Reconnoitering Naps

Reconnoiter is my family's language for "rearrange." My Mom is famous for her constant reconnoitering of any and all loose objects and different areas. If you put something down in my parents house, you can expect it to be moved at some point . . .

Anyway, James' nap situation has been slowly deteriorating over the last few months. Until yesterday, he basically took all his naps in his swing downstairs in the living room. When he was younger, this was awesome because he could just hang out in there while he fell asleep, he was right there if I needed to check on him, etc. But over the last month he started being increasingly fussy before his naps--he would get distracted by me being around, and he is trying to stay awake more and more because he wants to be with me all the time, now. Furthermore he only sleeps for a half hour, 45 mins tops, usually 4-5 times per day.

So we got our new couch yesterday (pics to come!), and with that came "reconnoitering" the living room, and with that I decided it was time to reconnoiter James' nap situation.

I moved his swing upstairs, and pulled out his cradle which we haven't been using much for awhile. I also started doing a "pre-nap routine" of change diaper, read books, nurse, rock to sleep (or nearly), and then put in the cradle (if possible), or else the swing. For the past two days, I've been doing this at every nap-time, and between that and the move upstairs, I'm happy to say that I've basically eliminated the pre-nap fussing. I find that by filling it up with a predictable routine, he is able to start relaxing BEFORE he's in his swing, so that helps.

For all of his naps yesterday, I was able to move him from the swing to the cradle mid-sleep. So far today, he woke up when I tried to move him for his first nap so then I just let him sleep in the swing. BUT for his second nap, I am happy to report that I was actually able to PUT HIM DOWN in his cradle (first time ever!), though I did rock him to sleep first--but I don't mind that because it only takes five mins!

Anyway, I'm hoping this reconnoitering of his nap schedule will mean longer naps in the long run. I'm hoping by the time he's 6 months old, I can get him into a 3-naps-of-at-least-an-hour-at-specific-times sort of daily routine, so I think this is a good start of transitioning to that. He sort of DOES nap at specific times, but it does depend on when he wakes up in the morning and how long he naps for, too.