Author Topic: short naps have come out of nowhere! (sorry-long post but need help desperately)  (Read 1132 times)

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Offline suzannebowie

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Hi All,

Looking for a little advice on current short nap situation with my combination fed lo (12 weeks).  She has cut her nap time drastically and doesn't seem to be eating as much at the 3hr mark.  Not sure about moving her to 4hr EASY as only 3 months! The great irony is that the last time i posted it was a query about her long naps...

So, basically the three hour easy had been working really well for a while. Our day started at 7am and she would feed well, have some 'a' time I would take her to her room at hour mark for 10-15 min wind down and she would sleep til next feed.  Nights were good too. She'd go down at 7pm, have dream feed at 10pm and sleep til 3/4ish and then back down til 7am again.  Days used to look like this:

E 7am bf
A 7.30am with wind down at 8am
S 8.15am
E10am bf
A10.30am with wind down at 11am
S 11.15am
E 1pm ff 5/6oz
A 1.15 with wind down at 2pm
S 2.15pm
E 4pm ff 4/5 oz
A 4.15am with wind down at 5pm
S catnap (sometimes until 6pm...sometimes not|)
E 6pm bf
A 6.30pm with bath etc
S 7/7.15 pm
E 10pm dream feed

NOW a typical day is more like

E 7am bf
A 7.30am with wind down at 8am fights nap
S 8.15am still takes a good nap here and would sleep longer if allowed
E 10am bf not very interested
A 10.30am with wind down at 11am
S 11.15am - 12ish
A happy activity time til next feed
E 1pm ff 4oz if lucky
A 1.15 with wind down at 2pm fights nap
S 2.15pm-3ish
A happy activity time til next feed
E 4pm ff 3 oz
A 4.15am with wind down at 5pm
S catnap (sometimes until 6pm...sometimes not-will take this nap if held for 40-50 mins)
NIGHTS ARE STILL PRETTY CONSISTENT
E 6pm bf feeds well
A 6.30pm with bath etc
S 7/7.15 pm - goes down easily and sleeps well
E 10pm dream feed - sleeps til 3am and back down easily til 7am

I've tried extending her activity time but to no avail.  Extending naps doesn't seem to work (she is able to resettle herself from naps because in the past she has always stirred at 45 min mark and settled herself) so i'm afraid it seems like when she's up, she's up!  I could make my peace with 45 min naps if she's happy but today she's been waking even earlier from her naps and is having very restless activity times!

Because of the short naps she has been having more awake time (approx 2 hrs across EASAEAS) so might she be ready for 4hr EASY?

ANY HELP PLEASE!??  I really need advice on this one

Thanks in advance
Suzy Xx

Offline blessedbear

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Could she be overstimulated during her A time?  There is a link in the sticky section on this.  This was the case with my LO so toning down the A time really helped.  Also I believe that Tracy suggests the 4/4 (4 months- 4 hour EASY) at 4 months so she is still a little young but of course it is different for every LO.  Awesome to see your nights are on track =) Are you waking her early form AM nap to eat?  If she is not interested maybe let her sleep.  The AM nap is sort of continuation of night sleep and at that age my LO's AMnap was her best nap and often 2 hrs long...Boy do I miss those days =)

Offline suzannebowie

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Yeah, she definitely could be overstimulated in her 'a' time because its just recently that shes started really interacting with people smiling/chattering etc etc and i think *some people* treat her like a puppy that does tricks and rev her up!! I'll make a point of toning it down the next few days and see what happens.  I do wake her from am nap and im sure she would sleep longer. So, do u think leave her longer here to compensate for later 45 min naps? If I normally wake her to feed at 10am, perhaps leave her til 10.30am?

And definitely happy about the nights - fingers crossed that doesnt get messed up too!

Thanks,

Suzy x

Offline blessedbear

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Well it is ok to interact with peoople of course but I would keep it towards the first part of A time and get mellow towards the end.  Make sure you read the sticky regarding Overstimulation and short naps becasue it is very easy for this to OS to happen at this age.  

I have gotten different advice regarding waking to eat.  On one hand some may say that if she is hungry she will wake to eat.  Other's say at this age getting in all your feeds is superimportant too.  I don't think that letting her sleep till 10:30 am if she eats at 7 am will hurt....Especially if she doesn't seem interested in the bottle at 10 am anyway then your waking her early.  The she would technically be on 3.5 EASY at almost 3 months...

Offline suzannebowie

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bump

Offline *Jo*

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Hi Suzy, how has it been giong the last few days? have you managed to get some longer naps yet?





Offline deb

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Two things: one, you don't have to go straight from 3-hour EASY to 4-hour EASY. Around 3 months one week, we added maybe 15 minutes, then the next week another 15,and so on. Basically, each week from 3 to 4 we added a quarter-hour to the basic EASY framework, and by 4 months we were about there! :)

Also, check out the post from the bottom of the Naps FAQ's - I'm not able to get my terminally slow browser to dig up the link ATM, but it's the post about How Tracy Helped Josie and her Family Get Past 45-Minute Naps. :)

Offline suzannebowie

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Hi,

Thanks for your replies! probably the fact that ive been awol recently has tipped you off that we are no further forward with the nap situation - if anything its getting worse but she has now started sttn from 7pm (with df at 10pm) consistently, waking up at 7am so now im reeeeeaaallly worried that any changes i make during the day will mess her nights up! Her awake time is now at 2 hrs + because of the short naps and she doesnt seem too grumpy most of the time but i cant help but feel that its way too long.  Another concern as we move towards 4 months is how am i ever going to get her on 4 hr feeds with 45 min naps!?  Sorry for the rant but the past few days have been hard going and i feel awful because she's not being 'bad', she's just awake ALL THE TIME and im constantly worrying that se's going to have an o/t meltdown!!!  Should i just make my peace with the fact that she is now a short napper?

Suzy X

Offline deb

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What I ended up doing with Josie when I couldn't get naps extended for whatever reason was to give her more of those short naps per day. Seriously, she was taking like 4-6 naps daily from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 months, because the longer A time was only getting her really cranky. :(  It wasn't till we got her reflux sorted and the consult with Tracy that things really settled. There were times I'd take her shopping, let her fall asleep in the car, and keep driving past the 45-minute mark so she would get ONE decent nap in during the day. Oh, and she did take longer naps once or twice when she was in the car seat carrier, even if we weren't going anywhere - again, that was a function of her reflux.

Come to think of it, might reflux be a factor here?

Many parents of short nappers report that their babies begin taking longer naps again around 5-6 months.

Oh the 4-hour feed? Doesn't have to be 4 hours on the dot. If the naps are still short, the latest you'll ever be is 45 minutes, and you can tweak subsequent feeds if you are late for one or two. Had to do that as well - J's so-called 3-hour EASY was anywhere between 3 and 4 hours on any given day depending in the nap situation, even once we started solids (which we did at 4 months to try to get heavier food into her to help with the reflux - in hindsight probably wouldn't do it again, but we did, and wow, was that a scheduling "adventure!").