Keeping your baby awake during the 6-10pm time frame is very important when you're first establishing your schedule. The napping is Step 4, so don't stress about that, yet. However, do whatever you can to keep your baby from dozing in that last segment. It will help them be exhausted for bed time! Now that Piper is settled into her routine, we have learned that she not only CAN take a 30 min cat nap in that time frame, but that she usually wants/NEEDS to take a little nap. It hasn't affected her bedtime routine, so I haven't worried too much about it. Good ways to keep Piper awake is to dance and sing with her- but you do whatever you need to do!
It's very important to form "nighttime rituals" because it preps the baby to expect sleep. Baby's are quite similar to Pavlov's dogs- give them routine cues, and they fall for them! Neal bathes Piper every night, and gets her ready for bed. Piper is bathed at 9:30 each night. This is vital bonding time for them, and gives me a chance to get ready for bed also! He gets her clean, dressed and ready for the hand-off by about 9:45 or so. Then I take her, we turn the lights off, nightlight on, music on, and I feed her in the rocker in her room. This is the only feeding that takes place in her room. (The other 3 take place in our sitting area in our room.) She feeds for about 15 minutes, I swaddle her, and rock her until that "can't-hardly-stand-it-I'm-so-close-to-sleep" droopy eye stage (but she IS still technically awake- more on that in the next paragraph) and then I put her in her crib. Piper likes to be swaddled still (we're at 17 weeks currently.)
Now, the book is very strict about not rocking your baby to sleep, because it will make it to where the baby can't fall asleep on it's own. I don't believe that. Personally, rocking Piper is a favorite part of my day. I rock my baby girl to droopy-eyed-almost-can't-stand-it sleep, and put her in her crib. I do this for naps as well. So far, the kid has no problem falling asleep when rocking is not an option. So there. Ha!
Piper almost always makes it to 9am without a problem. Every once in a while, she'll stir, I'll go in, stick her pacifier in her mouth, and she dozes back off. I then usually have to wake her up for 10am! I consider it good day when she makes it to 9:30. She surpasses this almost every day, but in my book- 11 hours ain't too shabby! Many mornings, she'll wake up, but stays quiet and looks around her crib and makes little cooing noises. This is good, because she is at least spending quiet time in her crib! When it all comes down to it, if you have a 9 hour sleeper, your friends will still be envious! But there's no reason not to aim for 12 : )
Step 4: Establishing Naptimes
At 12 weeks or so, I started getting Piper on a nap routine. It wasn't that hard- even a busybody like Piper can't outlast the greatness of peaceful music and mama rocking her! I started rocking and settling her down around 12:30 to prep her for her 1-2pm nap. She just went with it! It was great! I started doing the same thing for her 4-6pm nap, and again- success! As the weeks have gone on, she has changed her morning nap to be more like an hour to 2 hours, so I just let her tell me when she's ready to sleep, because she inevitably will get in her required hour, whether it's 12-1pm or 1-2pm, or 12-2pm! You just do your own thing with naps, as long as they are getting a 1 hour nap and a 2 hour nap. I found that Piper needs this sleep, so just provide the atmosphere. I RARELY have to rock her to sleep, although sometimes I just want to snuggle my girl.
There's a lot of info here. Read this, read the book, and read my previous post if you haven't. This is possible- your baby CAN sleep 12 hours a night. It's awesome because you have a lot of free time to get things done around the house (or sleep in!)
Feel free to comment with any questions!
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