"Dear Polly,

We have a 19.5 week old and 9 nights ago, we started to implement the Cry it Out method for nights. He cried hard for 93 minutes straight the first night and it decreased by about 10 minutes for hte following two nights. By the 4th night, however, his crying started to increase in length - up to 2 solid hours at night 6! We have followed all the prescribed procedures (no more going into his room, etc) and have a night routine of bath, feed, story, song, and prayer before he's in the crib and the lights are out by 6:45pm. Once he finally sleeps after approximately 90 minutes of crying, he sleeps well (from exhaustion, perhaps?) and is only up for the 11pm and 3am feeds. He generally then wakes up for the day at 6:30am.

As for naps, we are working hard at getting him to nap between 3.5 and 4 hrs of total nap time. We aim it so that he naps every 75-90 minutes or so. We are not as strict with the Cry it Out method during the day (as he may not meet the nap quota otherwise), and will use the stroller and car rides to put him to sleep. His naps are never longer than 30-50 minutes.

We are wondering if you would have any advice on decreasing his crying at night? Any advice? The second question is how do we lengthen his naps?

Thank you!"

- Mimi

Hi, Mimi---

I'm sitting here looking at the keyboard, trying to figure out how to give a quick answer to your post. But if you've got the book handy, refer to the following pages: the section on this specific 'cry it out' question from p 121- 125, especially beginning at the middle of p 123.

As you may already know the NAPS plan (and especially Chapter 4 for your little guy) will help your baby get more daytime sleep, which will help with a lot of the issues you're describing, since lengthening his daytime naps reduces night time crying in the vast majority of cases.

Good luck!

Polly.