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Moms who use blackout shades, and whose kids struggled w/ naps
I should be able to answer my own question since we used room darkening "shades" (really cardboard, klassy I know), for Gretta, but for some reason I am gun shy to use them this time around and need a little encouragement. Ingrid is a horrible afternoon napper. Once in a very great while she'll put out an hr nap, but usually it is 20-30 mins. She is definitely tired and goes down easily enough, but always wakes early. She used to do this same thing for morning naps, but has done much better the past couple of weeks. Her room faces west, so it is relatively dark in the morning and light in the afterrnoon.
I am concerned that the light may be causing her to wake (or at least not helpign her to sleep). But I am worried that if I put something in the window to block the sun, she'll lose her day/night cue and then start waking at night b/c she won't relate darkness to the need to sleep. It might be confusing if sometimes I come get her to get up when she wakes, and other times I expect her to sleep, when it is always dark. This wasn't really an issue w/ G b/c she is a good sleeper, but Ingrid struggles and I don't want to set her back.
How did you (or your child) handle the dark out shades? If you didn't use them at all and your kid wasn't a great napper, did they just kind of grow out of the short naps? Ingrid did just grow out of the problem in the morning, so maybe I should give her a few more weeks and see if the afternoon ones get better too?
Re: Moms who use blackout shades, and whose kids struggled w/ naps
We had the same issue with G. Two things (we found) have helped with longer naps:
1.) We also put cardboard on her windows. It didn't make her room super dark but it was definitely better than before. We had no issues with her confusing night/due. She also took a little bit to start taking longer naps, but it helped quite a bit.
We recently had our windows cleaned and I took down the cardboard. Her naps are about the as before, so I think it's probably something they outgrow.
2.) Nose will disturb her easily. Right now she sleeps by the bathroom so we have the bathroom fan on, music & a fan on in her room and I try to stay in the basement during naps. It has helped a TON. I know right now she is easily distracted/interested in other things.
We slowly are upstairs more during nap time and it doesn't seem to bother her as much. I also stopped going to her room at each peep. If she wasn't crying/fussing I didn't go in there until she'd been napping (or quiet time) for an hour. Sometimes she would put herself back to sleep-sometimes she'd just play, but then at least I got my selfish me time.
We don't have "darkening shades" per se. I have double thick curtains, that I made a long time ago. They're Mickey mouse on one side, and yellow stars on a dark blue background on the other. So they let light in, on the sides and middle, and some through the material. But they block a lot of light, and help a lot with our crappy windows. I moved them into his new room. We like that they do block the light so it's dark, but not pitch black. And he can easily move the curtains to see out and see the moon/stars/sun/noise, but knows when the curtains are drawn, we need to sleep. I need to make new ones for the nursery room, and will make them double thick as well, for the same purpose. FWIW, the nursery faced south, and his new room faces north. Both have crappy windows (we had ice inside Will's new room a few weeks ago), which is why we're big on curtains, and only have the crappy mini blinds the house came with. William's also been a decent napper though, so we don't have a huge problem with light.
Maybe give it a bit longer, then see about something that blocks the light, but not totally?
Thanks for the input! Go figure, as I typed this post, Ingrid is going on a 1.5hr + nap. hah! I think I might look into darkening curtains anyway, so long as I can find some that I like for her room decor.
We definitely are all about the white background noise. Both girls have sound machines AND fans going in their rooms whenever they sleep. both seem to be noice sensitive.