tenderhearts 09:03 AM 11-30-2010
Back a couple months ago I needed some advise on my 8 1/2 mo olds napping. It was suggested that I do the same times every day so I did 830 (since he's here at 6:30 and up like 5 or 5:30) and then 1:00. So I did this and if he woke up before the 1 1/2 hrs let him cry or whatever for the full 1 1/2 hrs in morning and 2 hrs in afternoon. Seemed like he was doing better and sleeping almost the full times. WELL seems like the last week his morning naps are an hour or less with his afternoon naps anywhere from 1 hour 15 min to almost 2 hrs, so do I just assume he isn't needing anymore sleep and just get him up or move his morning nap later? I just want him going down no later than 1:30 for afternoon nap since 1:00 is when the other kids nap/quiet time. The thing is this boy does not sleep well at night either. Any suggestions? keep doing what I'm doing or move nap later? He has been really fussy since his morning naps have been an hour or less too.
daysofelijah 09:28 AM 11-30-2010
I'd move his morning nap up to 7:30 or 8 and only nap him for an hour if he has trouble falling asleep by 1:00 for afternoon nap. My 8.5 month old dcg comes at 6:30 (up at 5 or 5:30), morning nap at 7:30 or 8 (as she gets fussy) up at 9 am. Then she naps a good 2-2.5 hours from 1-3:30 in the afternoon. She does usually try to wake up after only 1.5 hours, but I go in give her her paci and tell her to go back to sleep and she usually does with minimal fussing.
(Her mom says she doesn't nap at home, but she does fine with my schedule here.)
Any advice for us? We have one that age also. He comes around 7:15 am and all day is SO fussy and has to be held all the time. It's obvious his parents must hold him all the time at home. They told us he doesn't nap usually, but he's so exhausted he falls asleep in our arms, but as soon as we lay him down he cries and cries and cries. We're so tired of the constant crying. We cannot possibly hold this baby all day long! But hearing him cry as soon as we put him down, it wears on our nerves and the children's nerves as well. We try laying him down for morning nap because he's so tired, but he won't go to sleep unless we hold him. Obviously we can't do that. By afternoon nap, he's so tired he can't keep his eyes open. But even if he goes to sleep for afternoon nap, he wakes up just a few minutes later, crying and wanting to be held. Of course that wakes everyone else up since everyone has to sleep in the same room (no where else to nap them). We've tried letting him cry it out and it just doesn't work. He just cries harder and louder, waking even the deepest sleepers up. Termination is not an option, as we need this extra income, and no other fish are biting for the time being lol (so many families in this area are out of work, or have had to go to relatives for care to save themselves money.) But our nerves are getting pretty frayed, and the other children's behavior it seems has worsend, I guess because their nerves are shot too, from all the crying! Each day is so chaotic because of this one baby requireing so much attention. The kids go nuts, knowing we can't keep ontop of them about things.