The 40 Minute Napper

I'm not sure why I drew the short straw with both kids when it comes to napping. Aren't babies supposed to sleep and sleep and sleep? Isn't that why they say "sleeping like a baby"?

Both my babies slept in 40 minute chunks. With Owen that lasted for a good 8-9 months, mainly because I didn't really know what to do about it.

With Alex I have taken a much different approach and it appears to have paid off. She is finally (for the last few weeks, so I say she started at about 5 months) having regular naps 2-3 times a day that last 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

How did I do it?

To begin, I have been following Dr. Weissbluth's (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) sleep advice from early on.

1) I kept her awake time short - watching for the first sign of tiredness and then putting her down for her nap

2) I had her sleep in her crib most of the time to avoid the 'twilight' sleep that they get when in motion (i.e., in the car, a stroller, or carrier)

3) I consistently put her down after a short soothing period whether she was awake or asleep - so she learned how to fall asleep on her own

That was all well and good - but she was still having four or five 40-minute naps in a day, making it very difficult to do or plan anything. So I had to force the issue.

According to Dr. W, daytime sleep establishes sometime between 12-16 weeks of age. So I knew she should be able to do it once she hit 5 months.

The biggest challenge was keeping her awake long enough to have her first nap begin sometime between 9-10am. She wakes by 6:30am and was only staying awake for an hour an a half. So, I started taking her out for a walk in the front carrier (not the stroller in case she fell asleep) when she starting getting cranky - usually by 8am. I am home by 8:45 so that I can feed her before her nap to make sure she doesn't wake early because she is hungry. She falls asleep the minute I put her in her crib.

At 40 minutes she would wake up and I would leave her for up to 30 minutes to see if she would fall asleep. She fell back to sleep about half the time in the beginning and will now almost always fall back to sleep pretty quickly. In fact, she has stopped waking at 40 minutes much of the time.

Next was to keep her up until 1pm and try the same thing. The second nap took longer to establish, but is often 2 hours in length now.

Depending on when she wakes from her second nap, she may need a short third nap around 4-4:30pm to allow her to make a bedtime of 6-7pm.

A few weeks of work and we are on a pretty normal schedule. It isn't perfect - she does occasionally have super short naps that throw off the whole day (especially if she wakes very early) and it will often take a few days to get her back on schedule if we deviate from it for an event. But all in all it is so much better than the micro-napping she was doing and she is clearly better rested.

Thank you Dr. W., you are a sleep guru!!!