Nap Time

Nap Time. This has been the trickiest thing for me to figure out how to do consistently so I've just determined that I like a fluid method - one that changes depending on Brody's needs, my needs, vacations/visiting family, sick vs. healthy, etc. In other words I am not going to wreak havoc on everyone involved for the sake of keeping to a strict nap schedule or routine, but when I can without any havoc wreaking I will. :)

So when all is normal (ie: Brody and I at home during the day) I keep to the strict eating schedule (previous post) and watch for signs that he is tired in between. He will usually scratch his eyes, get fussy, and turn red like Jack-Jack from The Incredibles. Since he is generally happy all other times of the day I know this means he is ready for a nap.

After keeping track of how often this happened over a few days I noticed that he is normally awake for two hours at a time, give or take a half hour or so. The only exception being first thing in the morning - exactly an hour after he wakes up he is ready to go back to sleep, like clock work. I'm sure this varies baby to baby, but usually they all have a max time of being awake before a level 5 meltdown ensues.

He sleeps for 45 min - 1 hour at each nap with one big 1-1/2 to 2 hour nap mid day. So this equals up to 3-4 naps a day, which makes us both happy.

In my experience the hard part isn't trying to figure out when they're tired, it's trying to put them down for a nap without losing your mind. One babywise method that really has helped me is putting them in their crib when they're AWAKE. This way they learn to fall asleep on their own and don't require endless rocking, singing, bouncing, etc. to drift off. This is really hard at first so I eased myself into it by putting him in his crib and holding his hands while I shushed him until he was calm. He gets a binky only for naps so that usually helps too. Nowadays I put him in his crib, give him his binky and bo-bo (a little Rabbit that he loves) and turn around and walk out.

There are times when he will cry or fuss when I walk out (maybe once or twice a day) and those times I give him 10 minutes and then go back in to check on him, put his binky in, and walk back out. He has cried for longer than 10 minutes only a handful of times.

Things get tricky when we visit family or when he's sick and wants to be held (which is my life right now since he has hives, poor little guy). Asking grandparents to put a sleepy baby in bed and walk away is like asking me to grow three inches - it would be nice, but it's not going to happen. So sometimes we go off the plan and it takes a day or two to get readjusted but that's fine with me. So here's an example of his normal schedule.

• 6:30              Wakes up in his crib. Put him in bed with us.
• 7:30              Wakes up and has a bottle.
• 8:30 - 9:30    Nap
• 9:30 - 10:30  Play time
• 10:30            Bottle
• 11:30 - 1:00  Nap (usually his long mid-day nap)
• 1:30              Bottle
• 2:00 - 3:00    Play time
• 3:00 - 4:00    Nap
• 4:30              Bottle
• 5:00 - 6:00    Play time
• 6:00 - 7:00    Optional nap or Play time
• 7:30              Bottle
• 8:00              Bath
• 8:30              Bedtime