According to this book your baby should not be awake for longer than 2 hours at a time. If he is, then he gets over tired, and consequently grumpy, fussy, and unable to soothe himself. He will also find it harder to go to sleep if he is overtired, and if he does fall asleep will likely wake and be restless.
I had a great routine with Dylan, but Dylan just kind of slipped into it of his own accord....... morning nap, afternoon nap, bed time, all were extremely easy. H is far more difficult, but I decided to implement the '2 hour rule' today and see how it went. This weekend we were so busy that he ended up being hugely over tired, not going to bed until the wee hours, and screaming the house down as a result.
So today he woke at 8, then was back in his bed for a nap at 10.. where he slept until 12. I then put him back in bed at 2 and he slept for an hour until 3. Have just put him back again (5pm) and hopefully he'll have another hour and then will go down for the night properly at 8pm. The night is the most difficult these days, but the theory is that if he's better rested during the day then he'll sleep more easily at night and shouldn't be as hard to put to bed.
Well the naps have worked a treat, let's see how the rest of it goes later. I will definitely try to keep to more of a nap routine from now on though, it's better for him and me...... even if it does restrict daily activities a little.
Posted by katie at November 22, 2004 05:15 PM