Re: Converting Hannah to a reasonable nap schedule - HELP!?

Posted by Sue on February 19, 2003 at 13:33:10:

In Reply to: Converting Hannah to a reasonable nap schedule - HELP!? posted by Steve (Hannah's Dad) on February 18, 2003 at 11:40:20:

: My wife and I think we have Hannah's "going to bed" problems just about licked and we're ready to move onto the nap problems. I'm hoping for some advice/tips.

: A bit of history -- for the longest time Hannah (nine months old) only went to sleep if she was nursed or put in the car. We decided to tackle bedtime first, and now she goes to bed relatively easily after being rocked and read to for a few minutes. We rarely get the screeching and screaming that we used to get. She still doesn't sleep as well as we'd like, but we're getting there.

: So, now that things are settling there, we're hoping to get her on more of a solid nap schedule. Currently she takes a mid-day nap with my mother-in-law, who provides daycare for 4 hours a day. She also sometimes takes a late afternoon nap, but not always. That mid-day nap is a good one, but the problem is that Hannah will only stay asleep that long if she's rocked the whole time. If we put her down she wakes up after a half hour.

: So, here are some questions that I'm trying to figure out:

: 1) Should a baby nap in the same place as she sleeps for the night? The reason I ask is that my mother-in-law has trouble putting her down in the crib but can do the pack-and-play.

: 2) Should we use the same "routine" that we use to put her down for the night? Does this matter?

: 3) How can you get a baby to nap longer? Usually by the time we get to Hannah when she wakes up from her half hour in-crib nap, she's AWAKE and has little chance of getting back to sleep.

: Any help would be appreciated. A lot of Hannah's problems are related to us not setting a schedule for her early on like we should have. We're now fixing the problems we caused.

Steve, I recommend you read "Healthy sleep habits, Happy child", by Dr Marc Weissbluth. It gives you all the ins and outs to napping and nighttime sleep. Baby's sleep habits are a learned behavior. And need lots of sleep for their development. It is the best baby gift I received. The person who gave it to me said it changed there lives. My 10 week old son takes 2-3 two hour naps and sleeps nine hours at night.

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