4 week old 40 minute naps

[mom of two]

I started my 1st LO on EASY at 5 weeks and she has been a wonderful sleeper.  She was very touchy when it came to OT times but I just learned how to figure out exactly how much A time she needed.  So with #2 I've been trying to get my LO on some sort of EASY since the beginning.  It has been a struggle to keep him from getting OT since his 2nd week.  His A time is normally only 40 minutes, it can be up to an hour if it takes him a little while to fall asleep.  He will get in cycles of only sleeping 40 minutes, sometimes I can get him back to sleep but others I cannot since I have a toddler running in and out of the room with me.  He is a puzzle though.  Last week I was at my mothers so I let her rock him to sleep (she really wanted to!) and so he would sleep a couple hours wonderfully.  Now I am back to getting him to sleep by himself, which he can do on his belly with a pacifer by himself most of the time.  He was getting himself right to sleep yesterday but they were ALL 40 minute naps.  Then by night I had to rock him to sleep because he was so OT but  he slept WONDERFULLY last night only waking at 2 times from 7 am to 7pm.  So I am not sure what to do.  If I put him in the sling he will sleep a couple hours but I don't want to do that all the time.  I do if I can tell OT is creeping in.  He was in it all morning this am because we were out and about so I thought he would take a long afternoon nap but nope.  Woke after 40 and is still working on getting back to sleep right now.  I know he is young and I don't want to expect too much out of him...so I'm not sure what to do really...

Thanks!

[mom of two]

Or could he be UT at the beginning of the day but it turns to OT by the end because of short naps?  I read     
Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep and it said:

1-3 months                    15-18 hours, until                Three naps, 1.5 hours each + catnap;
More alert and aware           18 months of age                 8 hours at night
of surroundings; able
to move head

Since he typically sleeps from 7:30-7 and only wakes twice and it only awake 30 minutes each time, maybe since he is getting more than average night time sleep then he needs less during the day and his tired cues may actually be bored cues or something.  I don't know...just thought I would see what you think?  I may try 1.5 hours A time tomorrow and see what happens...couldn't get much worse then things are now huh?

[deckchariot]

that 8 hrs of night sleep is really supposed to be an 8 hr stretch...until 18 mos, most bubs work best on an overall 12 hr day and 12 hr night. 

For a 1 mos old, average  A time is really about 1 hr to 1 hr 15 - and that includes eating, winddown and time to fall asleep.  So I wouldn't try for 1.5 hrs tomorrow.  Also, most bubs have their shortest  A time first thing in the morning, so that one may even be a bit shorter. 

With waking at 40 min, I'm guessing he's just having trouble getting himself past the jolts between sleep cycles.  When he wakes at 40 min, is he crying for you or just fussy?  If he's just fussy, I'd wait and see if he settles himself.  If he's crying, have you tried extending him by using pat/shh?  Is he swaddled?  If not, that should help.  If he is, you can try w2s and go in at 30 min and "hold" him through the jolt at 40 min.

hth
michelle

[Susansmum]

What do you do when he wakes up after the 40 minutes?

[deckchariot]

Have you tried pat/shh to help him get back to sleep?  That's what we did with dd - we did w2s first, but if I couldn't stop her from waking at 40 min, I'd do pat/shh to try to get her back to sleep.  I'd try for 30 min, and then give up and get her up....feed her as soon as she was hungry, limit her A time severely (at 4 weeks, I wouldn't even do any A time after the feed - just go straight to the wind down) and back to bed.

Babies brains sort out day and night sleep differently - night sleep develops first (0-3 mos) and day sleep later (3-6 mos), so some of this is just developmental.  But you can teach him to get over that 40 min hump.

[mom of two]

Thanks for the help!  He was awake 1 hour this morning which included winddown and he went right to sleep. He is swaddled with a paci.  So when he wakes at 40 min he is normally just moaning around, if I don't give him the paci though it soon turns into a cry and it is much more difficult to calm him after that.  shh/pat hasn't seemed to help too much.  If anything it helps to pick him up to calm down for a few minutes then I put him back down calm and we try again.  Today he didn' really seem awake when he cried out, I did extend A time from 40 min to 1 hour and he seemed much more tired and easy to get back to sleep.  Yesterday he really fought it but maybe he wasn't as tired so it was a struggle getting him back to sleep.  He has been asleep 1 H 10 Min now and I've had to give him the paci twice.  Glad to hear it may just be developmental.  I was getting frustrated that it was happening no matter the A time.  I will continue to follow his cues but go for about an hour of A time and see how he does...its just hard to give a lot of attention when he does wake with a 2 year old running around as well!

[deckchariot]

it absolutely sounds developmental to me.  You're doing all the right things, he'll get it!  Hang in there!!