Approaching nap time, Dash rests his weary head on his makeshift pillow- a bath book.
The sleep routines are getting better. Naps are actually pretty good now. Usually the first two naps are between one and two hours with a shorter third (and no fourth!) so I feel like we're getting the hang of daytime sleep.
Nighttime sleep could still use some work. Usually someone wakes up at least once. There's been five nights in which no one woke up between 11pm and 5am. Those are beautiful beautiful nights. What I'm most concerned with now is when they wake up, ready to go for the day. In the last week, the boys have always woken up between 5:00 am and 5:30 am, talking away. Bedtimes have ranged between 7:00pm and 8:30pm and it has no effect on early waking. I can't handle that early, I just can't mentally do it.
What can I do to get the boys to sleep a little later, at least until 6am? When they do wake up early, I let them talk for a bit, but after, mmm, 15 minutes or so, it turns to cry. Sometimes at that point I can give them a binky and they might fall asleep, but there's no guarantees. I never pick them up or feed them before 6am, hoping they'll figure out that they should just sleep until then. (Though I so dislike leaving them in their crib when they're awake-ish and crying).
It's driving me bonkers because I don't get enough sleep (I do a night feeding 3 hour into their sleep so I don't go to bed until after that) and that 4-6am range is when I'm mentally at my weakest. Help me!
Mmm...It looks like they're sleeping 9-10 hours a night (if you don't count when they wake up for that 11PM feeding) which is pretty much what you could expect. I really have no idea how to fix it, other than put them to bed later or go to bed earlier yourself. Caleb goes to bed around 9:30, which is perfect for me. He's strange, though, because I wake him up after 12 hours. I think you're smart to not feed them until 6AM. I bet they'll get more and more used to waiting until 6, and maybe if they wake up they'll put themselves back to sleep. You can always hope. I look forward to seeing other people's comments. This is a tough one.
ReplyDeleteHow do they best fall asleep at night? Have you been letting them cry it out? Really, I would just let them cry it out in the morning too. They might not go back to sleep completely but they need to learn how to keep themselves content until you are ready to take care of them. You know the saying, If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. It's true.
ReplyDeleteI am NOT a morning person. AT ALL. My son usually wakes up at 7 or 7:30 but he puts himself back to sleep or plays with the stuffed animals in his crib until I am ready to get up at 8am. I just can't function earlier than that, and if I force myself out of bed any earlier, no matter how early I went to bed, I am completely exhausted for the rest of the day. So my son has learned to deal with it, and then we're both happier during the day. Once we moved him into his own room, I just didn't go into his room any earlier than 8am unless he was screaming. If it was only whiny crying, I let him be.
Good luck!
I feel like I no longer should give advice b/c since the time change, naps for us have been completely thrown off! Ugh. I'm hoping it doesn't affect the night sleep. But here's 2 suggestions...1) maybe it's time to cut out the 3rd nap (I know, now that it's in routine, time to change). 2) do you wake them up for their night feeding? if so, don't...if not, keep at it. Also, I'll often feed Ty between 5 and 6 and put him back in his crib after. He'll usually go back to sleep for an hour or two til 7. So maybe try feeding them as soon as they peep so they don't get too awake and can fall back asleep.
ReplyDeleteWe finally have changed around Ava's sleeping. She now goes to bed at 6:30-7:30 and on a really good night sleeps 12 hours.
ReplyDeleteFor awhile we were getting her out of bed at 10:30 or 11 and doing a 2nd night time feeding, but we stopped and amazingly enough without it she still sleeps on average till 5 or 6. So for us we started going to bed earlier since we weren't staying up for that 2nd night time feeding.
Also let them wiggle it out in the morning for awhile. It took a little while of Ava figuring this out but now 5 out of 7 days she will wake up at 5am talk and play then fall back asleep on her own without any crying and sleep till 6:30 or 7.
Good luck.
Oh and we used to do 3 naps, now we do 2 and it has made a world of difference. She sleeps in later with only 2 naps. As soon as she is ready for that 3rd nap (right before dinner time) we feed her some baby food then start the bedtime routine and skip that nap.
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