Short naps getting shorter

[llnmaw]

Oh how I need advice!

My just 4m ds was a champion sleeper and the envy of all my peers. Slept through the night (can't take any credit for it...just happened!) at 9 weeks and regularly took 2 hour naps 2-3 times a day.

Cut to 3 months of age and the daytime naps got shorter and shorter, almost without me noticing until one day I realized I was hardly getting 30 minutes out of him. When we wakes in the AM he is content to just lay in bed and look around suck his thumb, maybe doze a bit or not until I come for him. He is  ALL smiles in the morning and it is just the most delightful and precious time of the day. Naps on the other hand he wakes screaming and is a miserable little man for 20+ minutes. He will get happy again, but since he is so tired  he is cranky and desperate for another little snooze way too soon.

So we are trying to get on EASY. Sadly he cannot stay awake long enough to do the 4 hour so we are shooting for 3 hour with a gradual shift to 4 hour.

Now that you have the background, our schedule.

Wake and Feed 7:00
A until 8:15
Prepare for nap and in bed 8:30
Awake at 9 (if I'm lucky!)
pat shush pu/pd for the next 45 min to hour
no Y time for mommy!

10:00 wake (or more appropriately just get out of bed since he never went back to sleep) and feed
A until 11:15 maybe 11:45
Prepare for nap and in bed by 11:30 or 12:00

repeat the above until bed at 7:30

While I'm just THRILLED beyond measure that I rarely hear a peep out of the little guy after 7:30 PM the daytime is killing the both of us. Falling asleep is not an issue for us - just staying asleep. I know he can self soothe (avid thumb sucker) back to sleep as I hear him do it all night long.

So my question - yes there is a question! ;-)

I wonder if I'm doing pu/pd right since I rarely get to actually pd. He is so worked up that he does not stop crying for well over 10 or more minutes. As soon as he quits crying I move to pd he feels me shift him and begins to cry. I continue with the pd and then pat shush for a bit. This is to no avail so I pu again.  Am I misunderstanding pu/pd?

Many thanks for insight you might have

~Lauri

[Colesmom]

Hi Lauri-

Welcome to the boards!  You'll find lots of helpful people here so take a browse around

I'm happy to hear your nightsleep is going well.  We do need to tackle these short naps though or soon your lo will be overtired and it may affect his night sleep.

I think before working on your pupd technique you need to look at your day and how long your DS is awake for.  If he's extremely overtired it's going to make PUPD that much harder on him. 

When we wakes in the AM he is content to just lay in bed and look around suck his thumb, maybe doze a bit or not until I come for him

Are you sure then that he is waking at 7am?  15 minutes can make a very big difference at this age for your lo getting overtired.  Your first A time looks okay length-wise, but if he's waking earlier than 7 you may have him up too long.  Babies normally like the first awake time interval to be the shortest of the day.  You may want to try getting him settled to sleep 15 minutes earlier.  Waking at 30 minutes or before usually indicates overtiredness.  If this first nap doesn't go well, it can set the whole day off because then you're trying to have the second nap at a reasonable time which will have your lo awake far too long (9-noon for example)

If you are unsuccessful at getting him back to sleep, you may then want to put him down earlier than you normally would so that he's up no longer than 2 hours.  I know that this means 11am, but if you go much later then he'll just end up with a short nap again.  The object is to have him tired enough to have a good nap, but not so tired that he jolts awake at 30 minutes.  This can take quite a bit of time and patience to figure out.

Also, rather than wait for your DS to wake up and cry, have you tried going into the room before he wakes and patting him or holding his limbs to prevent him jolting? these two links might have valuable info:

http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/wake-to-sleep-for-naps-vt43311.html

http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/teaching-3-5mos-to-overcome-the-45min-naps-vt39769.html

As for PUPD, I will have to go back to the book and read up on this age.  My DS was 4.5 months when I started and I don't want to give you the wrong information.  If you go to the PUPD board, there are a couple of good announcement posts which might help you with your technique.

here is one:

 http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/p-u-p-d-for-3-month-old-info-from-consult-with-tracy-vt9278.html

HTH for a start.

[llnmaw]

Oh THANK YOU for your thoughts and insight.

Most mornings I'm pretty certain he is just waking as I'm getting in there. Some days not so...I know he has been awake for a bit. This morning it was like waking the dead to get him up and going. I do know he was dog tired last night and I never heard a peep out of him.

This morning I put my guy into bed at 8:05 (woke him at 7:00) and scurried out the door to a dental appt leaving daddy at home to follow up but none was necessary. 30 minutes later babe was awake and crying. Daddy did shush pat and pu/pd but said he rarely escalated but also never went back to sleep. This is a very slight improvement.

He'll be up any moment from his 30 minute rest...

whoops there he is. Rats.......off to shush pat

~Lauri