We were having a rough day with Baby's lack of naps. She no longer goes back to sleep on her own after her 7am feed, something we could always count on to allow us a lie-in in the mornings. She'd already missed the next mornig nap because she just protested and protested for an hour, instead of being a good girl and putting herself to sleep after no more than half an hour of grumbling.
By the time my brother saw me walking up the hill with Baby in the buggy (a failed last-ditch attempt to help her nap), it was well after midday and I looked like hell. He'd tooted his car horn and eventually had to pull over, get out of the car and shout my name, to get my attention. I was in a sleep-deprived fugue and was only conscious enough to avoid getting us run over whenever I stepped off the curb.
Well, my brother told his partner and his partner rang us up later today to offer us her babysitting services next Saturday morning. I really must have given him the impression that I was in a desperate state, because my sister out-law has two littlies of her own and she's busy enough.
On the Shock-Horror front, I'm pleased to report that Baby took a long nap this afternoon. For the first time in at least a month, she slept for the better part of three hours.
I've been reading the Baby Whisperer discussion board you see, and it was suggested that you can extend the baby's nap by creeping in about ten minutes before they're expected to wake up, waiting for them to stir and then gently settling them back down again. So thirty minutes after I managed to get Baby off to sleep this afternoon, I snuck in and hovered around until she stirred, crooned and stroked her and - she went back to sleep!
I nearly did my little dance of triumph, but it would've woken Baby.
Unfortunately, Baby woke up ten minutes later wanting to feed.
Fortunately, she didn't mind being put straight back into her cot post-feed, and slept for a couple of hours(!) - unheard of these days.
It may all revert back to non-napping normality tomorrow, but hey - there's always hope.
2 comments:
Yeah they pretty much wake and sleep as they desire for thirst chunk of their life. It's like trying to stop the tide when you try to change up their pattern. We tried keeping our daughter up late when she was little to get a longer morning sleep in, only to find she woke at the same time far more cranky than ever.
eb: 9 hours is a little extreme! I've tried to get the boy to do non-milk settling in the middle of the night, but he's so hard to wake that it's just not worth the effort...
rainypete: oh yes, I read about that. apparently you had a better chance of getting her to wake later was by putting her to bed earlier.
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