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Exhausted and Confused?   Yes! I need help and more sleep.
Exhausted and Confused?   Yes! I need help and more sleep.
Exhausted and Confused?   Yes! I need help and more sleep.

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  1. Elly says

    I’m so glad to come across this website on baby temperaments. Ever since I’ve weaned my 5.5MO baby off pacifier and swaddle 3 weeks ago, I’ve been having a tough time pinning down his naps. He swings from undertired to overtired on the same awake times and similar stimulation levels everyday. As a result his naps have been short or sometimes even missed as I somehow completely miss the window despite my best efforts. Doesn’t help that his cues are practically non existent. I’ve kept an excel sheet and track patterns like you did and sad to say, I simply can’t identify any. I nearly went crazy!

    U may have guessed it, he’s also an intense baby and I suspect quite a persistent one (gosh, his wails). Definitely highly perceptive (once a short bus ride out in the neighbourhood reduced his wake times by 20mins!) and moderately sensitive (at least he doesn’t cry over cloth labels, but he definitely senses my mood very well).

    I’m coming to accept that about him, and to go with the flow. I just hope at least it won’t be crap naps daily because I can’t keep giving him early bedtime forever!

    • Janelle Reid says

      @Elly, thanks for your comment and we are glad you found us too! I am so sorry you have been struggling though. You may have already downloaded it, but if you haven’t be sure to download our free nap guide here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/free-baby-nap-guide/
      You sound like a reader/researcher so if you want more help with a more “do it yourself” approach you may want to check out joining our Members Area where you’ll have access to all of our ebooks, as well as exclusive articles and a weekly chat with one of our sleep consultants. You even get 20% off personalized consulting should you need it. To read more about our Members Area and to join you can visit her: https://www.babysleepsite.com/diy/
      Hang in there! I hope things get better for you soon. 🙂

      • Elly says

        Hi Janelle,

        Thanks for your kind words. I suppose because of the difficulties, I’ve been reading a lot. And I feel that I’ve done all that I can to facilitate his naps. Dark room, white noise, independent sleeper, nap routines. But his scheduling remains a mystery.
        I’m in a local fb support group as well. I do hope we can ride this out soon.

      • Janelle Reid says

        @Elly, thanks for your reply! I am glad you have support, we are always here if you need anything else, but I agree – I hope this passes on it’s own soon since you are doing all you know to do!

  2. Omneya says

    Hi Nicole

    Really i appreciated ur valuable article . i noticed that every month at this time ”fullmoon” my 1 year twin dosen’t sleep well ,especiallay the last 2 months , Yaceen my baby boy focus with dogs voices ”it increases in fullmoon days”it make im screaming loudly so his sister wake up too , i cuddled them in the same time then put them in crib ;just cuple of minutes and do it again till morning

  3. Shauna says

    believe it or not, nicole, i’ve been letting her cry it out for naps, and there has been some improvement. this month she did not naturally fall back into liking her schedule. she always gets a bottle before she takes a nap and had been starting to sleep-eat instead of eat then sleep–so i don’t let her, wake her up, tell her i’m putting her in her crib for naps and that i will come in one time, but that’s it. she’s got to get it down, as i am returning to work and i know her babysitter will do cry it out for naps as well…..

    i also started giving her warnings that nap time is coming. altho she’s only six months, i am certain she understands. i do think it was about not wanting to give up on playing to settle. so, yesterday was day 4 of cry it out and she cried less than 15 minutes for am nap and not at all for pm nap.

    • Nicole says

      @Shauna It is amazing how much they understand at such a young age!! 🙂 I’m glad you’re seeing some progress!

  4. Shauna says

    Thanks Nicole–she is just like me! It’s a tough balance, as she will scream for 1 1/2 hours to avoid a nap (seriously) and then be willing to sleep, then her whole schedule is off for nap #2, etc., etc. Bedtime has never been an issue, only naps. She consistently sleeps 10-11 hours at night w/o needing me in there to help her re-settle between sleep stages. This past week, I have twice just put her in the crib wide awake and walked away and she hasn’t cried, just played in there happily–and I haven’t gone in unless she is screaming. I know that if she goes to full on rage there’s no way she’ll sleep after that–we’ve been down that road, and so I abandoned cry it out–she got less sleep when we did that. And the Ferber method didn’t work with her, either–it excites her every time my husband or I go in and she thinks that naptime is over then goes into rage when she realizes it’s not. She simply doesn’t want to settle. It’s been three months of this, the week before the full moon. She is otherwise very happy and sticks to the nap schedule no matter what.

    • Nicole says

      @Shauna It definitely doesn’t sound like cry-it-out is the way to go for naps. Day and night sleep are handled by different parts of the brain, so it makes sense why she’s struggling with one and not the other. I hope you are finding something that works for you!

  5. Shauna says

    Thanks for commenting so quickly. I’ve done some limited searchingon the internet and found very little. I am not certain if part of it may be that she just doesn’t WANT to nap, but it may be. She has always been quite perceptive (the nurses said ‘she’s so alert’ when she emerged), and even as a newborn had a hard time letting go of visual and tactile stimulation to sleep–it took awhile to get her in a groove with napping, but she is otherwise very happy to stick to her schedule. Yesterday, she laughed at me when I told her ‘no’ to pulling a cord out of the outlet….and she knew I was putting down a limit…

    • Nicole says

      @Shauna Many babies, including my son, don’t want to stop the fun to sleep as they are afraid they will miss something. He is still this way, years later. But, his sleep is very important and so I set his limits about his sleep and stick to it. Bedtime still has to be at a certain time even though he says “I’m not tired” (and falls asleep 5 minutes later). So, stick with it and don’t sacrifice sleep even if she doesn’t appear to want it. There will be plenty of things they want (or don’t want) that we have to stick to for their own health and well being (carseat, not playing with an outlet, going to school, etc.). The laughing at you when you say no is a phase. Stay firm (not mean or anything just stick to your guns) and consistent and she will learn you mean business. I also recommend a book on my resources page to handle strong-willed children. https://www.babysleepsite.com/resources Good luck!

  6. Shauna says

    Yeah, after reading your articles I realized my baby is usually quite regular, altho intense and persistent. The problem is the week before the full moon–everything is affected. She is six months old and at other times, I can put her in her crib drowsy but awake and soothe her down, she wakes up in the middle of the night and gets herself back down, she wakes up at the same time, poops at the same time, is hungry at the same time, etc. BUT before the full moon, forget it. She gets gassy, gets hiccups all the time (3 or 4 times a day), wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, is too involved in stimulation to attempt soothing for herself or accept what I am doing to soothe her (even tho it works like a charm at other times). I end up letting the schedule be a bit more flexible, then once the full moon passes, spend a week getting her back on track. Advice? When things are working, she’s on a pretty strict schedule, down to what type of play we do at different times, what time of day we have outings, etc., and seems quite happy.

    • Nicole says

      @Shauna Thank you for commenting. I’m going to have to do some research and an article about the full moon now that you’ve brought it up. I never noticed a correlation to the moon with my son, but I wonder. If I had used Baby Insights back then (if I knew about it), I could go back and see if there was one. 😀

  7. naureen says

    this is quite a useful website. keep up the good work

    • Nicole says

      @Naureen Thank you! I will! 🙂