Wake to sleep…

Naps have been an issue for some time….since birth to be precise.

At 3 months I had lost all sense of humour about sleep (sleep, ha, sleeping’s for wimps) and decided that 3 months was quite old enough for some firm sleep training.  I researched a variety of techniques, made a record of Jem’s routine (that was easy…none) and the times he ate (constantly) and slept (never).

I heard from a friend about the wake to sleep technique, for those not in the know it is roughly along the lines of working out when your baby usually wakes up early during a nap, then a fixed period of time before they are expected to wake the parent gently rouses them a little (but not fully waking).  The baby will then return to a deeper cycle of sleep and hence the nap will be extended.

Hmmm.  I wasn’t sure.  How much do I shake the baby to wake them?  What time?  When you say half an hour before their usual waking time what happens when he only sleeps for 20 minutes?

I had questions.

During the course of my intensive worry and research into extending nap times I happened to pop Jem into his cot for a nap one morning.  He went straight to sleep (yay), cue the builders extensive circular sawing.  For those who haven’t heard such a piece of machinery, I can confirm it’s loud.  Luckily they were doing this in the room directly beneath Jem’s cot.  My heart sank.  But, miracle of miracles he continued to sleep.  Peeking through the door I could see that the saw every 5 minutes or so would disturb him a little, but he would settle straight back to sleep.

2 hour nap later and I’m pretty sure I have cured sleeping for ever more.  For those of you who are wondering how to extend nap times, simply employ a team of unreliable yet surprisingly expensive builders to operate loud machinery directly under your sleeping baby and voila, short nap times are a thing of the past…possibly…