Author Topic: 7 week old not napping!  (Read 1070 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline LuluBaby

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
7 week old not napping!
« on: March 06, 2016, 17:16:43 pm »
My daughter is 7 weeks old and I still have yet been successful on putting her on a consistent EASY routine because of her short and unpredictable naps. With my first, I was able to put her on a routine from the start but I'm having much more of a difficult time this time around.

Here's what our schedule looks like.
M-F:(busy as I'm on maternity leave and have to drop of older daughter to school)
6:30 - E/A (wake up/ eat/ diaper change/hang out while mom gets ready and makes breakfast for big sis)
7:30 - S (sleeps in car as we drop off big sis. 30min drive then we get out to walk her to class then 30 min drive back. We get home around 9am + or - as I usually will get stopped by parents since i normally teach at the same school :) )
9:30 - E/A
10:00 - S she's usually ready to nap as her sleep was interrupted earlier in the day.
From then on it varies depending on whether I was able to help her fall back asleep after her 30min nap.
12:30 - E (if not sooner to help her fall back asleep which is what usually happens)
2:30 - We leave to pick up big sis then head over to grandma's (a must for my oldest) (if she's sleeping she'll continue to nap the entire time until I wake her up to eat if she's been napping for a long time. If she wasn't asleep, she'll fall asleep during the drive and will stay asleep at my mom's until I wake her to eat in this case a little later than 3:30)
3:30 - E
4:00- A
4:30 ish - S (30 min as we head home. If we're lucky... Or else it's tears)
5:00 ish - E
6:00 - Bath time/Bed Time Routine
6:30 ish - last feed then off to sleep
She will then wake up to eat around 1am or later, then usually starts her grunting session (posted on other thread) around 4-6am.

On the weekend I try sticking to the same schedule (minus the driving around) but instead of napping better, she naps worse! No more than 30minutes each time! Yesterday we might have gotten 4 30min naps ALL day! I'm pretty good at picking up on sleep cues too so I don't feel like I wait too long to put her down. She falls asleep easily too. I turn on sound machine, swaddle her give her a kiss and she falls asleep on her own. When she wakes up after 30 min there are times where she tries to fall back asleep on her own (not always successfully) or we have to go up (sometimes more than once or twice or...  :( )

Right now, for example, I put her down at 7:30am (swaddle + sound machine) she fell asleep on her own within 10/15 minutes and then woke up around 8:15. It is now about to be 8:45 and she's been trying to fall back asleep on her own and closes her eyes for a couple minutes and opens them back up fusses a little but can't settle back to sleep... I have her the paci and she closed her eyes right away and woke up after a couple minutes. She's now starting to fuss more and this is where the going up and down the stairs to give her the paci starts hoping she will fall asleep before her next feeding (so that she has had a nap longer than 30min!) which is at 9:30.

Soooo... What do I need to change? (Sorry for the lengthy post!)

Offline lauradj

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 61
  • Posts: 2003
  • Location: British Columbia
Re: 7 week old not napping!
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2016, 04:27:12 am »
Hi there!  Most babies at 7 weeks are awake for between an hour and an hour and 15 minutes.  It sounds to me like your daughter needs to be awake a little longer to get a more restful sleep.  Your schedule is quite busy so it sounds like short naps might work for you right now, no?  I do think the extra little bit of A time will likely help though.


Offline LuluBaby

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: 7 week old not napping!
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2016, 14:06:58 pm »
I'll try that.Thank you!!

Offline LuluBaby

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: 7 week old not napping!
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2016, 19:12:58 pm »
When she wakes up after 30 minutes, how long should I give her to try to settle back to sleep (with or without my help) before taking her out of bed?

Offline lauradj

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 61
  • Posts: 2003
  • Location: British Columbia
Re: 7 week old not napping!
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2016, 21:35:59 pm »
I would wait until she cries for you.  I've found that if my DS2 wakes early but is left to just chat a bit in his crib he will sometimes just nod off to sleep again.  I would recommend waiting until she starts to get upset so that she can start to figure out how to put herself back to sleep if she wakes up.