EASY with 45min naps?

[kellswastaken]

My daughter is 9 weeks old now and has napped longer than 45 minutes probably two or three times in her life. We started trying to follow EASY a few weeks ago but I'm having issues figuring out what to do when she wakes up from her naps.

I try to put her down after roughly 1h to 1h15min A time. She wakes up crying after 45min of napping and I try to shush her to sleep for 10-20mins. Once she's awake usually she cries until I feed her again, sometimes I can get her to go 15-30min after getting up before I have to feed her. She's formula fed and eats roughly 90-120ml per feed.

A sample day for us:

8 - E
9 - S
9:55 - wakes crying, try to shush back to sleep for 20min
10:30 - E
11:35 - S
12:15 - wakes crying, try to shush back to sleep for 15min
12:30 - E
1:55 - S (walk in stroller)
3 - wakes crying, head home
3:15 - E
4:20 - S
5:05 - wakes crying, don't try to shush
5:30 - E
fusses all evening until
7:30 - E
8 - S

Night wakings are usually between 12-1 and 3-5. I don't do a dreamfeed as I usually head off to bed myself as soon as I've sterilised bottles etc as I'm exhausted, so no point in doing it at 9pm I don't think?

Is 2-2.5 hours between feeds normal for a 9 week old? How can I get her to go 3 hours if she won't nap longer than 45min?

[Lindsay27]

Is she draining all of her bottles?  If so, I would recommend adding an ounce to make sure she's getting enough and the wakings are not hunger related.

45min naps are usually caused by either being under-tired or developmental and not being able to transition between sleep cycles.  I would recommend keeping her A time around 1.15hr if you can.  How is shh/pat going?  It can be a process but at this stage is your best tool for re-settling.  If you aren't able to resettle her, then reduce the next A time slightly so she's not OT for her next nap.

In terms of the DF, I never did it either so no worries about that.  If you would rather handle the NFs as they come then that's perfectly fine...I was also exhausted after sterilizing bottles and just wanted to go to bed!

[kellswastaken]

No, she hardly ever drains her bottle. I toss out so much formula

Shh/pat works for getting her to sleep but once she wakes after that 45min period I just can't get her back to sleep at all. How much should I reduce her A time by? I'm awful at reading cues and can't really tell when she's tired which is partly why I want a routine!

[Lindsay27]

How many oz is she taking in a day?  Just trying to figure out if it's a hunger issue or something else.

Is she happy when she wakes from a 45min nap or cranky/crying?

[kellswastaken]

700-900ml (sorry, on my phone during nap time so can't look up oz), split between 6-8 feeds. She always wakes up crying.

[Lindsay27]

Ok, I think in terms of feeds that she is getting enough in 24hrs so it's not likely a hunger issue.

If she wakes up happy then she is likely a little UT and you may need to extend her A time slightly.  45min naps are very common at this age, my DS didn't really beat them until 6 months or so    I would make an attempt to re-settle her, but not for more than maybe 15 or 20mins and if at that point she doesn't go back to sleep then just abandon the nap and try again for the next one.  If the nap is short, then reduce next A time by 10-15mins or so.

Sleepy cues are hard to read sometimes too, so don't beat yourself up about that...it takes a while to figure them out.