Short nappers- Just accept it?

[Nickie18]

My LO just started 40 minute naps at 6 weeks- think it may be a growth spurt issue. Used to sleep sooooo well. Will not settle with shush/pat and I do not want to use any props at this point. Can i just accept that she is a short napper, get her up and adjust the EASY to EASAEAS? Adjust awake time? I cannot spend so long in the room trying to get her back to sleep while my 2 year old LO is alone and probably destroying the house?

[Florena49]

Hi

Does she wake happy after her nap? She is still so little is there any other way he will sleep for longer e.g pram, sling? I really wouldnt spend the whole day trying to extend or resettle naps, you will end up spending the whole day in the dark room and its just not great for any of you. If you cant resettle within 10 mins just get her up and move on. You could try keeping her up for 5-10 mins longer to see if that will make any difference to the length of nap.

[Nickie18]

It's gotten worse. Last three days waking in middle of naps. Cannot shush her at all, even when holding her to get to sleep again. She is now 7 weeks old and seems happy when we take her out and put her in the swing, but she never falls asleep again! Not sure if it is a wonder week or just her now. She was a champion sleeper.

When she wakes early, I try to shush for about 10 minutes, and if no good, get her up, feed her on the three hour routine and then put her down early, hoping the next nap will be better, but it is not! What can I do?? she won't even fall asleep if I hold her or rock her...

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Hugs Nickie. This is such a tricky age. Lots of little babies (and she is little) just can't seem to fall asleep by themselves, or stay asleep during their nap. It's absolutely not a reflection on anything you're doing wrong!  It's just her being a tiny baby. With my dd1, I put so much pressure on myself to do things right - all naps in cot, perfect routine...  And She was a great sleeper, but I almost made myself nuts. With dd2, I've deliberately been more relaxed.  I've always kept her on an EAS but she's had loads of naps in the pram, in the carrier, the car....  They're not always great naps, but they keep her going. If I were you, I'd concentrate on one or two naps in the cot for the sake of starting some sleep training, but also do some apop if you need to for the other naps. Big big hugs.

[Nickie18]

The big issue is now I am having a nanny help me out before I return to work in a few weeks to get the schedule down. Not sure she can do all of it with our 2 year old... She is good but if I cannot get her to nap, how can she? Baby seems happy once out of the crib- we typically put her in the swing to see if she will go back to sleep which she does not, but at least she stops crying. What to do??? Maybe just a phase? When does it get better?

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

If she's napping 45 minutes, happy, and not going back to sleep, it could be she needs a touch more a time. My dd1 was a terrible short napper and did 45 minute naps pretty much till she dropped to 1 nap at 11 months. But she sttn at 10 weeks. Dd2 had about a fortnight of short naps, around the age your dd is now. Then she started taking long naps. But she has terrible NW and ew and still doesn't sttn. It's so so variable. 

[gb18]

Hi nickie. Sorry to hear about your lo's short naps. I stressed myself out soooo much when my baby had short naps. He slept for 40 mins all naps until 6 months when I had the confidence to push his A time ( with lots of help from this site!) He was pretty much always happy though and looking back I wish I had relaxed more. I think short naps are really common till around 6 months.

I also with that like Sarah did I had used buggy more as my lo will not sleep in buggy now!!

I can't say that chilling out about the naps will mean no problems but trying to sort them doesn't either ( as my many posts indicate!!)

Hope u get things sorted to help u relax before work

[Florena49]

Hugs Nicki

We know how stressful it is, Oskar still short naps some days, for no apparent reason and he is nearly 7 months, this week i had to resettle every single nap and nothing has changed in our routine.
I agree with Sarah if LO is waking happy then I would push A time a little, 10 mins or so and hold for a few days to see if that gets a better nap.

