Baby wakes every 15 minutes to cry...

[uropachild]

I wonder if you can shed some light on this. When i put my daughter down for her nap, sometimes she will wake every 15 minutes or so and cry herself to sleep again. I don't normally intervene because i know that she goes back to sleep after 5ish minutes of tired crying, but it can't be good for her!

What should i do? Is it because she is napping too long? Not long enough?

Thanks.

[deckchariot]

welcome to BW!  How old is your daughter?  Are you following an EASY routine?  Do you have any kind of a wind down that you use?  Let's start there and see if we can figure out what's going on.

hth
michelle

[uropachild]

Thanks!

She's 4 and a half weeks and we use the easy routine example given in the faq's section, but it goes something like this...

E 7am
A Usually eating and nappy change takes me through to nap time
S 8.15am

E 10am, but sometimes she might wake a bit before
A same with eating and nappy change
S 11.15am

E 1pm
A same again
S 2.15pm unless she falls asleep sooner, which she usually does

E 4pm
A same again
S she usually falls asleep early - about 4.45pm / 5pm

E 6pm
A Bath at about 6.30, then finish the feed afterwards (she always split feeds - before and after nappy change each time and before and after bath here)
S 7.15pm

E 8pm
A None as she goes straight to bed
S Right after feed. 8.30ish

E 10pm / 10.30pm / 11pm. She usually wakes for it, apart from one time she missed it and slept through til 3am!
A none
S Right after feed

E 3am
A none
S Right after feed

E 7am again.

I don't really have a wind down as such. At nap times she is usually tired enough that i can put her down and she will settle fine. She just wakes up regularly... If she isn't drowsy yet when i take her up i just sit in the darkened room with her and hold her until she's drowsy, maybe rocking her or singing.

[deckchariot]

I might try putting her down a wee bit earlier...at such a young age, you really want to aim to have her in bed by the 1 hr mark - especially first thing in the am (that's often the shortest A time of the day, it may even be less than 1 hr of A time at her age).  Is she swaddled?  That will really help her to settle.  A wind down is also important because it helps her transition from awake time to sleeping time.  She's really, really little to have everything sorted out sleep-wise, so the best thing you can do is stay consistent, use pat/shh when you need to help her settle, and she will get it.  Here's a couple links that are really helpful:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=26672.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64277.0

Also, if her cries are a mantra cry, do leave her, she is trying to settle herself.  If not, then don't leave her, but go in and use pat/shh to try to settle her in the crib.  Here's a link about mantra cries:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64160.0

hth
michelle

downtownjuliebrown - I"m going to ask a moderator to split off your topic so you can have your own thread, since your bub is older than uropachild's...hang in there.

[uropachild]

Thank you!! I will start to put her down earlier today. We don't have a swaddle blanket since the hospital warned us off swaddling, but i've ordered one to try anyway. She's in our room and has an Angelcare movement monitor, so should be okay. I'll also look at doing a wind down too. I'll search about here for inspiration.

[deckchariot]

swaddling is a HUGE help!  We used a miracle blanket.  As long as she's swaddled correctly and goes down on her back, there's not a safety issue (to my knowledge) with swaddling.  And you'll find lots of good stuff on wind downs here.  I think at that age, we did: diaper change, close blinds, swaddle, sit in the rocker (maybe a quick song), and start shh/pat on my shoulder, then in to the crib.  It's actually still really similar today - minus the swaddle and the shh/pat