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SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: ChillinMilan on January 20, 2015, 08:46:27 am

Title: Used to be great sleeper! Not any more. Getting too much sleep during the day?
Post by: ChillinMilan on January 20, 2015, 08:46:27 am
Long post but I would appreciate your input!

My son is 5.5 months. For about a month and a half, between ages 2 months to 3.5 months, he slept incredibly well. He went to sleep around 8pm, generally slept for 6-8 hours straight, woke up once to eat, then slept for another 3-4 hours, and woke up somewhere around 7-8:30am. It was amazing! During this time he was taking 3-4 naps during the day. He would generally wake up after 45 minutes, and half of the time I would rock him a little and get him to sleep for another 45 minutes. So half of his naps were 45 minutes long, half were 1.5 hours long. Then suddenly one day he started taking longer naps. The first day he took a 2.5 hour nap.  Next day even longer. He has taken naps as longs as 3.5 hours. I was so proud! But at the exact same time he started taking longer naps, he started waking up more at night. For the last 2 months his night time sleep has gotten progressively worse, while his naps have stayed good. He is currently waking up 3-4 times at night, and generally wakes up for the morning at 5:30-6:00am and will not go back to sleep. He currently takes 2 long naps, generally 1.5-3 hours each, and one short nap in the evening, 30-45 minutes.

So the question is, how do I get my good nighttime sleeper back??   I know he is capable of long stretches of sleep. He is a great "self-soother", these days I almost always lay him down awake to go to sleep on his own, so it's not that. I tried eliminating the last short nap and putting him to bed for the night earlier, but that seemed to make it worse. I've thought of all kinds of theories why he might not be sleeping at night, but not convinced by any of them. He is teething, has some chronic nasal congestion, etc but he stopped sleeping well at night before these were problems, and they don't seem to bother him during the day. He is a really easy, "laid back" baby and I don't get the sense that it's because he needs comfort during the night. For a while I continued to only feed him once at night even though he woke up several other times. Recently I've started nursing him a 2nd time during the night, just because it's any easy way to get him back to sleep. But I don't get the sense he really needs to eat. So it occurred to me the other day that maybe he is just getting too much sleep during the day and doesn't need to sleep so much at night. I never wanted to mess with his naps because I thought it was a great thing he naps so well and I was always going on the theory I have read in so many baby sleep books that "sleep begets sleep" and that a baby that naps well during the day will also sleep better at night. But now I'm thinking maybe I need to limit how long his naps are during the day?? And hope that I don't create a baby that sleeps poorly during the day and night! =P

Anyone have a similar experience? Any advice?

Oh, and by the way, I know I have it really good and most mums would kill for a baby that sleeps so much. It's just that I got spoiled when he slept so well at night. And I know he is capable of it! And I am so tired. =P
Title: Re: Used to be great sleeper! Not any more. Getting too much sleep during the day?
Post by: Frankiefrankiefrankie on January 20, 2015, 08:57:17 am
I would shorten his naps to 1.5 hrs max per nap. See how that goes fora couple of days.. I have a feeling he is sleeping way to much during the day.... Good luck
Title: Re: Used to be great sleeper! Not any more. Getting too much sleep during the day?
Post by: *Liz* on January 20, 2015, 09:38:25 am
It does sound like he is robbing night for day  ::).

Can you post a typical day in EAS style?

Daytime naps at this age need capping at 2hrs anyway, but I think we likely need to phase out that CN as well.

Sometimes they do add in an extra night feed at this age as they are getting bigger and hungrier before starting solids.