I am in the process of sleep training my 6 month old and he is doing extremely well, except for one time. Most naps and at bedtime, I read him a story, rock him for a minute and put him down. He cries at most 5 minutes, but most of the time it is just a protest when I leave and then he goes to sleep quietly. He has been almost this good since I started, so I know I have nothing to complain about. Here's my question. He still needs a nap late afternoon (4:30/5:00) but cries for an hour before falling asleep for this nap. Bedtime is already at 7:30 and he sleeps until 6:30 a.m. so I don't want to move that up and have him up earlier in the day. What can I do to get him to sleep at this nap like he does the rest of the time? I just can't stand listening to him cry for that long but I know he still needs this nap. He is horribly cranky and tired the rest of the evening if he skips it.
Sorry if this question is rambling and not making much sense. I am listening to my baby scream right now.
Give him psysical playtime before that nap. You play with him to tire him out. You can exercise his aarms and legs and do all sorts of shysical things. take him for a walk. Swing, etc.
From my experience with both my children, changing the bedtime does not have that much of an impact on the baby's wake time -- especially at such a young age. Every child has his own wake time, and it doesn't easily change. Babies this young don't "sleep in" when they get to bed late. They wake up at the same time, but are much crankier, since they did not get enough sleep. Likewise, if you put him on an earlier bedtime, not only will he not wake earlier, but you may find him sleeping later. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but research has proven this to be true!
It sounds like you have him on a really good schedule, yet I think he may be ready to get rid of nap 3. I suggest you eliminate the third nap and moving the bedtime back to 6:15 or 6:30pm. With the elimination of the third nap, he may begin to want to sleep much longer in the morning during the first nap. Give him some time during the initial transition. But then be cautious about how much longer he sleeps during nap 1, or you may see the afternoon nap will suffer. And when the afternoon nap suffers, the baby can have a really rough later afternoon!
Sweet dreams!!
I would think about eliminating that late nap and making an earlier bedtime. My seven month old goes to bed between 6 and 7 and gets up around 6. In all fairness, my husband and I are both teachers, so the early to bed/early to rise routine is due in part to our being out of the house by seven in the morning.
I agree with the other posters about skipping the 3rd nap and moving up the bedtime. Our 8 month old is now on just the 2 naps a day and he goes to bed any time between 6:15 and 7pm depending on how he is doing that night and then usually sleeps for 12 hours. It can be a bit rough at first to make the change from 3 to 2 naps, but after a couple weeks all was good. It sounds to me like your child is pretty much at that same stage as ours just went through.
I have to agree with the other mamas. You can't force a child to sleep. If he's reluctant about taking his afternoon nap it's because he does not need it. Follow your baby's internal clock as he is the only one who knows what he needs and when he needs it.
I second Mom LK. My daughter didn't do a reliable third nap. She would fight it like crazy. So, I did an earlier bedtime, 6:15-6:30. 6:30 was and still is her typical wake up time.
First of all, good luck. I always struggled with these decisions as well. I usually ended up trying to find a happy medium, such as keeping him up and putting him down at 7. And understand that just because you put them down earlier, doesn't necessarily mean that they'll wake up earlier. Sometimes, it means they'll sleep better. Part of life also is teaching them how to not be crabby either (I'm still working on this even with a 4 year old, just in different situations.:)) What we did with my daughter during this cranky time of the evening was to play music. It was soothing and comforting even if she decided not to sleep. She slept through the night at 4 weeks and took great naps. It took a bit longer with my son but it still worked. Again, good luck and no matter what, enjoy this time!
A couple of ideas come to mind:
1. Try skipping the third nap and moving bedtime up to 6:00...as the others said, this will not automatically result in earlier waking....but it might, so you may have to decide what is more important to you.
2. You don't say when the second nap ends, but would it be possible to do the short 3rd nap earlier? It sounds like the baby is already overtired when you are attempting the third nap.
3. Try the third nap in a different setting like a swing or do the errands then and let the baby get a little sleep in the carseat.
Just so you know, I put all of my kids down earlier than 7:30 at this age for some period of time. It didn't automatically translate to a 5:00am wakeup call.
Good luck.
Sleep begets sleep, so dropping the third nap and moving up the bedtime should not effect the am wake time.
Also, you should get a copy "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, it really helped us with our two daughters through these trickly sleep changes.
good luck.
My daughter is 6 months old, and I can tell you what we do. She cut out her third nap at least a month ago. She takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap, and still sleeps almost 12 hours at night. She get whiny when she wants to sleep, so I let her.
Her schedule goes like this:
7:00 Wake up
9:00/9:30-11:00 Nap
2:00-3:30 Nap
7:00/7:30 Bedtime
Works for us!
Good luck!
At 6 mos., moving his bedtime earlier might actually mean he'll sleep later in the morning, so you could try that. Most babies don't lose the third nap until later (8 mos?). You could also try having him sleep somewhere other than his crib for that nap -- on a walk in the stroller, in his car seat on a ride in the car, in an infant carrier while you wear him (I'm a big fan of the Ergo). It requires more physical effort on your part, but that way you might not have to listen to him cry.
Hope that helps a bit!
R.
I agree with the other posters - try an earlier bedtime. When we started sleep training our son at 6 months (and had been putting him to bed previously at 8:30 or so), we started with a 6:30 bedtime. I was scared to death that this was way too early, but much to my amazement he slept extremely well, didn't wake until his usual time, and napped like a champ! Some days we had to put him to bed at 6:15 because we learned how to better read his sleep cues, knew he was tired, so we put him to bed earlier. Perhaps in his case, getting a little longer block of sleep at night will eliminate the need for the third nap?
I agree with the mom who said to read the Dr. Weissbluth book. We have it, but it's packed in boxes since we moved and I need to find it asap! Our daughter was having similar cranky late-afternoons and so when I moved her bedtime from 7:30 to 6:30, she started taking longer, more regular day-time naps and started waking up at 7 am rather than 6 am. It seems counterintuitive, but an earlier bedtime at this age really does mean a later wake up time.
And the book will tell you that a nap anywhere other than a bed (carseat, stroller, etc.) is not a true nap and will not count towards restful sleep. I agree, in my experience!
I would cut out the nap. If he's crying that long before falling asleep he really doesn't need the nap that much.
Try replacing the nap with something very engaging at for the two hours left before bedtime. Let him help you cook dinner, the throw him in the bath tub with some toys, or maybe let him watch an Elmo video after you cook dinner together and then the bath.
At any rate, I think you need to replace the nap with something very engaging so he won't be crabby.
