11 week old, 30 min naps and following EASY

[hsunuks]

Hi!  I have been reading multiple posts on short naps, and while it's hard, it is good to know there are others out there having similar struggles.  My 11 week old was a good sleeper until 6 weeks and ever since has been up and down on taking good naps.  We were at a point where she was taking at least 1 longer nap in her bassinet (1.5-2 hrs) and the rest were 30 min naps (except 1 in my sling in the afternoon - see EASY below).  However, the past couple of days, she has resorted to only 30 min naps.  It may take up to 40 min to get her to go back to sleep (or sometimes she doesn't go back to sleep at all), unless I put her in my sling, in which she can then follow a 3-hr EASY.  When waking from a short nap, she is fussy and yawning, so I know that she is needing more sleep, but I feel frustrated that I can't help her learn to self-soothe to make that transition.  I have tried W2S with success initially, but it is no longer working. She can't stand shh-pat, so I have resorted to AP with a gentle bounce.  We do swaddle and now are using a white noise machine.

My question is 1) at what point do I give up and start A time (I'm exhausted!), 2) how do I continue to follow EASY when she may or may not be ready to E and  3) If I have tried for 40 min to put her back to sleep with no success, how does that factor into her A time?  I am just getting a more OT baby?  I also don't want to turn her into a "snacker", as she often doesn't nurse as well after a short S, and my milk supply goes up with a strong let-down if I nurse every 2 hrs. 

Here is a general EASY  that I follow:

E 6:30
A
S 7:45-8:15 (I work on extending the nap until 9:30)
E 9:30
A
S 10:45-11:15 (work on extending the nap, with little success)
E 12:30
A
S 1:45-3:30 (this nap happens in the sling with walking due to picking up DD1 from school)
E 3:30/4
A
S 3:45-4:15 (work on extending the nap with little success)
E 6:30/7
A (bath, book, swaddle, bed)
S
She then wakes up 1-2 times in the night (2 times only when her napping during the day is really bad)

I appreciate any help!

[ZacsMumme]

Looking at her eas I think she may need a bit more A time first Up to encourage a longer nap, what about trying 1.5 hrs and see if it helps. Hold for 3 days and if it doesn't help at all then you can revert back to 1hr 15.

It is super frustrating when they short nap. My first did this chronically for months and I used w2s/httj and lots of apop to help him. But on some days it was just stressful. You can for sure offer more naps with a slightly shorter A time between them on short nap days, they won't get OT if you keep the A time down so maybe 1hr15 between short naps.

Personally I only tried for 20 mins to resettle he  gave up. I'd probably see that as 10 mins A time given your in a dark I stimulating room

Easy becomes a bit more like EASAES so you can feel closer to the nap as long as you don't feed to sleep all the time your ok. Maybe feed then change the nappy and pd for a sleep yk?

Hugs

[hsunuks]

Zacs Mumme,

Thank you for your thoughtful response!  I tried lengthening the wind-down process and then by 1hr 20 min, I started the process of trying to put her down in the bassinet.  She fought it much harder and took much longer to go down (she was asleep by 1 hr 40min), but she was able to take a longer nap!  I will try this again and see if it makes a difference.  I did also try w2s and couldn't get her to even barely move until I turned her body, jiggled her a little and moved her leg!  About 10 min later, I heard a small cry and then quiet again.  If she takes another short nap, I will try to alter the EASY routine as you suggested.  It seemed like the BW book was pretty solid about the EASY routine, so I had a hard time figuring out how to adapt to the short naps. 

I really appreciate your help.  Hoping this continues to work.  I was feeling a little delirious during the consecutive short nap days!

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs, it is very exhausting having short naps all day and resettling isn't it!
Good luck for today with the slightly longer A, she will hopefully cope better with it over the next few days as her body adjusts. Longer WD and quiet A time near the nap helps.

You do have to tailor easy to work for you and your lo, often they don't do what the books suggest and tweaking their day a little can help. I think Tracey's routines were examples for a particular age group, however all LOs are different so don't feel your at all doing it wrong if your day looks a little different.