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My Little Stinker ...
Sooo ... Alyssa has been STTN for a few weeks now, going to bed around 7:30 after our bedtime routine that we've established and sleeping straight through (as far as we know, haha!) until 7 or so the next morning. YAY!! It has been wonderful to see her doing this.
In the last couple of evenings, she has started to get tired earlier, around 5 as opposed to 5:30 or 6:00... so we've pushed back our bedtime routine about 30 minutes and she is in bed by 6:45/7:00 (I've heard 15 minute increments are best). I typically rock her and then put her down (**I know for some families, that's a very bad habit and peds/nurses advise against it, but it works for us because thus far, I can put her down asleep and she stays asleep or I can put her down half asleep and she falls asleep or I can put her down with her eyes wide open after being rocked and cuddled for a while and she finds her thumb, turns her head, and falls asleep**) ...
In the last two mornings, my little Princess has woken up at 5 AM!!!!! Yesterday I let her stay in her crib till 6:30 because she was happy as a clam, talking to herself, kicking, and having quiet moments. Eugene and I agreed she was having the time of her life by herself, so it was ok. Today I thought, "Well, she's a little noisy and I can hear her sucking ... so she probably wants to eat. I'll change her, feed her, and put her back down ..." Yeah. She wanted no part of that plan. She was awake and talking/yelling for an HOUR!! (no crying, just making herself known) I decided I had to obviously get up. So we did. I had to pump, so I brought her play gym into the den from her playroom and she happily played, kicked, and batted at her toys while I pumped ... and then she fell asleep!!! I knew she might ... she started to suck her thumb and get really quiet.
Well, now she's awake after only 45 minutes or so ... which isn't a real nap ... according to Dr. Weissbluth of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, at her age of 4 months (well, almost) ... and now she's staring at me with this giant smile on her face ... I'm going to feed her ... but ... what a Stinker. I don't know what she's doing anymore the last couple of days ...
I don't remember anymore the point of this post.
Re: My Little Stinker ...
i was just going to say this seems to be the In thing for the 4 mos olds on here
Actually 45 minutes is a good nap according to Dr. Weissbluth (I was re-reading it yesterday...as I have had to do many times to get things to sink in) - it's anything 30 minutes or under that is not considered restorative...the morning nap usually is only about 1 hour anyways...
Also, if she isn't crying in her crib or anything, that early in the morning, I would let her be until 7am or until she starts crying, because otherwise she is going to expect you to come to her earlier and earlier (again, according to Weissbluth)...if she was sucking, she might not have been hungry, she might have been just trying to self-soothe back to sleep and you might have interrupted her...tomorrow if you hear her at 5am, you could try going to her then, feeding her,change her, put her back down and if she protests, let her, until it is time to get up....
Weissbluth says that some babies get up at 5am or 6am to eat and go back to bed and the time they go back to bed is not considered a nap, it is part of night time sleep
And there is nothing wrong with rocking Alyssa to sleep, if she finds it soothing, go with it....
Oh and also...Austin had been going to bed around 5:30-6pm for the longest time...only over the past couple of days has he gone to bed around 6:30pm - the is absolutely nothing wrong with such an early bedtime, don't worry about it, especially since you've noticed she needs the sleep...the earlier she goes down the longer she should sleep
Ahhhhh....babies are such mysteries.... it's all trial and error....
Actually 45 minutes is a good nap according to Dr. Weissbluth (I was re-reading it yesterday...as I have had to do many times to get things to sink in) - it's anything 30 minutes or under that is not considered restorative...the morning nap usually is only about 1 hour anyways...
Not to be argumentative ...
But this was bugging me because I knew I had read correctly (I often forget a lot of details when I read) ... on page 42, in the "Practical Point" box ... he states that at four months and above, anything under an hour is not considered a nap, and that 45 minutes could be all your child needs.
Anyway, she woke up and was still all smiley. We fed and then played for a little bit. She yawned and I changed her and put her down for a nap. She has been napping since 9:15.
the is absolutely nothing wrong with such an early bedtime, don't worry about it, especially since you've noticed she needs the sleep...the earlier she goes down the longer she should sleep
I'm not worried about her going down to bed earlier at all ... I just noticed that she was. We just go with whatever it seems she needs. However, she hasn't been sleeping later!!
tomorrow if you hear her at 5am, you could try going to her then, feeding her,change her, put her back down and if she protests, let her, until it is time to get up....
That's exactly what I did today ... she protested for an hour before I got up.
I will say that I won't be going in to get her anymore if she's not crying in the am, hahaha!! That was a hellish experience. I don't know why I did that, maybe because I was awake myself ... usually I think I must sleep through the conversations she has w/ herself.
Maybe he forgot what he wrote, Lisa!!!!!
But case in point ... this why I don't rely on this stuff ... we as mothers know our babies best ... unless we're complete morons (and sadly, as a teacher and former child care provider and nanny, I've met more than one), which we're not, I think we're pretty darn good at figuring out what our kids need and seeing to it that they get it.
Miss Alyssa is *still sleeping* ... so in my opinion for her, what she took this morning was little more than a "I'm comfy right here, I think I am going to suck my thumb and have myself a little snooze, and then perhaps I'll wake up and ask my mommy for something to eat!" type of nap. I am admittedly relieved to see that I made a good decision in putting her back down when she was yawning ... it took her a few minutes of settling in but she went to sleep. So Weisbluth got that right.