Can Growth Spurt ruin naps???

[becky1969]

Help!!!! My 12 week old was a FANTASTIC napper up until 3 days ago! Now he's napping like CRAP and it's ruining our days!

Here's what's changed:

3 days ago we:

1) started a 10:30 dream feed
2) started sleeping thru the night every other night (he's waking for a 3/4 am 7 oz feed every other night *I think* because of 3 month growth spurt

Before this, I was able to put him down for naps, and he'd sleep 1.5-2 hours NO PROBLEM! Every once and awhile he'd wake up at the 45 minute mark and I'd have to shush pat, and he'd go right back down.  However, 2 days ago, I had even eliminated the 45 minute thing! He was sleeping straight thru and it was marvelous! Now all of a sudden, I'm up and down the stairs 20 million times. he's just not sleeping. It's driving me NUTS! Help! He's such a good sleeper, I KNOW he knows how! Is it something I'm doing? We haven't changed anything, so the only thing I can figure is it's the growth spurt. But he's getting upset so early in the nap it's hard to imagine that he's hungry already?

PLEASE help me as I'm really scared that we're never going to nap well again! Our good naps were making our days so pleasant! That with sleeping thru the night was making me sooooo hopeful, and now I feel despondent again!

[Mom to M&M]

Please don't be despondent - we'll figure this out! Can you post his routine and we'll see what we can tweak? He may just need slightly longer (or shorter) A times and/or something else. Also, are you bottle or breastfeeding? Why do you suspect growth spurt - does it appear to be hunger that's waking him? We'll get it back - most babies hit a nap bump around 3 months - so you are not alone!

[Aarismom]

Hi there!

Yep, sounds like a growth spurt to me! Never fear, you'll get your schedule back...until you get closer to 4 months What usually happens during a growth spurt is that BEFORE the growth spurt, naps are pretty much up in the air. Your lo is in a feeding frenzy to stock up on all those calories needed to grow. Then the actual growth spurt happens...and suddenly you find yourself wondering if he's getting too much sleep. Babies only grow when they sleep. So while this is a "pull your hair out" time...it should (hopefully) get better suddenly in the next day or 2. Just roll with it the best you can.

As you get closer to 4 months, I'm gonna warn you now, nap schedules go out the window. Day sleep develops, and it's completely normal for your lo to suddenly start taking short naps around the clock. Unfortunately, it has been known to last up to around 5 months, but it definately does pass. You may be one of the lucky moms that don't have much of a problem with it. But if you have a rough time of it, there are a lot of moms here that can definately sympathize and help!

Hope this passes quickly for you!

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[becky1969]

Sorry, had dentist appt!

Our day has been very much on the 3 hour EASY schedule, typically starting around 7 am (especially since we've started the 10:30 dream feed).

E/A last around 1 hr 15 minutes. Then he'll nap until the 3 hour mark and we'll start all over again. I've found that I need to start transitioning to sleep right at the hour mark or he'll have difficulty going down for his nap. The thing that is SO troubling is that just a few days ago I was so proud of myself because I'd just started putting him in his crib at Stage 3, and he was putting himself to sleep and skipping the 45 minute start and just sleeping straight through the whole nap! We went from sleeping through beautifully to sleeping 20 minutes at a time and then crying. I'm so frustrated.

Is it something *I'm* doing wrong? Or is it the growth spurt? Since he's not sleeping well, I will admit that right now I'm rocking him all the way to sleep because that's the way I'm best able to get him to stay asleep right now.

I'm wondering with all that extra food in his system if he's just having some trouble digesting. Our son has some breathing troubles - diagnosed as tachypnia - that no one is able to figure out what is caused by. We've had extensive testing and know it's not a heart or lung issue, but we have noticed that he does seem to sleep better when inclined. So maybe I'll just have to put up with this for a few days.

Any suggestions? I really can't keep running up and down the stairs! The thing that gets me is that he never was a 20 minute napper before! He was always one to sleep at least 45 minutes at a go, and then go right back down for another 30-60 minutes! Now I'm lucky to get him to sleep for 20-30 minute stretches! I just don't understand what changed in a day!

