45minute nap then the fight starts

[finia]

Our little girl is 4months old and doesn't seem able to transition through her 45 minute cycle, she wakes constantly and its a real struggle to get her back to sleep even though she is tired. We thought that she was over stimulated we don't play OTT with her nor do we bring her into a noisy environment. We tried the dummy trick but that only really sets her off. Is there anything we can do that should help?

[empowered mama]

hi there and welcome to the boards

Can you post your EASY routine so we can take a look?  Part of the issue could be developmental, as LOs tend to spend months 4-6 organizing their day sleep and eventually grow out of needing help transitioning to the next sleep cycle.  However we could try to tweak the routine and see if anything could help the situation

[deb]

Can you also describe what you're doing to try to get her naps extended? Which paci trick? The sneak-it-in-before-she-notices-it's-gone one? Or a different one?

[finia]

Her Easy Routine is:
7am feeding 7:15-8:50 activity, 8:50-9:00 put to bed, 9:00-9:50 sleeps, 9:50-9:55 wakes and is given a doddy then falls asleep again, 9:55-10:30 then doddy again falls asleep till 11am, then a feeding then activity till 12:50. 12:50-1pm put to bed, again wakes up after 45-50mins then it gets really hard for her to fall asleep, i can do P/u P/d for 20mins till she falls asleep but she wakes up when her doddy falls out again and I have to do it all over again till 3pm, then its feeding and activity till 5pm then her cat nap for 45mins then we play with her till 6:45 then she gets 7oz of milk and 10mins later we give her a bath then 10 more minutes of play nothing over exciting then she gives us to signals and we put her to bed. She has now also started to wake up at 1hr intervals during the night, something she hasn't done since she was 6 weeks old and she is nearly 5months old now and on solids. She wakes up screaming for her doddy and then falls back asleep straight away but why does she scream we have never left her to cry it out ever? we have tried to go in after 30-35mins and stroke her cheek to get her out of her deep sleep but that doesn't seem to help at all as she doesn't move and when she does she still wakes up after 45minutes.

[deb]

Some babies have a stronger need to suck than others. Both mine were pretty high-needs suckers, come to think of it. (That sounds funny out loud! )

You might want to try being there before she wakes up and sticking the paci in right as she begins to spit it out, so she doesn't really wake fully. This trick helped Josie learn to transition herself to the next 45-minute sleep cycle. I'd go in around 40 minutes, and when she stirred in her sleep she would spit out the paci - and I'd stick it right in straightaway. She never woke up, didn't even open her eyes, so she didn't have to go *back* to sleep - she STAYED asleep, and after a few days of that, we no longer needed to help her thru the transition.

[finia]

ok we will try that for a few days, thank you.

[newbabe]

Hi- new to the site. Just wondering if sticking the dummy back into mouth creates more dependance (Im using one for my LO but am thinking is it time to waen off, he 8is 13 weeks)

[deb]

That will vary, If the baby already needs it to sleep, you can use it to help with sleep training and then wean it down the road. If your baby is like my first DD, you can do that in 3-4 days. If your LO is like my 2ndDD, it won't happen till LO is darned good and ready to b/c that kid NEEDED to suck like nobody's business. So it'll vary with the baby and the family and the situation.

[newbabe]

Thanks for that Deb Its my first, so a little unsure! Think he needs it quite a lot, I mean it HAS to be in his mouth even when winding him or theres hell to pay! Saying that, he has not really started looking for it during the night (yet??!)