Fitting younger child's naps around older child's routine
Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you to the Dream Team who helped me loads about a year ago when I was having problems getting my little girl to sleep (see my other post) - Tabby now goes to bed like a dream and rarely wakes in the night - it's fab!
When Isaac came along I was determined not to get into the bad habits I had with Tabby and was doing well at getting him to fall asleep on his own in his cot during the day. He also sleeps well at night - generally falls asleep on his last feed and goes into bed asleep but if he wakes for a feed in the night will settle himself well.
However, in the last month or so, it's all changed. I seem to keep missing his sleep windows - usually because I'm busy sorting Tabby out or because we're out and about and then he can't seem to settle himself. I think it's partly that he's more aware now and is on the point of crawling so just mucks about in his cot and gets stuck in all sorts of awkward positions!
I've tried pick up put down and pick up put down cry down without much success so far. Part of the problem is that while I'm trying to settle Isaac, Tabby is left on her own which isn't ideal and adds to the stress of the situation. This has led to me feeding him just to get him to sleep (or because I've been trying to settle him for so long it's actually come round to the next feed anyway!). It just seems to be that no matter how tired he is, he can't seem to drop off at the moment. Either just wants to play or gets totally hysterical! Any ideas please?!
written 9 weeks ago by Chestnut Brown - 5 replies - viewed 101 times
labels: routines | daytime napping | younger child
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It sounds like his nap times have changed - try not to get into the habit of feeding him to sleep or the situation will get a lot worse. Aim for 3 hours after he has woken from his night sleep or previous nap and report back what happens.
reply by Mentor-Wendy -
9 weeks ago
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Hi Wendy, thanks for your reply. I'm trying to stop feeding him to sleep - as you say it'll only get worse!
I find that Isaac seems to be quite tired and whingy about 1.5/2 hours after waking up from his night sleep. Should I still wait 3 hours? The problem is that we're often rushing out to activities that Tabby does right about the time he gets tired so I can't put him in bed for a sleep and so he often only gets a short sleep in the car or no sleep at all whilst we're out. This then has a knock on effect throughout the day and I can't get him to settle later on.
reply by Chestnut Brown -
9 weeks ago
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I find lots of babies can only manage a shorter period awake after waking for the day than they can do later in the day so it's quite normal for him to be tired after a couple of hours. The best bet if you're out & about is to let him have his first nap of the day in the car then try a cot nap from the second nap late morning / around lunchtime.
It gets harder to settle a nap resistent baby as the day goes by so it's worth working on improving his napping with the first or second nap of the day being in his cot even if it means missing a few activities for a couple of weeks. He'll be more flexible once he gets the hang of it.
reply by Mentor-Sarah -
9 weeks ago
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Just to say, we stuck with the pupdcd and I stopped feeding him to sleep and he generally goes down for a nap wonderfully now. Thanks very much for your help! Just got to get him sleeping through the night now, but that's getting there! Thank you Dream Team! This website is fab! I recommend it to all my friends!
reply by Chestnut Brown -
5 weeks ago
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That's brilliant news - thanks for the update & come back any time we can help.
reply by Mentor-Sarah -
5 weeks ago
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