Comments on: Can the “Wake to Sleep” Method Help Lengthen Your Baby’s Short Naps?

By: Danielle

Danielle — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 15:41:37 +0000

In reply to Danielle.

Hi Danielle,
Thanks for visiting The Baby Sleep Site! You can certainly try wake to sleep at any age, as it’s a very gentle method with no real downsides. Based on your description of what’s going on, though, you are more likely to be dealing with a scheduling issue that’s causing the night waking. If you like, please feel free to email us at contact@babysleepsite.com with a brief outline of your babies’ schedules and what’s going on at night, and we can take a look! I hope this helps!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:53:41 +0000

Hi,

Iv been reading some of your articles online and someone mentioned googling ‘wake to sleep’ so I did. Reasons being I have twins and every night at the same time they start crying. Without fail same time, it doesn’t help they don’t sleep through the night either. I’m not sure what’s worse the newborn night feeds are this. They are 15months old would trying the sleep to wake be to late now?
Thank you x

By: Janelle Reid

Janelle Reid — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 13:13:02 +0000

In reply to Chelsea.

Hi @Chelsea, thanks for writing to us! I am glad to hear things have gotten better with his sleep as you’re getting past the 4 month regression and beginning to teach him how to fall asleep on his own. To encourage you, it can take a bit longer for them to get the hang of naps, so know that even when you’re doing everything right, it can still take a bit to catch on. (Both of my son’s didn’t really get a good nap schedule down until between 6-9 months.) We do have a free guide available to help with naps that you can download here to make sure you are doing all you need to be doing right now: https://www.babysleepsite.com/free-baby-nap-guide/
If you want more specific advise along with tons of sample schedules for your baby, you may want to check out our ebook, Mastering Naps & Schedules which you can read about and purchase online here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/mastering-naps/
I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions!

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 19:54:47 +0000

Please help! My 23 week old son is finally “out” of his four month sleep regression. We recently transitioned him from a bassinet in our bedroom to his crib in his bedroom because he likes to sleep with his arms out and was waking himself up by hitting the sides of the bassinet. We typically walk/bounce him to sleep and are trying to STOP this! He is a BIG baby and it is a workout!! He catnaps – roughly 30-45 minutes, 3 times a day. Sometimes the last nap is a little longer. He usually goes down like clock work, every 1.5-2 hours. Please help us figure out how to make his naps longer. We are starting the pick up, put down sleep method.

By: Emily DeJeu

Emily DeJeu — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 23:49:08 +0000

In reply to Lee. @ Lee -- well, 11-12 weeks is fairly young, but you definitely can work on building healthier sleep habits! I'd recommend you take a look at our special newborn book, Essential Keys to Your Newborn's Sleep. This is an awesome resource for parents of newborns - and there's a whole section in their on pacifier use! Sounds like this may be the perfect resource for you. Hope this helps, Lee! Best of luck to you. :)

By: Emily DeJeu

Emily DeJeu — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 23:47:05 +0000

In reply to Özgür Zeytin. @ Ozgur Zeytin - thanks so much for sharing your story!! I love hearing from moms like you. :)

By: Özgür Zeytin

Özgür Zeytin — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 18:45:20 +0000

My son, 3 years old now, was exactly like this when he was small. He has always been good night sleeper but a tricky one for naps, he still is.. He would wake up from nap after 30 minutes, not 25 and not 35. My solution was breastfeeding. He would go back to sleep after that to complete 2 hours. When he had two naps a day, I would do this only in the morning, and just allow him to wake up for the second nap. In fact this breastfeeding was the very last one we dropped, when I was cutting him from my milk. And then when we cut it, he woke up for the frst two days then dropped that habit altogether.

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:57:39 +0000

My daughter who is 11.5 weeks old is relying on the dummy to sleep. We are keen on weaning her off the dummy as we think it is disrupting her sleep. She has had it since week 3 as she needed it to help with Breastfeeding as she was a small baby at birth. We did not think to remove it once latching problem was solved as we did not have foresight that it will form sleep association. Now, she sleeps 20-40 mins during the day depending on whether the dummy’s fallen out. She rarely makes it past 40 mins. If we replace the dummy fast enough she might go on for another cycle, otherwise it is resettling all over again. The initial settling doesn’t take long. She asks for the dummy when she is sleepy and soon after she would be out. It is the resettling that can take up to an hour. So yes, I agree that settling and resettling require 2 different sets of techniques.

In one of my mother’s group meetings, I asked the Childcare nurse if the dummy is the reason for the catnap. She seemed to think that the dummy is not really the problem here. I am sure hunger and wet nappy is not the problem as it was just not too long ago. As she naps poorly in the day she can usually only last about 40-45 mins awake.

I am keen on helping her sleep better but I am also worried if it is too early to sleep train at this age as some literature have suggested sleep training at past 6 months only due to possible impact on their psychological development. I am no expert so I don’t know.

I hope I can find some answers and encouragement here.

Thanks.

By: Emily DeJeu

Emily DeJeu — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:59:23 +0000

@ Nicole Clancy — you ask really good questions here! Ultimately, there’s no “standard” method of getting a baby to take longer naps; what works for some won’t work for others. Sounds to me like sleep training was the trick for your daughter, and the same might prove true for your new baby. Of course, at 6 weeks old, he’s really too young for a set schedule.

@ Christina — thanks for sharing this tip! Glad you found a solution that worked for you. I think many of the moms here can identify with doing whatever you have to do to get some rest when you’re pregnant with your 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th…!!)

By: Christina

Christina — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:24:26 +0000

My son was a chronic catnapped even though he was great at independently fall asleep. I struggled endlessly and tried “everything”. The problem was finallly resolved when I feel pregnant and in exhaustion after his initial catnap I would lay down with him and sleep together for another couple hours. I was always against doing so before this time in fear of developing an unhelpful sleep association. But surprisingly this did not occur and my guilt turned to joy because after a while he stopped waking at the 20 or 45 min mark. Based on my experience, I now believe that settling versus resettling require different skills and helping with one is not necessarily at the detriment to the other. I hope this experience helps another mother out there struggling with similar issues. It certainly helped me with my second who also was inclined to catnap. I always helped her through the transition in whatever way i could (rocking, feeding, stroking, eyc.) and she quickly learned, needed and expected long naps independent of my intervention.