[gb18]

Realised the end of my post made no sense! What I meant is that if u don't manage to fix the short naps don't worry about trying desperately to change things! I did and it made no difference till nearer 6 months. Sorry!! Posting from my phone and not checked post xx

[clazzat]

I had a short-napper with my third, and while there might be routine tweaks that you can do, you are likely to drive yourself mad so it is probably best to adjust what you can and roll with the rest.  Particularly with a 2yo around you can't shut yourself away trying to extend everything, so as long as lo is happy then try not to stress too much about it.

Does she sleep in the sling? That was a great help with dd2 and ds as it meant that I could still be doing things with the others while the baby slept and then I didn't feel so guilty. It also meant that the baby got a decent sleep from time to time, so it worked well for everyone! If you can find a way to apop through this bit it will help you and then you can work on the routine when everyone is a bit more settled - 7 weeks is still really young and there is plenty of time for everything to fall into place.

[Nickie18]

Waking happy- does that mean screaming to get up and then is happy once she is up? She usually stops crying as soon as we get her (after trying to shush) but she looks sleepy still. We usually put her in the swing in her swaddle to see if she will go back to sleep (almost never). Currently she can only do 1 h A time for the first A time without getting fussy and usually has a good nap. the rest of the time we try to do 1h 15m A time- Trying to use her cues but they are now confusing as she yawns sometimes the entire time she is awake. Hard to know when to put her down.

Should we just get her up like a regular wake up and remove swaddle and go from there? Or continue to try to get to sleep?

[weaver]

Nicki, hun, can you post us what an average day looks like?  You're saying above you usually get a good first nap and the rest aren't so good, so let us have a look at what usually happens, roughly.  A lot can be to do with A times, with stimulation and so on. 

Around 6 weeks most babies begin to 'wake up' to the world around them and you begin to see what they are 'really' like.  That first early newborn period can be really misleading, and is generally no indication of how things are going to pan out!   

I'd recommend as well having a look at the personality quiz, as some personality types need a bit more winding-down, some less.  Here it is:
The BW "Know Your Baby Quiz"

[Nickie18]

I used to think she was an angel, but taking the quiz again seems she is a textbook/touchy baby. Though I think she is going trough a wonder week right now. She loves the outdoors and can stay out there forever just lying on her back. rarely cries when I put her down, but seems more touchy the last few days

Yesterday's EASY:
NF: 2:30
NF: 6:30
Wake time E/A: 7:45
S: 8:45- cried for couple minutes, then slept until 940- self soothed asleep again
E/A- 10:30- woke her
S: in carrier as we went out- slept on and off until
E/A: 1:30pm
S: 2:45
Woke at 3:20- tried 10 minutes ot shush- no good- out of bed at 3:30p
E/A: 4:30pm
S: 5:10
Woke at 6:30pm
E/A: 7:10
bath, nappy book
Bed 7:45

Today's EASY:
NF2:30
NF 5:45
E/A: 7:45
S: 8:50- woke at 9:30- could not shush after 10 minutes, out of bed at 9:50
E/A: 10:30
S: 11:15- slept straight through until next feed
E/A: 1:30
S: 2:45- woke at 3:30, could not settle, out of bed at 3:50
E/A: 4:30pm
S: 5pm- slept until 6:30 when I woke her
E/A: 7:10
bath, nappy, book,
bed at 8pm- cried a little stopped after shushing

Seems she is waking after 45 minutes and is impossible to settle and seems awake when gets up from nap early. Her A time has been 1h15m for about one month. I think her A time needs to be increased- maybe to 1h25m?

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

It's worth trying for sure!  Try it for three days and see how you get on. Try with the first a time and if it helps, roll it out for the whole day. Good luck.

[Nickie18]

Ah! Terrible nap this am after trying to keep her up just a little more... I think she needs at least 1h30m A time given how she is acting. At least after the bad nap, she slept for 2.5 hours! and has caught up on sleep so far today. Gonna try the 1h30m (which is crazy for an 8 weeker right??) and see how it goes. She actually only woke once last night for a feed and slept until 7am! Wonder if that will happen again...