Wake to Sleep

Sleep - I never thought I would be so concerned about it.  About my sleep and about my baby's sleep.

Luckily - sleep at night is not an issue right now (I'm waiting for the teething!) so my sleep isn't an issue right now - we are both getting a good night's rest.

Daytime sleep - working on it.

Pumpkin was so little during the holidays that she napped really well when we were out traveling.  We took our Fisher Price Rock and Play Sleeper (highly recommend this - they have an even better version out now - the deluxe) everywhere with us and she napped like a champ.  But then the holidays were over, we were home on a regular basis, and she was getting older.  I started trying to lay her down in her crib to nap.  She would wake up exactly 30 minutes after she fell asleep.  Some days she would make it back to sleep - most days she would not.  So our little girl was exhausted after a little bit of that.

So I decided to start letting her take her naps in the Rock and Play.  She started napping like a champ again.  That was great for about a month.  Sometimes she would sleep so hard, I would have to wake her up after a 2 hour nap - she was OUT.  Until this past Monday.  She hit the 30 minute mark in there and woke up and didn't go back to sleep.  So I decided it was time to start napping in the crib.  Of course I googled it and found some very helpful mommie blogs.

Here is what we are working with now.  So 30 minutes in means most likely she is waking up at her transition from light to deep sleep.  Apparently a lot of babies her age have trouble with the transition.  Also what could be happening is that she is beginning a Wonder Week.  There is a book out on this that says babies experience 10 wonder weeks in their first 20 months of life.  These are weeks when they make huge developmental leaps - so they get fussy, sleep sometimes is hard to come by and they are just working on their new skills.

So I decided to start troubleshooting naps.  There is a book called The Baby Whisperer.  I have not read it, but many of the blogs I read make reference to it.  She has a theory that helps babies with habitual waking at night and during naps.  You watch for a couple of days to figure out when they are waking up.  If it's exactly the same time, then you have a pretty clear cut time to go in.  For her - it was almost exactly 30 minutes from the time she fell asleep, every time.  So, I go in around 25 minutes after she falls asleep and gently make her stir.  You don't wake them up - you just do enough to get them to move.  That breaks the sleep cycle and usually helps them through the transition.

The first couple of days - this worked like a charm for the first 2 naps - she would make it through the transition and sleep anywhere from 1 hour and 15 min. to 1 hour and 30 min.  It's great!  The third nap of the day - still not finding anything that will work.  Will keep trouble shooting that one.  She may just need to be up a little longer before that nap - we will see.

We have been doing this for a couple of days and it is for the most part continuing to work.  Now we are working on making it through on our own.  I'm not going in each nap - she's doing ok, I think it's just something she will have to grow into.  Hopefully as she gets older and starts staying awake longer - naps will continue to get better and more stable.  Here's hoping!!