Naps

Swaddle System 2 seems to be holding (ha!) as we have had 7 consecutive nights of 6-8 hour stretches. With the exception of 1 night, LJ goes until 5:00 ish, so we are very happy with this. Of course, when I go back to work - I'll pretty much just get ready for work after that feeding as I will need to get up at 6:00 to get to work between 7:00 and 7:30. We started giving LJ one of the two bottles he'll get while I am at work in the mornings. He doesn't seem to care about the source of his food, so we haven't had any bottle/breast issues. All-in-all, sleeping at night and eating seem to be going well.

Naps are another story. For the past 7 weeks LJ has napped in his bouncy seat with one of us bouncing him. This was due to the fact that RJ and I just wanted him to sleep, so we would do whatever it took to get that to happen. Now, I'm to the point where I want him to nap in his room without my aid. So, we are working on that this week. We (me really, RJ is at work during napping times) are using the Ferber approach. Once LJ is drowsy I swaddle him up and put him in his car seat (which is his bed right now...he doesn't like the crib...too much space). If he wakes up, I let him cry for 1 minute, and then I go in a comfort him for 2-3 minutes. I don't pick him up or rock him or anything else I don't want him to associate with sleep unless he can reproduce it himself. If he continues to cry, I let him cry for 2 minutes before I go in for 2-3. Then, I let him go 3 minutes and finally 5 minutes. At this point, I repeat in 5 minute increments until an hour is up and then that nap time is over. Well, the last 2 days he's gone to sleep without me having to let him cry more than 2 minutes...except one time today. I think I made the mistake of putting him down when he was wide awake instead of drowsy. But, once the hour was up and I picked him up...and calmed him down because he had been crying for a while...he fell asleep...of course! But, you do the best you can do. The nap he is taking right now...I put him down drowsy and he's knocked out. He still takes a nap between each feeding. He'll eat (which takes about half an hour), play (for about half an hour - 45 minutes), and then want to nap (30 minutes - 1 hour). When he wakes up, he wants to eat...and he eats every 2 and 1/2 hours during the day.

When do they go to 1 long morning nap and 1 long afternoon nap??? And when will he go longer than 2 and 1/2 hours during the day??? I'm not complaining...remember, I have a 7 week old who goes 6-8 hours at night ;-)