awake times vary?

[twogirlsmommy]

dd2 is 6 weeks tomorrow and just starting to stay awake more but it is such a struggle as she is a sleepy girl. My question is should A times be getting shorter as the day goes on or stay the same?  Today she started out with 2 hrs a time, then 1 1/2 hrs a time and this last time she barely made it an hour and that was with a lot of tears from me, her and her sister.  So basically our easy for today looks like this.

Awake: 6:45
E: 7
A:7-9
S:9-10
E: 10
A: 10-11:30
S: 11:30-1
E: 1
A:1-? (I have put her in the car seat as we need to leave at 3 and I don't want to have to wake her but now it sounds like she may be pooping    I was aiming for nap @ 3-4 and then E @ 4.

Any tips?

[*Ali*]

If LO is doing full naps then I would actually expect the A times to get longer rather than shorter. But after any shorter nap of an hour or less then it is normal for them to be unable to make a full A time. A full A time at this age would be closer to 1hr15 so 1hr30 may be too much even after a decent nap and I would think 2hrs would certainly be too much. If LO is doing short naps one after the other then OT is probably creeping in and A time would tend to get shorter as the day goes on.
Have you seen this FAQ? Average A times and "Is my baby ready to increase A time?"

HTH

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I know we didn't do that long of A time with DD2, but I do remember her have a weird easy that got shorter as the day went on when she was on a "3 hour" easy...and for sure not from OT as she was a champ night sleeper once we got her days and nights sorted and only had a bit of trouble with naps around 5 months.

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Bm- just wanted to tell u I'm totally impressed by your easy!! You are doing a great job!!! Xx

[Kiwi_one]

My older girls' A times reduced as the day went on, too. Both of them needed much shorter last As. That being said, having such long As -- as Ali pointed out -- could well be too much and causing an exaggeration of the effect. How does she go down at bedtime? If she's OT by the end of the day, you should see the effect in her night sleep.

An hour A time at 6 weeks is nothing to worry about in itself. Zelie's done around 55 minutes A until today and finally (at 11 weeks) seems to be stretching it out to 60-65 minutes. Even though her A times are consistent, the naps get shorter as the day goes on but I think it's her way of cluster feeding. Not that that helps your situation particularly, just saying that good routines don't always follow the textbook

[twogirlsmommy]

Nicole Please don't be jealous! I'm like a chicken with my head cut of and I spend more time trying to keep her awake then helping her sleep lol.  ANd most likely I will make myself nuts with this like I did with dd1 especially when the pedi starts in with the well its time to start sleep training bull.  I also have soooooo much guilt about being a crappy mom to dd1.

I was wonder whether it was resulting in OT or UT.  When we put her to bed she cries, and flails and spits out the paci and it can take up to an hour for her to settle.  She is not a fan of shhhh, pat or really any intervention unless you are going to hold her and then when you put her down she just starts flailing again.  Maybe OT instead of UT like I thought?  She only feeds 2 times a night and she does sometimes need multiple replugs during the night although that's mostly b/c I try and see if she is truly hungry or not and it doesn't happen often.  Example is last night she fed at 11:45, then woke up at 2:45, I tried replugging and resettling and she went back to sleep till 4 when I just fed her.  She then woke at 6:50 b/c dh had a sneezing fit while getting ready for work (he woke me too lol)

I also noticed that when she finally does sleep she pulls the blanket up over her head (yes she has a blanket, she also has a sleep positioner b/c she is a side sleeper due to mild reflux.  Both we used with dd1 also so please don't shoot me)  We are constantly checking her with the blanket and moving it off her face but with dd1 that was a sure sign of OS and to this day she sleeps falls asleep with her lovey on her face.

So today looks like:
Awake: 6:50
Eat:7
Sleep: 8-10 (hopefully) 

She sleeps downstairs in the pack in play for most naps and falls asleep independently although sometimes if she loses the pacifier I will need to resettle.  I feel bad b/c with dd1 I was admiant that she sleep in her bed and yada yada but with a spirited touchy monkey of an older sister I can't keep running up and down the stairs if I put dd2 to sleep upstairs b/c dd1 gets sooo upset so I feel guilty about that but  I figure as long as I am getting and E and A and some sort of S then I'm it doesn't matter where it happens.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Urgh! I'm with you on the sleepy baby front - I'm having to wake jack for all his feeds and keeping him awake for them is a major mission (which i usually fail at), even after a 2 hour nap. 

Anyway, just wanted to add that I thought jack could handle long a times cos he's always been happy on them; slept well at night and been fine in the evening but i found the same as you - a times got shorter as the day went on.  Jack was getting harder to settle later in the day as well.  I'm trying to aim for 60- 75 minutes a time now and that's working out as a much more even day and he's settling for bed well now too. Nights are no better though!