Author Topic: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.  (Read 1113 times)

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Offline ColtonsMomma

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Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« on: January 17, 2012, 02:33:23 am »
My 3 mo has been sleeping in his crib at night for about six weeks. Two weeks ago, we started having him take all of his naps in there as well (as opposed to swing, car seat, bouncy seat). He naps only 30-40 minutes in his crib.

He has about 1.5 hours of A time before each nap. This includes about 30 minutes to feed, 5-10 min of tummy time, time in his baby gym or looking at his mobile, and then, as soon as he starts to look sleepy, I change his diaper, read him a book or sing a song, and then put him in his crib. He fusses very little or not at all and is asleep within 5-10 minutes, but then wakes after only 30-40 minutes. He wakes happy and talks to himself for another 10 minutes before he gets fussy.

Another problem with the short naps is that he has learned to eat as soon as he wakes, so our EASY routine has turned into 2-2:15 hours, rather than 3 as before. He really shouldn't be hungry as he eats 5-6oz at each feeding and doesn't act like he is hungry. I think it's just habit.

I should mention that he wakes often at night (I have a video monitor) but is able to put himself back to sleep without making any noise so he knows how to do it.

Help! 

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Re: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2012, 20:53:19 pm »
Hi there and welcome to BW :)

It's normal for a LO to learn to self settle at night before they can in the day.  You're also approaching the time when it's quite common developmentally for many LOs to take short naps.
There can be a difference between a 30 min nap (can be OT) and a 40 min nap (meaning UT) so if you want to post today's EAS we can have a look at the times for you.  The 1.5hr A time is good for his age but it could be that he might nap longer with an extra 10 mins A time (esp if more towards the later end of 3 months old).

Have you tried w2s (wake to sleep) on the nap?  Some people find it helpful.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=223809.0

I would track his E separately to keep it at 3hrs.  You want him to get good solid feeds in and not start snacking.  Just hold off to the 3hr marl unless he starts to get fussy.  If he fusses see if you can distract with a song or looking out the window etc for just a few more minutes and gradual over a few days you should be able to extend those feeds back to 3hrs.  You don't really want feeds associated with falling asleep or waking up because the naps are going to change as he gets older.


Offline ColtonsMomma

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Re: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2012, 02:49:33 am »
Thank you so much for your quick response.

Here is today's schedule. I followed your advice and pushed his feedings to three hours and he did great, but rather than a short EASY schedule, it was a little crazy today.

6:15 wake

E-6:20
A-6:40-7:40
S-7:40-8:20 (longest nap in days!)
A-8:30-9:20

E-9:20
A-9:40-10:30
S-10:30-11:00
A-11:00-11:50
S-11:50-12:10

E-12:20
A-12:45-2:00
S-2:00-2:25...I was going to try shh/pat but he woke early so I tried PU/PD but it just woke him up more. He was happy though!

E-3:20
A-3:45-4:35
S-4:35-5:00...did shh/pat aworstworked for another 15 minutes, got him up at 5:20 because I thought he was done sleeping but he looked exhausted (usually looks rested and happy), slept again in swing from 5:30-5:50.

E-6:00 (a little early, but I wanted to squeeze in another feeding, he usually feeds 7X per day but because we went three hours between feedings, there were only six so we'll see how he sleeps tonight!
A-6:25-7:35
S-7:35-8:00
A-bath time

E-8:30
S-9:00

Wow, this is a disaster!  Where do I start?!  

Offline ColtonsMomma

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Re: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2012, 02:57:28 am »
After the last post, I feel like I should supply you with a more normal EASY routine from before I started pushing his feedings back.

wake at 6
E-6
A-6:20-8
S-8:00-8:30

E-8:45
A-9:10-10:15
S-10:15-10:45

E-11:00
A-11:25-12:30
S-12:30-1:00

E-1:15
A-1:40-2:45
S-2:45-3:15

E-3:30
A-3:55-5:00
S-5:00-5:30

E-5:45
A-6:10-7:45

E-7:45
S-8:00-anywhere between 3:30 and 6:30. 

We definitely had more of a predictable routine going, but now I need help with stretching out the EASY cycles without disrupting the EAS.

Thank you!!!

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Re: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2012, 20:11:19 pm »
Hi there.  Thanks for posting the two EASYs.  It's helpful to see what's going on.

I may be wrong (forgive me if I am) but it looks to me like you are timing your A time from when E finishes.  I say this because your first post you said the A time is generally 1.5hrs but looking at your EASYs there are As way over this.
For example in your first EASY (reply 2) he woke from the first nap (of 40 min) at 8.20am  He next goes to sleep at 10.30am which is 2hr 10 later.  This is too much A for his age to get a good nap, I suspect OT caused the short nap of 30min.  Looking through the rest of that day there's another A of 1hr 50 and another of 2hr 10.
In your second EASY (reply 3) where you get lots of 30 min naps, which is what you posted about, the A times are: 2hr, 1hr 45, 1hr 45, 1hr 45, 1hr 45.

It's really important to start counting the A as soon as he wakes up.  A lasts from the moment he wakes until the moment he sleeps regardless of how the time is spent.  Time might be spent eating, changing, playing, winding down, and attempting to get him to sleep, it could include 30mins of shush/pat in the cot when he 'should' be asleep but this is ALL A time.

The other thing to note is that the EAS can and often does go more like EASAE.  It seems like a predictable routine to always E upon waking from a nap but if you keep doing it after short naps your LO will be snacking and never really get a good feed.  Also over time the feeding and napping routines change with age (for example at 4 months you'd be looking to move to a 4hr E, then in another few months dropping the CN...but LO will still need to E at regular intervals). It's not too hard to track the E times and the S times separately, I recommend you do.  If the number of feeds is now reducing because of the 3hrly feeds increase the quantity in each bottle (if you bottle feed) so that there is always roughly an oz left over, this means he has taken his fill.  If he missed out a bit today he will make up for it tomorrow.  If you are breast feeding allow a little extra time at the feed.

So, my suggestion is to closely track those A times, I'd start at giving 1hr 30 for all A times and let's see where it takes us.  You will need to make note of morning WU and plan for him to be asleep 1hr 30min later.  Then make note of what time he wakes from that nap and plan for him to be asleep 1hr 30min later.
At the same time feed on morning WU and then feed 3 hrs later, 3hrs later and so on.
If you see in your notes that there is going to be a clash of E and S (due to short napping) you can bring the E forward by say 15 mins to feed before the nap, if this is the case just try to keep him awake for the feed.

I think if you try this out you might start to see some longer napping.
xx


Offline ColtonsMomma

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Re: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2012, 21:41:27 pm »
Thank you so much!

I think I was just so focused on a clear EAS routine that I didn't think about tracking E and S separately.  Today I got a 45 minute and 55 minute nap out of him, which is a huge improvement!  Hopefully after a few days of tracking separately he will be back on track.

Thank you for your quick and helpful response!

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Re: Short naps in crib but sleeps great there at night.
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2012, 21:54:04 pm »
No problem.  I hope you continue to get improvement.
Keep us posted x