sleeping too much during the day, and aren't active enough to get the food in that they need.

Good luck!

 

Okay, I'm really starting to believe! Last night the boys slept from 7-1 and then 1:45-5:45. Obviously they needed that sleep yesterday as they had never taken such long naps. They usually nap only 2-3 hours and Jake NEVER has napped more than 3 (so 4 was crazy). The two nights before last, Jake woke twice before the midnight feeding and hadn't napped well those days. Maybe there is something to the theory.

I agree that they are not using as many calories (and therefore not eating as much) because they are sleeping so long. On the other hand, DH and I are both 10-12 hour sleepers and were as babies. I'm not too worried about them sleeping TOO much. My mom said that I used to sleep a lot (about 18 hours a day) when I was 3-6 months.

On a side note: I couldn't sleep last night! UGH! Did you know Midol has 60mg of Caffeine?? I haven't had a soda in about 3 weeks, so it kept me up until midnight!

 

:a_smil09: Sounds like they had a great night, keep up the good work! Some babies just need more sleep then others

Erica

 

Awesome night!! I agree that some need more sleep than others.

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ Mar 3 2008, 10:40 AM) [snapback]650455[/snapback]
I've read the HSHHB (or whatever the initials are) and really want to believe the "sleep begets sleep" theory. My babies seem to disagree. I am one of those lucky mommies whose babies take regular 2-3 hour naps twice a day, plus two 45 mins naps. That's a lot of sleep so why aren't they STTN?? They are hungry when they wake in the middle of the night, but that is probably b/c they won't eat much during the day.

So I have three questions:
1. Do you believe that the more sleep they get during the day, the better they sleep at night?
2. Should I shorten their naps?
3. How do I get them to eat more during the day? (they tend to go 3-4 hrs between feedings)

Thanks in Advance for the help!

1. YES, emphatically! When a child is overtired they get a second wind and it just messes up their sleep cycle like you wouldn't believe.

2. No. My boys still sleep 3-4 hours per day and 12 hours or so at night.

3. Start feeding them every 2.5-3 hours if you can. It sounds like a lot but that's how I got enough calories in my guys for them to sleep well.

Good luck to you!