Nap, Nap Revolution

Recently we have overhauled our  entire nap routine, from top to bottom. It all began about a month ago. Our old routine was that I would do the bed time routine (book, song, sound machines), then swaddle him and nurse him to sleep. We were still doing 3 naps a day at that point, and all at once, over the course of a week, Will suddenly stopped sleeping for a hour, or forty minutes, and instead began waking after only 15 minutes. Every nap was only 15 minutes long and there was no explanation for it. And of course, that was not enough sleep for him to feel rested, so he would wake up and act super cranky and whiny until the next short nap. Finally after nearly two weeks of this (and trying everything I could to increase the duration of his naps), I decided something drastically different had to be done.

I believed the reason he was waking too soon, was that he would shift in his sleep, wake up a bit, and could not put himself back to sleep at that point. I had been nursing him to sleep (instead of putting him down drowsy but awake like I did when he was younger) and he had simply forgotten how to put himself back to sleep. So I decided sleep training was in order. So about 3 weeks ago I removed the swaddle, and started nursing him until he was drowsy, then putting him down awake in his crib. This method had failed several times before, as this kid would simply cry as long as it took for me to rescue him, even up to an hour! This time was different however. Maybe he was just ready for it finally. Either way, the first nap he cried for 45 mins, the next nap it was 30 mins and the 3rd nap was 20 mins, before drifting off to sleep on his own. Each nap lasted a whopping 30-40 minutes! I had tasted success and strove to complete what I had started. By day 3, he was no longer crying at all and even better, the first nap of the day had increased in length to an hour or more!

So a week after implementing this new method, I noticed that while the first nap of the day lasted about an hour, the other two naps were only 30 minutes or less. And again, he would wake up cranky after one of these short naps. So, about a week ago, I decided to make him go to only 2 naps instead of 3.The schedule William really wanted to follow, was to wake up at 7am, nap from 9-10, again at 1-2 and again at 4:30-5. Letting him sleep past 4:30 doesn't really work for us though, as our final bed time is at 7pm. If he sleeps past 4:30, he will not go down until closer to 8. And that means less time to myself in the evening. So I began making Will adhere to a new schedule: wake at 8am, first nap from 11-12, second nap from 3-4. It took a few days for this schedule to sink in, but by the second day of it, each nap had increased in length even more! Now each nap lasted at least 60 minutes, but usually closer to 90!

My final change to his naps happened only a few days ago. I had been worried that with weaning looming in the future, Will was too dependent on nursing as a means to get drowsy and fall asleep. A lot of my friends adhere to the BabyWise philosophy of eat, play then sleep. I didn't want to change Will's routine too much, also I've found that he sleeps much better (and longer) on a full stomach. So what I did was to just change the actual order of our nap routine. Instead of book, song, nurse, I changed it so that I would nurse him first, then read a book, sing our song and put the sound machines on. I then rock him in my arms for a few minutes until he looks drowsy, then put him in the crib. From the beginning it was a complete success, and he transitioned seamlessly. Yesterday in fact, I served him a late lunch, right before nap time. So he was not hungry in the least when it was time to go down, and actually refused to nurse at all. So I just did the routine, rocked him for two minutes, and he slept for 90 minutes, all without a drop of milk! I now feel so much more confidant about weaning. I think it will be a breeze! We are only at 4 feeds a day now (plus 2 solid meals) and could easily drop two of those feeds if I wanted to. For the mean time though (at least until hes 12 months old), I will probably keep them in place.

For the past two weeks I have been enjoying 60+ minute naps and I couldn't be happier! All of the stress and worry about how to get him to sleep, was worth it in the end I guess. Also I will know what to do next time around, hopefully sooner than 8 months old. Now that I feel like I have things all figured out, I am waiting for the next tooth, or illness, or developmental change to happen, that will throw our whole schedule off again. So I am determined to enjoy this taste of success while it lasts!