11 week old taking 10 min/20 min naps... What to do... HELP...

[wink]

Help, my son is so tired & i don't know what to do. 

My 11 week old just wouldn't go down for a longer nap during the day.  I tried shush/pat or shush pressure on thigh or arm, doesn't work.  Pacificer worked well last 2 weeks now, he'll take it but 10 minutes later wakes up.  He was sleeping at night from 7 or 8 pm til 7 or 8 sometimes 9 in the morning only waking up every 3 hours for feeds then goes straight back down.  Last 2 nights he's wide awake at 5 am and last night at 3:30 am.  Sometimes he is so tired by 5 or 6 pm that he falls asleep in the bjorn.  What is going on?  Please help!!!

[christiewi]

Hi Wink! 

Not much help to offer...just support to know you are not alone!  My son is in the same boat.  I just posted under the title "i'm scared."  I'll be watching to see what responses we both get.  Fingers crossed for some good ideas/solutions!  Hugs to you!!

[deckchariot]

wink - can you post what your "normal" routine looks like - or at least what's it's looking like at the moment?  Your bub is still pretty young, so he's still trying to figure stuff out a bit.  In addition to your routine, a couple other questions - is he swaddled?  When you say shh/pat didn't work - what do you mean?  How have you been doing it?  Do you have  wind down routine?  What is it?

Hang in there!  We've all been there (and many are there now), there's great support on the boards!

HTH
michelle

[wink]

Thanks for the supports... here's my routine

7am             wake up (he refuse to feed until almost an hour after waking - another problem)
7-9              activity
9 - 9:20        nap (wakes up almost to the minute)
9:20-10:30    activity
10:30 - 10:50 nap
10:50 - 1 pm  activity
1 - 1:20 or sometimes 1:30 if i'm lucky nap
1:30 - 3 pm   activity
3 - 3:20 pm   nap
3 - 5 pm       activity
5 - 5:20ish    nap
7 pm            feed
8 pm            night time sleep

i know there's all sorts of problem with this routine but he's all over the place now because of short naps... sign... just don't know what to do.... my son is perpetually yawning ALL DAY!!

[*Nicola*]

Hiya

(((Hugs)))

Just looking through your routine I have a couple of thoughts ...

1)  The first A time of the day seems a bit too long for him.  If he is up at 7am and not sleeping until 9am that gives him an A time of 2 hours.  At 11 weeks I think he should probably be up for about 1.5 hours max, some mums find that their LO's can  tolerate even less A time for the first cycle of the day.  I would aim to have him in bed and sleeping by 830am if he is up at 7am.  Even if he won't eat until 8am I would still aim for an 830am sleep.  Does he take long to feed?

2) What EASY are you on/aiming for?  The A times are all a bit different over the course of the day, but I realise that the short naps are throwing EASY a bit.  If you are aiming for a 3 hour EASY you would probably be looking for 1.5 hours A time and 1.5 hour naps.  I notice that sometimes his A time is 2 hours ... is that because he is up early from a nap and you are trying to keep to the 3 hour schedule? 

Can he handle 1.5 hours of A time?  If so I think you should go for 1.5 hours activity, including feed and wind down and aim to have him asleep 1.5 hours after waking up.  Of course, if he wakes early from a nap and you are unable to extend his sleep (through pat/sh or AP) then you should do a feed, low key A, and then bring the next nap forward, so maybe he will only be up for 50 mins-1 hour.  20 minute naps are not restorative so he will still be really tired after waking up.  You need to get him back to bed to stop the overtired cycle building up.

3) I would aim for him to have a 12 hour day and a 12 hour night.  So if he is awake at 7am then aim to have him sleeping by 7pm.  It might just been that you have to bring bedtime forward a little from what it usually is. 

4)  Does he go to sleep independently?  What is the routine?  How do you try to extend the naps?

Michelle wondered whether you swaddle him and if you have a good wind down routine? If not, I think these are things that you should definitely consider.  Waking at 20 mins may mean that he is waking at the jolts, swaddling will help him make it through this point.  A good wind down routine will help him realise that it is nap time and he will come to recognise this, and relax ready for sleep.  If you don't have a wind down routine we can give you some ideas. 

