It seems most if not all moms come across short naps at some point in time. I would like to share my number one fix for both short naps and long crying sessions before naps.

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Valerie Plowman. I have a BS in English with an Emphasis on Technical Writing. My wonderful husband, Nate, and I have been married for a little over four years. I have two beautiful children, Brayden who is 2.5 and Kaitlyn who is 9 months old. I am privileged to stay home and raise my children-I could not ask for a more rewarding career.

I started following On Becoming Babywise with Brayden when he was 9 weeks old. I had heard about it from a friend while I was pregnant, but never got around to getting the book until Brayden proved to be hard to get to sleep. I am forever grateful that he was as hard as he was. If not, I may not have turned to Babywise. Brayden soon became a model Babywise baby, and we have continued on in the series with Babywise II, Toddlerwise, and are just starting to implement Preschoolwise and the fun of Pottywise. Brayden is a polite, happy, and obedient two year old. Sure, we have our moments, but overall the toddler years have been nothing short of joyous. Brayden knows how to control himself and any behavioral problems we encounter are the result of some slacking in my parenting and are quickly and easily resolved after some minor reflection.

With the wonderful results I saw in Brayden, I knew Babywise would be something I would apply to all children. I started Babywise with Kaitlyn at birth, including teaching her to self-soothe at one week. She had it down from the beginning. She has been such an easy baby, and while I know a lot of it is her disposition, I also am sure a lot has to do with the principles of Babywise.

Now, on to the nap/crying fix. It is nothing new. “During the first two months, if your baby is not napping well, try cutting back on his waketime by 15-minute increments” (On Becoming Babywise, p.130). I wanted to stress this fix. It is not something I really gave much weight while Brayden was a young baby, but learned as he grew how true it was. I do, however, apply it to all ages of babies, on up to my current toddler.

If your baby cries a lot before a nap, there is a good chance he was up too long. If your baby typically doesn’t cry at all but cries before a particular nap, he was likely up too long.

As your baby gets older, it is easy to let him stay up too long. Many of them change their sleepy cues or drop the cues all together. You also want your baby to get all the waketime possible, often in hopes of a good, long nap will follow. This will often backfire. Maybe you were just having too much fun with baby-and I know we start to miss our babies as the nap draws on. If your baby is waking early, the first thing I would do is evaluate your waketime. Be aware of the time he wakes from the previous nap so you are sure to get him down in time for the next nap.

I have found that even at 9 months, Kaitlyn needs to be down in time for a nap. If not, my 2 1/2 hour sleeper turns to a 1 hour sleeper. Sometimes she goes back to sleep, sometimes not. If she is down in time, her nap is seamless. Even with Brayden, getting down for his nap in time is important. His nap starts at 1:00 PM. If he is down by 12:50-1:00, he falls asleep almost immediately. If he is down by 1:15, however, he will take at least an hour to fall asleep. He just stays in his bed and sings to himself. It also isn’t unusual for him to not fall asleep at all after getting down 15 minutes late.

So while it is an easy fix, do not discount it. I always recommend it be the first fix tried when problem solving because it is so commonly the culprit and so easy to fix. Some moms are hesitant because they don’t want their baby waking any earlier, but if baby is taking a 45 minute nap and you move downtime back 15 minutes and baby sleeps 1.5-2 hours instead, baby is sleeping much past that old 45 minute mark.

Please feel free to visit my Babywise blog. I have several posts. There I have ideas for many common problems, and I also chronicle the changes I make with my children as they learn and grow and we apply new principles. Please read, ask questions, and post your own experiences.

http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/