11 week old with no secure nap schedule

[Lauramcf07]

Hi

My 11 week old daughter has been sleeping well in the night. She has been going down well after Bath, feed and sleep routine at around 7-7.15pm. She sleeps approximately 6-7 hours before waking for a feed and then will wake around 5.45-6.45am for her next feed and starts the day.

In the day she cat naps, often around an hour to an hour and half after her feed. She will sleep for approximately 45 minutes. In the afternoon she battles her naps more and is often very grizzly and hard to settle at times.

My question is if she continues this short napping routine will it affect her nighttime? Also she has started waking earlier 5.30am...could her naps be a reason for this?

Yesterday she had 4 naps of approx 30- 60 mins each. Is that too much? Too little? Or am I overthinking the whole thing and should be pleased with what I have got?

Would love to hear from you and your thoughts.

[katie80]

Hi and welcome to BW!

Although often frustrating, short naps are very common at this age. They can start to affect nights, so it's something to keep an eye on. Basically at 11 weeks, you'd expect to be looking at an A time of about 1h15/20/30min and around a 12hr day, so if she wakes about 6:30/45am you want to put her to bed around 6:30/45pm (give or take 15-30min).

Will she go back to sleep at all after that 5:30/6am feed? How are you putting her down to sleep for naps and bedtime, i.e. are you working on independent sleep? Are you able to post a few days of your EAS routine for us to take a look at?

Something like...
W/E 6am
A
S 7:20-8:20am
E 9am
A
Etc etc

[Lauramcf07]

Thank you for your response. So far it hasn't affected her sleep at night. She often wakes very early and more recently it's been for a nappy change which is unavoidable.

This week she has been only lasting 2.5-3 hours between.

Yesterday was
E 6.10
A
S 7.40 but woke after 30 mins and couldn't settle again
Y
E 8.40
A
S 10.00 - best sleep to date 1h20 with shushing half way through
Y
E 11.40
A
S 1.00 - 35 mins very easy to settle
Y

And so on.....
The issue I have is I am combination feeding so she goes longer after a bottle than BF. Every 2 hours with BF so it can't work out as easy as a baby who is EBF.

Today she woke at 4.45 I feed her, kept night conditions and settled her again but then she needed a nappy change at 6.10 and we couldn't settle her after that.

Do you think the fact I am combination feeding is the reason why it isn't so easy to work out?

[katie80]

When you say she needs a nappy change, I'm assuming its for a poo, yes? That is tough... my DS2 did that a lot and is still prone to waking with a poo.

This week she has been only lasting 2.5-3 hours between.

Could be a growth spurt... there is often one right around 3mo.

Do you think the fact I am combination feeding is the reason why it isn't so easy to work out?

I don't think so, although when she's not in a GS, she should be able to last longer than 2hrs on a BF. Do you offer one or both sides? How many bottles and how many BFs does she have per day?

[Lauramcf07]

She has 4 BF per day and 3 bottles. If she wakes a second time in the night then she has an additional BF. I'm slowly phasing out BF but want to do it in a gentle was for my DD and for my breasts too!

I am trying to offer her more from the other side but often she is not interested. She only feeds for a short time on the breast too. She was been a 2 hour BFeeder since the beginning so that is bothering me but it makes a 3 hour schedule hard to work with when she won't go that long. I could probably pacify her by keeping her occupied and busy and holding her for an additional time but I would worry she would get OT.

Perhaps as I move further towards Bottles for every feed her timing will be more consistent. I'm not ready for that yet and I don't think she is too.

She is starting to settle more if she wakes as I use the shush/pat technique. Phew! 

Do you think I should try and keep her going for 3 hours when BF?

[katie80]

Great that she is starting to settle better with shh/pat!

So, with the BFs, she only takes one side and then only lasts 2hr? Can you give her a 10/15min 'rest' and then offer the other side? Seems like she should be getting more so she can last longer between feeds and the EASY works out better. I'd say most EBF babies can last longer than 2hr between feeds by 3mo, unless they're in a GS.

[Lauramcf07]

Will give it a whirl...will try her again after a few minutes. I think my slowish let down frustrates her. Thank you for the advice.

[katie80]

I think my slowish let down frustrates her.

Do you think she's holding out for the bottle a bit? If so, would it be worth pumping and feeding from the bottle rather than breast? Not likely what you want if you wanted to change gradually, I guess. I'd give the break and then offering again a try first.