Working on a Schedule

I tried something new today. Rowen has been slightly fussier than usual for the past few days and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. He seemed to only want to be carried around the house; sitting still just wasn't an option. I checked his temperature and there was no fever, so I ruled out sickness. I realized eventually that he was just plain tired. He's been sleeping wonderfully at night (5-7 hours and then goes back down for another 2-3 hours); however, his daytime naps are usually short, lasting anywhere from 10-40 minutes. They are also usually taken in his swing or curled up on my chest. The only time he sleeps more than an hour is if he's in his carseat and we're on the go.

So today I decided to start working on somewhat of a schedule to help him get some more rest. I've learned that he sleeps very well when he's swaddled with the Halo Sleep Sack so I always use that at nighttime. Today, I thought it might work to treat naptime like bedtime. We have a wonderful bedtime routine that consists of being changed, swaddled, nursed, burped and laid in bed. So that's just what I did. And wouldn't you know it, it worked! He slept for nearly 3 hours and probably would have slept longer had I not waked him. I didn't want him to sleep too long so I woke him up after 3 hours to nurse and get ready to go to Nana's house.

I'm hoping the long nap won't keep him from sleeping well tonight. He's been down for about an hour so I guess we'll wait and see. My plan is to continue "scheduling" one 2-3 hour nap every afternoon for a couple of weeks. If these seem to be going well, I may consider scheduling a late morning nap as well. I'm not going to be super strict on the time of the nap just yet as long as he gets at least one good nap a day (for now). Eventually I'm hoping that he will "learn" to get sleepy around the same time every day and will kind of set up the pattern on his own. Hoping being the operative word.

This is just an experiment for now as are most things for a new mother. I'm learning things right along with him, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. Some experiments work out great for us and others just may not click. I guess this is true for most anything new so we'll try it for a while until we can determine if "scheduled naps" are right for us.