Waking Too Early from Nap

Hi Le Anna,

You don't say how long your daughter is sleeping before waking. If she has been asleep for an hour, and then wakes you should get her up and keep her awake until the next nap time. If she is waking up before one hour, you should wait 10-15 minutes before going to her to see if she can/will soothe herself back to sleep.

You can help her to learn to self soothe if you try NOT to nurse her to sleep- allow her to nurse until she's full and drowsy- but if she starts to go to sleep, stop and put her down- so she has the opportunity to self soothe to sleep and begins to break the association between nursing and sleep.

Some babies are very sensitive to music- even quiet, lullaby music- it can disturb their sleep or make it difficult for them to fall back to sleep when they rouse - if this is the case for your little girl, try a white noise machine to filter out household and other noises.

Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child is a great book and the one I most use and recommend to families in my work. What's most important is that you remain patient and consistent in helping your child to learn good sleep habits. For a variety of reasons, it can be a little harder when you are starting at one year of age, as opposed to younger, but it certainly is not impossible! Wishing you the best of luck. L. S.

What you say makes complete sense, so I will point out the pattern to you that is creating this problem. By nursing your baby to sleep, you are teaching baby to only fall asleep by nursing. So, when she wakes briefly during sleep (as we all do), she cannot fall back asleep because she has only known how to do that by nursing.

You will need to get her to fall asleep WITHOUT the breast. To do this, nurse her as she needs, and BEFORE she falls asleep, that is after her active sucking, whilst she is just lapsing into "pacifier" mode, pull her off, burp her properly (very important), and then lay her down to sleep. Cut the music, because you are also teaching her to fall asleep to music (and f its not on when she wakes, then it will be hard for her to fall back asleep).

Let her take her time to fall asleep. Sure she might make a fuss, but you can sit quietly in her room until she drops off (and then cut down the time each day you sit next to her crib because you don't want to start another dependency cycle).

If her environment at home includes all sorts of noises, then she has to experience those noises so that she can self-soothe and practice falling asleep in that environment. Don't sugar-coat it for her, it is what it is, so let her experience it. Just remember, do you go straight to sleep on a full tummy?

I haven't read your other post but I was able to get my son to sleep longer both for naps and night time just by keeping him in his crib. It actually happened by accident. My son got up from his nap and the phone rang so I answered it and when I was all done. I realized an hour had gone by and he was back asleep and sleep for another hour. After that his naps were longer. Night time was kind of the same thing. Just leaving him in there and he would go back to sleep and I would get him after. He just started making it a habit to sleep longer. He is 3 now and still won't get out of bed. I have to get him out. Sometimes he is so quiet after waking up I have to set my alarm so I don't just leave him there.

Keep reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - we've used it since my 11 month old was born and she's a great sleeper.

Dr. Weissbluth says that nursing your child to sleep doesn't cause sleep problems, and I'd have to agree with him. I have nursed her before sleep all of her life. Admittedly, she doesn't fall asleep on the breast, so I always put her down awake. Sometimes she'll fuss (and sometimes she'll SCREAM!) for a bit, but she'll settle down after usually no more than five minutes absolute maximum. In the night if she wakes up and I go to her I have to nurse her to settle her down, but that's not a big deal, because she's right back out immediately after I put her down.

Dr. Weissbluth says that for naps you should put your child down and leave him or her alone for one hour, whether there is crying or not, so I think that's your answer. If she wakes up before her hour is up, leave her alone and see if she settles back down. For nighttime, he advocates leaving the baby until she falls asleep.

Good luck!

H.