Wake to sleep method

[dontmesswiththeGC]

Hi all, I've been struggling with my 6 month old's short naps since she was about 3months. We spent 6 weeks sitting in her room to help sooth her into her next sleep cycle and it finally worked! But that was only for about a month and now she's back to old habits. I've spent hours trawling the internet reading up on baby sleep, we've done everything from blackout blinds, white noise, introducing a comforter, adjusting wake windows etc and now I'm thinking I might try the wake to sleep method. Has anyone done it and can share their success stories with me? She also wakes before 6am everyday so I'm Thinking I might try it for early wakings too. Please send me amazing stories of it working! I really need another boost of positivity to go on and fix this!

[littleharissa]

How short is short?

[dontmesswiththeGC]

@littleharissa about 35 mins. The morning nap used to be long and I'd wake her after 45mins to try and encourage a longer lunchtime nap but in the last week even that one has become 35mins

[dontmesswiththeGC]

I just did it. Opened her creaky door and watched on the monitor as her eyes flicked open for a second. She's been stirring for the last 5 mins since but with her eyes closed so I'm sitting here fixated on the monitor silently praying.

[Dillybear]

Did it work?!

Just a thought, my DD’s naps are a bit upside down. She has her longer nap in the morning and shorter nap in the afternoon, and it works perfectly well for her. About a month or so ago she had two equal length naps, but if I woke her from her longer nap, or if she woke early, then her second nap would usually be a bit of a catastrophe.

I did try to encourage her to nap like the books all said but it felt horrible to wake her up and it was making her tired and upset, so I stopped doing it and just let her set her own nap routine - works much better for both of us!

I hear what you’re saying about the morning nap getting shorter, but if you can lengthen it she might just do better with a longer nap first?

[dontmesswiththeGC]

It did work! She did an hour and a half total so I'll take that as a win. It was touch and go, after I did it she stirred for about 20mins total so i was on tenterhooks watching the monitor. The stress! . I hear what you're saying @Dillybear about the morning nap and I decided exactly the same thing but it seems like I made the decision too late and now the morning nap isn't naturally long any more. I think you call that making a rod for your own back . This morning she did 40mins so a 4min improvement on yesterday! Still hoping someone will come and give me their success story, obv the worry is I'll be doing this forever and she'll never do it on her own

[blinkboo]

Ooh yes I used to do this! And it did work. I'd also often take them out for a short ride in the car to get them to nod off and as long as we got home within 20 odd mins of them falling asleep the disturbance of transferring them to their cot just meant they slept far longer!

[dontmesswiththeGC]

@blinkboo wow that's brave! I'd be so terrified of waking her. How long did you do the wake to sleep for before you stopped to see if it worked?

[blinkboo]

Not long at all I don't think (it's a while ago now). I'd only semi rouse then for a moment I think, not completely wake them up.

[dontmesswiththeGC]

That's what I did yesterday but today was a massive fail. I creaked her door again after 30mins but the problem was she'd never fallen into a deep sleep, she'd been having a
restless 30mins- lots of moving etc even though her eyes were closed. So when she heard the door- PING eyes open! Head turned to look for me and fully awake. I'll try again tomorrow but make sure I only do it if she's been still for a long time and is clearly in a proper sleep.

[Dillybear]

Well done for yesterday! Sorry about today. I’m sure you have to do WTS when babies are in a deep sleep, as you’ve said. And you do it for a few days in a row and then see after a week or so if you’ve sort of reset the routine. I read about it to try it with my DD but it didn’t work out for us (not that it didn’t work but her wake ups weren’t reliable enough to kind of know when to do it).