11 week old touchy/angel baby extending nap time and eating

[sunshinemummy]

Hi all,

I haven't been here for a few years as my son, who is now nearly 4, ended up a fabulous sleeper, eater etc after a lot of work using the BW routines, guidance and support of this forum. 

I now have an 11 week old who I have been loosely following routines with. Mainly feeding and not letting her fall asleep during feeding etc. I have also got shush pat working really well in so far as it only takes a couple of pats and she settles really well BUT...

She is waking after 45 minutes and only really has her full 11/2 to 2 hours in the car seat.  Now Xmas is over, visitors have gone and our son is back in nursery I am determined to get this short napping sorted.

She will settle back sometimes with shush pat and her soother (sometimes she falls to sleep without it depending on how tired she is) but I have to spend the majority of the time patting her as she keeps waking after 5 or 10 minutes.  She has a Ewan the sheep on pink noise I think it is (sounds like a heartbeat and various levels of white noise so may be the womb one). I watch for cues such as rubs her hand down her face from eyes to mouth, yawns and then I take her upstairs to put her down, normally about 50 minutes after getting up (sleeping bag, little cuddle for a minute or she gets cross and demands to go in her cot and then Ewan and some gentle patting) bingo until she wakes after 45 minutes generally a bit grumpy then we finally get up properly and she won't take much milk cos she's overtired! And so we start again.

She was quite good at night (she's just started waking for 2 hours in the middle of the night feed) but takes a while to settle in the evening cos she's so tired/hungry.

Any help on extending her naps would be great. I think she's touchy/angel cos she's so good on everything but the feeding she's quite particular about over stimulation whilst feeding and prefers quiet and darker surroundings. So we started to feed her in her bedroom with the lights off and just talking quietly to her but that doesn't always work either. Argh!

Thank you very much in advance and sorry for the long post.

Cx

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Her awake time is 50 minutes?  If that's the case, she's probably under tired going for her first nap so she only sleeps 45 minutes. Then she gets overtired because she hasn't had a proper sleep.  What do you think?

[sunshinemummy]

Thank you for your reply.  I did think it was quite short a time but I really hoped I was reading her cues correctly. :-( and she does seem to go over to sleep very quickly if she goes up before an hour awake time. Will definitely watch more closely 2moro morning and extend her awake time. Could the rubbing of her face be something else? She only really has about 2 half - 3 oz at breakfast time She Iis on aptamil lf and takes quite a while to feed sometimes. She was 6lb 6oz at birth and is following her curve.

Cx