[Jillian Kruschell]

Hi Emma,

Thanks for these responses. Right now it takes a lot of effort to get her to sleep so it is hard to imagine her falling asleep without the movement and shushing! But I’m sure we will get there with time.

Sorry for the repetition on the linking cycles question. I remember that from the course and usually at home she won’t go back down. Yesterday during our car trip she slept for over two hours because I was sitting beside her and every time she opened her eyes I was there so she would just smile and close her eyes again. It was very sweet but also made me wonder if I should be doing more to facilitate this at home!

I will let you know how things go once we get home.

Jillian

[Jillian Kruschell]

Hi Emma,

Thanks so much for these thoughtful ideas and strategies! I really appreciate you taking the time.

We are currently away on our first vacation with baby for the next week, so it will likely not be the best environment to try to teach her new skills but I will work on this when I get home and let you know how it goes. I am wondering, how many tries does it usually take to get the first successful use of the settling pyramid? I think having a sense will help me be more patient when it doesn’t workout at first.

Regarding the wake windows, she normally shows sleepy signs by about 90 mo he’s but it can still take awhile to get her down after that so I would say we are averaging around 2 hours I till she is actually asleep. That being said, I have been trying your advice about making sure she’s not just bored and I think sometimes I have been trying too early.

I am also wondering, how long should I try for before taking a break? I hate feeling like I’m trying to force her to sleep when she’s really resisting. I know you say the settling pyramid can take 20 minutes, if she’s still up after that long how long should I try the usually strategies before giving us both a breather?

Is there anything I should be doing to help her link her sleep cycles at this point? Should I be trying to get her back to sleep after she wakes up from a short nap?

Have a great weekend!

Jillian

[Jillian Kruschell]

Hi Emma,

Thanks so much for your response and for your reassurance about the survival mode tactics I’ve been using. It is definitely hard when everything that used to work doesn’t work anymore! Babies really keep you on your toes.

To answer your questions:

1. What time does she typically wake in the morning, and does this stay fairly consistent within a 30-minute window? She typically wakes up around 8:30AM.
2. Could you share the timing and general duration of her naps throughout the day? She tends to show sleepy cues after 90 minutes and then I’ll start the process, with her first wake window being shorter (cues after 60 minutes). In general her naps are 30-45 minutes. Every once in awhile she will surprise me with a longer one, between one and two hours but that only happens once or twice per week. As the day goes on she seems less willing to nap. When the schedule gets thrown off because of an appointment or failed stroller nap, it is usually very difficult to get back on track.
3. Do you have a specific nap routine that you follow? If so, could you describe it? Very simple – diaper change, sleep sack outside the room, walk around for a few minutes, enter the dark room, sing lullaby and bounce / rock till she is asleep, attempt to transfer to crib. If that isn’t working or if feed time and nap time are overlapping I will do diaper change, sleep sack and then feed her on the bed in the dark room so I can easily transfer her to crib when she falls asleep. Sometimes I’ll just stay there and let her sleep on me if the transfers are going poorly.
4. Does she use a pacifier? No, she never really took to them.
5. How long is she generally awake between naps? In general 90-120 minutes. The last wake window before bed is typically longer. I used to be super focused on the clock but now (thanks to your course) I am waiting for cues to start the nap routine.
6. It sounds like you might be following the wake, play, feed, sleep routine during the day – is that right? Not really, it is more of a feed on demand lack of routine with 3 hours between feeds being the guiding principle.
7. Does she wear a swaddle and if so are her arms up by her head or down by her side? Not anymore, she loved her swaddle but started showing signs of rolling around the 3 month mark so has been in a sleep sack for about a month now.
8. Can you describe her sleep environment – so is the room cool, dark (so dark that you wouldn’t be able to read a book) and quiet? She sleeps in our room, we have blackout blinds and white noise on. The white noise machine has a bit of light coming from it but it’s just enough so that I can see her and tell when she falls asleep.
9. Can you describe what her bedtime routine looks like? When ideal – lotion and fresh jammies, feed, brush “teeth” and diaper change, sleep sack, read two books, enter dark room, sing/bounce/rock.
10. Can you describe how often she wakes overnight and at what times you are feeding her overnight? She typically sleeps through the night and wakes around 5 or 6AM for a feed before going back down. In the last few weeks she’s had a few more random, middle of the night wakeups around 1 or 2 AM but it’s not happening every night.

I have tried to switch back to sleep feed play but the timing is just still not quite ideal and she often isn’t hungry enough yet so as I mentioned above, the routine is lacking and I’m mostly just feeding on demand.

To what extent does being half asleep while suckling on the breast count as a nap?

Thanks for your help!

Jillian