Catnaps

[Unregistered]

"So you let the babies cry it out, just without the reassurances a la Ferber? I sure hope the parents know about this...I'd be PISSED if my provider let my child cry in a strange dark room just for the provider's own convenience. It is possible to get an infant (or child) on to a set schedule, AKA "a well rested, happy baby," without torturing them with loneliness and fear.

Just the humble opinion of a mother and child care provider. "

I was wondering that too. I stumbled across these boards since I'm looking for care for my DD when I go back to work in a month. She will be 3 months old by then. Now, at 2 months, she is not on a totally set schedule and it scares me that a provider may just leave her to scream in an unfamiliar place for their convenience. I am working at getting her on a better schedule so the transition will be easier, but posts like that really make me wish that financially I could stay home with her.

[Janet]

Catnaps

Those of you who care for infants - do you ever run into this problem? I can't remember the last baby I got where the parents didn't say the baby catnaped. I hear it on every baby pretty much. The 20 minutes is almost universal too. I think it has something to do with the sleep cycle and how they get to light sleep at about the 20 minute mark. If the baby knows he can get an adult to come in and pick them up this is the time when they are the most alert in the cycle to get themselves awake and want the adult.

Are you able to teach them to nap for a longer period of time? Absolutely. Haven't failed once in 17 years of day care. It's pretty easy to do. Whatever schedule you want them on.. put them on that schedule and they will switch.

Babies who have a catnap history are pretty disorganized babies when you get them especially if they are getting close to a year old. Six months is not too bad to do the switch. You will see a lot of frentic behavior in the baby. Because they are only sleeping a bit at a time they don't get DEEP restorative sleep. This affects their peronality and happiness.

Once you get the baby on full morning and afternoon napst they change SO much. You can really tell the difference while they are awake and the sleep pattern.

My policy is NO CAT NAPPING. I put them on our schedule on day one. Babies take a morning nap of 1.5 hours and a p.m. nap of 2.5 hours. The inbetween times are FULL of activity and NO napping.

You will get a few days of crying in the begining but as long as you stick to the schedule and do NOT take the baby out of the bed during nap (unless he poops and needs a change) then you will see it takes about three days before he starts going to 45 min naps... then toward Friday he will be doing the hour and a half. Monday you will have to start over but by the end of the second week he will be sleeping like a baby.

YMMV with newborns. They have to be fed so often that it takes a bit longer to get them onto a schedule.

Nan is totally right on! Babies are usually pretty easy to work with when it comes to sleep training. I've had infants who start here and the parents will tell me that the baby "catnaps" and doesn't take long naps. Every one of the infants has gotten onto a sleep schedule and somehow the long afternoon nap works out to be the same time that all of the other kids are napping. Just be consistent with the baby and you'll see that it doesn't usually take much time at all to get the baby sleeping on a schedule

Also, babies that have regular sleep schedules and not catnaps tend to be more cheerful and happy babies. Just my observation!

[Janet]

I think that you're getting the wrong picture...

"So you let the babies cry it out, just without the reassurances a la Ferber? I sure hope the parents know about this...I'd be PISSED if my provider let my child cry in a strange dark room just for the provider's own convenience. It is possible to get an infant (or child) on to a set schedule, AKA "a well rested, happy baby," without torturing them with loneliness and fear.

Just the humble opinion of a mother and child care provider. "

I was wondering that too. I stumbled across these boards since I'm looking for care for my DD when I go back to work in a month. She will be 3 months old by then. Now, at 2 months, she is not on a totally set schedule and it scares me that a provider may just leave her to scream in an unfamiliar place for their convenience. I am working at getting her on a better schedule so the transition will be easier, but posts like that really make me wish that financially I could stay home with her.

I am pretty sure that Nan is totally clear with the parents on what her sleep policies are and if they don't have a problem with it, then what's the big deal? It's dang hard to get everyone settled in for nap time if you are constantly rocking and soothing a baby who is old enough to self sooth. Kids know when a provider is preoccupied with another child and you better believe that they will try to get away with stuff when the provider is trying to calm a baby and get the baby to sleep. Getting children on sleep schedules can really be a good thing for everyone. The babies who learn to get themselves to sleep are usually much happier for it. An 8 month old baby should not need to be rocked to sleep or held while they sleep or anything remotely like that unless there is some sort of medical problem that makes that neccessary.

None of us feel great when we hear a sleepy baby crying because baby is fighting sleep, but we are only making it harder if we get them used to being rocked to sleep or fed to sleep or anything else like that. It's not just for a provider's convenience that a baby may cry for a few minutes before falling asleep. It is for the baby as well. It's for the parents, too, because this may help them to get better quality of sleep from their babies because they'll know that the baby can self sooth. It's for the other dck's because most babies are pretty easily sleep trained, and the crying will last for shorter and shorter time periods and that will make nap time much more calm and peaceful. I admit that it is for the provider as well, because it gives the provider some down time as well.

For the 2nd anonymous poster, if you are concerned about your child's provider letting your child cry it out, then I would suggest talkking to her and finding out how your baby goes to sleep. If you aren't comfortable with how she gets your baby to sleep, then you can decide from there on how you'd like to handle things.

Letting a child cry it out a little (not for a super long time or anything like that!) isn't going to harm the baby. As long as the provider is making sure that the baby is fed, and has a clean diaper and isn't sick, I really feel like letting a baby learn to self sooth is really beneficial. I wish that I would have let my daughter cry it out as an infant, but I went to get her every time she made a peep and as a result, she was a terrible sleeper and never slept through the night (she did 2 times from the day she was born until she turned 6 years old. Not even exaggerating.) She is still a lousy sleeper and she's 14 years old.

[nannyde]

So you let the babies cry it out, just without the reassurances a la Ferber? I sure hope the parents know about this...I'd be PISSED if my provider let my child cry in a strange dark room just for the provider's own convenience. It is possible to get an infant (or child) on to a set schedule, AKA "a well rested, happy baby," without torturing them with loneliness and fear.

Just the humble opinion of a mother and child care provider.

How do you "let" a child cry? What do you mean by that?

[nannyde]

"So you let the babies cry it out, just without the reassurances a la Ferber? I sure hope the parents know about this...I'd be PISSED if my provider let my child cry in a strange dark room just for the provider's own convenience. It is possible to get an infant (or child) on to a set schedule, AKA "a well rested, happy baby," without torturing them with loneliness and fear.

Just the humble opinion of a mother and child care provider. "

I was wondering that too. I stumbled across these boards since I'm looking for care for my DD when I go back to work in a month. She will be 3 months old by then. Now, at 2 months, she is not on a totally set schedule and it scares me that a provider may just leave her to scream in an unfamiliar place for their convenience. I am working at getting her on a better schedule so the transition will be easier, but posts like that really make me wish that financially I could stay home with her.

2 month olds need to eat during naptime usually so they would not be on the same "schedule" as the older babies and toddlers. You usually have a feeding cycle to do (feed, burp, sit up for a while) during nap if your nap is 2.5 hours or so. It takes a few months to get them to sleep thru nap but the key is to move the last feeding before nap to be as close to nap as you can do the cycle and then allow time before the kids get up to do the next cycle. Soon enough the time in between the feeding cycle increases and VOILA you have a full napper like the other kids.

I've had a few that slep thru nap from the go but most do not.