As Mike mentioned in the last post, we've been trying to work on Ryan's sleep. He sleeps very well at night. We put him to bed around 7+. I would feed him a couple of times through the night, during which he suckles automatically and goes back to sleep right after, and sleeps all the way through until 7am the next day. However, his day naps were not as good, though we figured we shouldn't worry too much because at least he gets a good night's rest.
Then a couple of weeks ago, he started sleeping less and less during the day, until he was only managing 30min naps. And getting quite cranky. Plus, there was a lot of work on our part to actually get him to sleep (rocking, jiggling, singing, sling, etc.) We even though about buying a c-clamp and rigging up some hammock-like arrangement with the sling, yet we sort of knew all these weren't the answer. He'd outgrow the sling quite soon and plus, are we prepared to do all these for the next few years??
I came across mentions of this book 'Baby Whisperer' by Tracy Hogg online; read excerpts and browsed the forums. We tried out the EASY routine she recommends when Ryan was about 4 weeks old and it worked pretty well, only it started to break down when he was about 3 months. At this point, I decided to buy and read the book, instead of reading snippets here and there online. (It turned out the reason our routine wasn't working was because it was suggested for a baby younger than 3 months; older babies would feed less and stay up for longer, necessitating a different routine.) She has very solid, practical advice. For example, she says to "start as you mean to go on"; so if we don't plan to rock Ryan to sleep for the next few years, or continue the use of 'props' (Tracy Hogg's term) such as the sling, we should stop it right now.
So we've been trying out the advice in the book, and so far it's been going along pretty well. Our aim is to teach Ryan to sleep on his own, in his crib. That means no, or minimal, use of 'props' such as ourselves (jiggling, etc.). Also, we want him to take longer naps during the day, and that means he needs to know how to self-soothe and go back to sleep on his own when he wakes up after a sleep cycle.
Initially he would throw a huge tantrum whenever we put him down for his naps and he would take over 20mins, even up to 40mins, of pick-up/put-down (PU/PD) to settle down. I think he passed out more from exhaustion than sleepiness. But we kept at it and fortunately, at about 3.5 months old, Ryan's still not too set in his ways. After a few days, Ryan's now able to sleep mostly on his own. We keep a careful eye on the clock, make sure that some time before his expected nap time we start to wind down his activities and give him a chance to calm down. Then when he starts to display signs of sleepiness, we put him down in his crib and pat his back for a few minutes. Sometimes he kicks up a fuss, but generally he's out in about 5-10mins. Sometimes we'd give him his soft toy to gum on (or maul), mostly we would swaddle him. Most of the time now, we don't even have to do the PU/PD. Soon, I hope we won't even have to pat his back. We couldn't quite figure out how to extend his naps though, but strangely, he has started to nap up to 2 hours today. I don't know what it was we did exactly to enable that, but we're cautiously hoping he would continue this good trend.
Then a couple of weeks ago, he started sleeping less and less during the day, until he was only managing 30min naps. And getting quite cranky. Plus, there was a lot of work on our part to actually get him to sleep (rocking, jiggling, singing, sling, etc.) We even though about buying a c-clamp and rigging up some hammock-like arrangement with the sling, yet we sort of knew all these weren't the answer. He'd outgrow the sling quite soon and plus, are we prepared to do all these for the next few years??
I came across mentions of this book 'Baby Whisperer' by Tracy Hogg online; read excerpts and browsed the forums. We tried out the EASY routine she recommends when Ryan was about 4 weeks old and it worked pretty well, only it started to break down when he was about 3 months. At this point, I decided to buy and read the book, instead of reading snippets here and there online. (It turned out the reason our routine wasn't working was because it was suggested for a baby younger than 3 months; older babies would feed less and stay up for longer, necessitating a different routine.) She has very solid, practical advice. For example, she says to "start as you mean to go on"; so if we don't plan to rock Ryan to sleep for the next few years, or continue the use of 'props' (Tracy Hogg's term) such as the sling, we should stop it right now.
So we've been trying out the advice in the book, and so far it's been going along pretty well. Our aim is to teach Ryan to sleep on his own, in his crib. That means no, or minimal, use of 'props' such as ourselves (jiggling, etc.). Also, we want him to take longer naps during the day, and that means he needs to know how to self-soothe and go back to sleep on his own when he wakes up after a sleep cycle.
Initially he would throw a huge tantrum whenever we put him down for his naps and he would take over 20mins, even up to 40mins, of pick-up/put-down (PU/PD) to settle down. I think he passed out more from exhaustion than sleepiness. But we kept at it and fortunately, at about 3.5 months old, Ryan's still not too set in his ways. After a few days, Ryan's now able to sleep mostly on his own. We keep a careful eye on the clock, make sure that some time before his expected nap time we start to wind down his activities and give him a chance to calm down. Then when he starts to display signs of sleepiness, we put him down in his crib and pat his back for a few minutes. Sometimes he kicks up a fuss, but generally he's out in about 5-10mins. Sometimes we'd give him his soft toy to gum on (or maul), mostly we would swaddle him. Most of the time now, we don't even have to do the PU/PD. Soon, I hope we won't even have to pat his back. We couldn't quite figure out how to extend his naps though, but strangely, he has started to nap up to 2 hours today. I don't know what it was we did exactly to enable that, but we're cautiously hoping he would continue this good trend.
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