That darn 45 minute intruder...

I have been doing lots and lots of research lately on the 45 minute nap intruder, because Micah has been plagued with this for at least 2 months. It sure makes naps hard, and hard to be on any sort of schedule with Micah getting the sleep that he needs. We are able to get a nap around 9 am each day, with him going out on his own within 2-3 minutes, but inevitably Micah will (90% of the time) wake up with 30-45 minutes still tired and unable to go back to sleep.

Christian and I, after talking with our doctor on Saturday at his 4 month appointment, decided we would let him try and cry himself back to sleep. Anyone who knows me and what I am discovering about my parenting style, knows this is a big step for us. So hard for me to hear Micah crying for extended periods of time!! We tried this on Sunday, for each of his 3 naps, and he never fell back asleep. I tried this yesterday for his 3rd nap and again, he didn't fall back asleep. So for me to be dealing with this, and not having success, I am really struggling with the crying thing!

Today I decided to try a method of soothing where he doesn't actually come out of his REM sleep, so he doesn't even realize I'm there...and it worked! Micah slept from 9 am (being slightly soothed at 9:45am) until 11:20 am. This was way better than hearing him cry for an hour, AND he's getting the sleep he needs not in my arms!

I want to not stress about these naps, because Micah is such a happy boy normally, and I know this is minor in the grand scheme of things. And he's a great night sleeper and goes down so easily, so if this is the problem, then we'll continue to try and revise until we find something that works, or the phase just passes. But I am at least feeling good about today's nap! Finally...a successful ending to a full nap in his crib:)