Nap Training

I used to wonder why he doesn't take any naps while other babies have routine naps. He would doze off in the baby carrier or car seat when he's tired but never solid regular naps. When I learned from Irene how it affects brain and temperament development, I became eager to work out a regular nap schedule. In late May I read the "Healthy Sleeping Habits Happy Child" book. I find this a revolutionary book, it explains the hows and whys. Some notes from the book that helped me (I hope my new mommy friends find it helpful too):
- Babies need to sleep after 1-2 hours of wakefulness.
- When infant/child appears wired, he may be over-tired already.
- Sleep begets sleep: The more rested you are, the easier it is to fall asleep and stay asleep. The more tired you are, the harder it is.
p119: Most common cause for waking up too early before 4 mo is fussiness; after 4 mo, is a too-late bedtime.
p121: The common cause of an absent or a too-short morning nap is an interval of wakefulness that is too long bw the wake-up time and the beginning of the nap.

P248 Nap1: 9am, 1-2 hrs.
Restorative if it's about an hour or longer. 40-45 is sometimes enough but most babies this age sleep at least 1 hr.
If a nap doesn't occur, it is best to keep you baby awake and go to the next sleep period. Probably the next sleep period will take place a little earlier.

P256 Nap2: 12-2. Should begin before 3.
Common problem is the interval of wakefulness following the first nap is too long. The causes baby to become overtired and he has difficulty either falling asleep or staying asleep.
If missed this nap, try to nap in early evening say 4 and limit to 1 hour.

I find the key is in timing: start the soothing process before he appears tired. The book makes an interesting analogy between catching the wave of drowsiness and surfboarding. "Perfect timing produces no crying" is very true. I watch for when he becomes quiet and learn when he starts his long humming it means he is a little overtired already. I also started a sleep log to learn his sleep pattern and see if he's getting enough sleep. After a couple weeks of training, he is pretty good with his two naps, 10:30-11:30/12, 3/3:30-4:30, and bed time routine starting a little after 7. He now often coos for a few minutes and may cry for 5-10 minutes on a normal routine schedule. He usually doesn't get up at night, but does once in a rare while.

I also extrapolate the sleep theory to adult sleep, and learn that I've been depriving myself sleep. I find I am able to fall asleep while he naps, which means I need more sleep than what I've been giving myself. I protest sleep even more than the baby. So now I try to sleep when he naps instead of working on chores (well, I'm not so good at that yet, since I'm writing blog while he's napping here).

sleep log

Sunny Day on the Lawn

On a walk on this sunny day I let him loose by putting him down on the grass. He was happy as a little puppy (see picture).
He grabs grass and can't wait to stuff into his mouth. When I try to trade grass for toys, he doesn't care for toys at all!

First teaching Lessons

On one rainy day I cut out some pictures from ads and glued them to a brown grocery bag, with actual objects illustrated on the side. I wanted to teach him the correlation of the pictures with words, sound and objects. But this might have been a little to early for him -- he was more interested in chewing the objects at this point.



Still, I always put out a few objects while reading to him these days to help developing the correlation and object identification.



I also tried drawing with colored pencils and then handing him the pencils. He examined the pencils up and down, and decided chewing on them was more fun :-) A bit too early for art lessons...

He likes the game of Peek-a-poo a lot. This is supposed to help developing baby's understanding of "object permanence" concept. Object permanence refers to the understanding of the existence of an object when the object is not readily visible. Babies at this age are starting to grasp that, so they are fascinated to learn that you are behind the scarf when they can't see you. One experiment I tried was to put a toy under an upside down pot and a clear plastic container. He knows to flip over the container to get the toy but not always the pot. When he does pick up the pot, he is more interested in chewing the rim of it and forgets about the object under it. So it's not clear if he gets the Object Permanence idea there.

Here is a game that I was excited about. Like most babies at this stage, Andy loves sounds. I put in front of him a plastic container, the aluminum rice pot, and a metal pot lid, and started banging with a wooden spatula. He was fascinated with the sounds it made! After he watched for a while I handed over the spatula. He examined it a lot, moving it up and down, changing hands. It looked like he was going to chew on it, and I went out the room to get the camera in case he decides to make music instead. And sure enough I heard the banging in the other room! That was an exciting moment! He managed to bang all three. And eventually he picked up the pot to chew on its rim. I then showed him to bang on the "drums" with bare hands and he held his hand out and followed on the rice pot right away. I was proud.

Bigger pictures here.

8 mo Observations

Andy has grown a lot.
- The biggest development is that he is able to sit stably for much longer now. This allows him to play longer and me starting some lessons with him. More on that in a separate post.
- He has grown long enough to reach the floor when standing in the Exersaucer now. So he is able to reach all the musical toys in that and discovered for himself how to make each toy make (e.g. bang a key, turn a page, pull a lever). My yoga session has got longer as he plays in it for close to half hour now. He gets so excited with the Exersaucer that he often starts his own dance of beating legs and pushing arms.
- He is on a regular 2 nap schedule now after a week training.
- He continues to drool and chew on everything he gets his hands on. He likes all regular human food so far. I cook him thick multi-grain stews with meat and veggie bits.

Dinner at Apu's

We had a delicious dinner at Apu's the weekend after coming back from WI. Apu's dog Cobbey was very friendly and Andy really liked him!

chef Apu

Andy loves patting Cobbey