If he is having night wakings it could be due to the fact that he is overtired during the day.  Hopefully once you get the naps sorted out the nights will balance out a bit.

   Please post back with qu's.  Hang in there you will get it sorted out 


 

[Tinynic]

hi, i am new to this website but have found the BW book very helpful.  My son (8 weeks) has also just started taking 30 min naps, sometimes to the minute and after reading the thread 'short naps - remember to consider overstimulation' i think he still might be too overstiumlated. could this be the case with your baby as there seems to be quite long A periods.

although i have always followed routine though tweaked it to AESY due to my sons reflux, it was very difficult to get him to sleep without a crying match. At 6 weeks i decided that every nap he would go in this cot and we would have wind down time first and use SSH/PT- it was difficult at first and felt like i was never out of his bedroom and spent all my time tring to get him to sleep but LIKE MAGIC this helped.  the crying stopped before naps although occasionly we still have problems, like today.  But now we have the wind down sorted for some reason his naps have now shortened to 30 mins. he seems to suddenly wake up with a cry and cannot get back to sleep.  when i go into see him his eyes are often still closed.  tomorrow i am going to make sure he has quiet time in his A times and see if this helps.  perhaps me enjoying his smiles is a little much just now  
also, im unable to get ssh/pat to work in the cot yet.  he always has to fall asleep in my arms and then i put him down, somtimes hes semi awake. im hoping eventually he will fall asleep in his bed but for now if he needs to be in my arms then so be it.  he is a spirited baby.

lots of love tinynic xx

[wink]

Thanks so much for all your suggestions... i feel much better knowing that there are things to try... you guys are so awesome... i totally feel supported...

my son doesn't like to be swaddled cries to get his hands out so what i do is to put a blanket on him & try to cover the corners so it doesn't come off too easy with kicking.

my windown routine consists of walking him on my shoulder & singing lullaby in a dark hallway... he gets into stage 3 within 5 minutes usually if i catch him at his 1st yawn... then i put him down, he usually wakes a bit & i put a soother to his mouth & off he goes.  after reading the threads, i had stayed with him during his entire nap & shush/pat him during his 10 min & 20 min jerks... unfortunately, he still wakes at 45 minutes but that's a HUGE improvement from the 10/20 minutes in the last couple of days... so THANKS!!!  now is how to get him pass the 45 minute mark?  I think i'll read another thread on that but i'm happy to hear any suggestions for that... 

[*Nicola*]

Great to hear you are making progress    Well done. 

Now on to battle the 45 minute nap monster 

Does he sleep with soother?  Will he fall back asleep if you pop it back in at 45 mins? I've never used them but I know this works for some bubbas.  If not you have 2 options:

1) use pat/shh to either prevent him from waking at the 45 minute mark or to soothe him back to sleep after the 45 minute wake up. Once he gets past the 20 minute jolt there is another big jolt at 30 minutes before he will begin to stir preceeding the 45 minute wake up.  If you are staying for the entire nap then you would begin the pat/sh, or just the sh, or gently hold down joints as soon as he begins to stir. When I did this with DD1 I would have to continue with this until she was well into the next sleep cycle or else the next round of jolts woke her    However, it quickly improved.

If he wakes at 45 mins (during pat/shh or if you haven't been doing it) then you can use pat/sh to try and soothe him back to sleep.

In theory you can continue to try this until the next feed, but to prevent him becoming OT you might want to only try for a certain time before getting him up, feeding, having low key A and back to bed a bit earlier. 

2) Wake to sleep (W2S).  With this method you basically go into the room about 10 mins or so before he usually wakes up and you gently rouse him from sleep.  The theory is that this then begins a new sleep cycle for him, preventing the 45 minute wake up.  Now it sounds a bit scary but it worked wonders for us with DD2 and nap exention. You may have to play around with timings and ways of gently rousing.  There is a sticky in the FAQs section of the forum explaining the technique and theory.

One other thought ... if your LO is getting OT due to short naps and you are unable to extend them it might be wise to try and get him back to sleep in the way you usually put him down, ie: walking in the hall etc ... last thing you want is a little OT baby.

HTH, keep us updated