[becky1969]

Someone on the A board has suggested moving to a 3.5 to 4 hour EASY routine. Do you think this might make a difference? I'm just not sure if a longer A is what he needs or not. It seems like he can't go longer, but maybe I'm misreading his cues. It's so hard when they'r this little and they only control their heads! All I can really go by is yawning and fussiness. For Owen, I've noticed by the time we get to the yawn it seems like it's too late. I've been going more by if he's getting kind of quiet with his activity, or kind of cranky/fussy. If the activity no longer seems fun, then I'm guessing he's tired. Maybe I need to have a longer wind down?

How long is an appropriate wind down time for a 3 month old? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? If he's happily awake for an hour, is a wind down time of 30 minutes too long? Or 15 minutes too short?

[becky1969]

We're on 3 hour easy. Wake-up is somewhere between 6 & 7

Today, he woke up at 6:15

E 6:15.
A 6:30-7
windown 7-7:15
S 7:30-8:15 then he woke up crying. I shush/pat back to sleep by 8:30. Now here's where everything goes haywire. It used to be that he would go right back to sleep for another 45 minutes to an hour. Now he's up every 10-15 minutes!! It's driving me CRAZY!

The rest of the day is nearly identical with 3 hour routine of E, A, S. We almost always start our windown after an hour of being up. Windown is about 15 minutes, and then it takes about 10-15 minutes for him to go to sleep. Naps used to be 1.5-2 hours. naps are now goofy, and I never know how long they are going to be. Where he used to stay down the entire time, he might cry 15-20 minutes in, at the 45 minute mark, or every 10 minutes after the 45 minute mark.

After the 4 pm bottle, we try to keep it to a catnap of 45 mintues, then it's Bath, bottle, and bed by 7:30/8 pm. We do a dream feed at 10:30/11 pm (never later than 11). He's been sleeping thru the night until 6/7 am. This morning he woke at 5:30, but I just reswaddled, gave him his paci, and he went back to sleep until 6:15.

Any suggestions? I just don't understand why he went from being an EXCELLENT napper to a crappy one!

[becky1969]

Someone else suggested extending A time, so I did earlier this morning. Lo and behold he took a 2.5 hour nap after his 9:00 bottle! Without a 45 minute jolt and everything! I couldn't believe it! I ended up extending his wake time to 1.5 hours, with a top-up right before bed (because he had a 6 am wake-up, and so he didn't take a very big 9:30 bottle). I'm ecstatic! I don't know if this is the answer, but this is the best nap he's had in DAYS! Maybe even weeks, because if I look back in my logs I think his naps have slowly been deteriorating, but I've been in denial (I didn't want to admit my good sleeper wasn't a good sleeper any more).

We're having activity time right now, and have just hit the 1 hour mark. I'm going to see how the next 30 minutes go, and see how he does. i'm very excited about this possibility though! My new question, though, is if we move to a 3.5 or 4 hour EASY how do I get enough bottles in him before the 10:30 dream feed? So far he had a bottle when he woke up at 6:15, one at 9:00 (top up around 10:30), and then another one just now at 1:30. Seems to me we'll only get 1 or 2 more bottles in? How do I schedule the rest of his day?

[becky1969]

Thank you so much! I've been waking for feeds up until now, but since the last few days he's been napping for CRAP I sort of wanted to see what he'd do if left on his own today! and I was so surprised at a 2.5 hour nap!

The nap he's on now went to crap, but that's OK. We're going to have a feed now to stay on schedule, and see how the night goes. But he went down easily for the nap. Just swaddled and went to sleep like he used to! no fussing and fighting. I'm so excited! I may get my days back again! This AND a baby who sleeps through the night...I may be in heaven!!! I'm sure I'll be back with questions. Our main problem right now is evenings. I think a 7:30 bedtime is just too late for my baby. He seems too fussy by then. But that may be a question for another time. THANK YOU so much for your help!

[becky1969]

Well, I should have listened. I kept him up longer in the AM, to see if he'd get a longer AM nap (was only going 45 minutes in morning). He did - slept about 1 hr 15 minutes. However, he's up down/up down now with his PM nap. I know we'll get this figured out, but here's my problem: My LO is just not able to stay awake long enough to make it the 3.5 hours between bottles AND have short naps! He needs to nap, dang it! So, how do I find the balance between the amt of time he needs to be awake and the amt of time he needs to nap without making everything go haywire? It's so confusing, and so frustrating since on 3 hour EASY I had a baby who was napping so wonderfully, eating on schedule, etc.! Now I have a baby who's naps are all whacky, I feel like I'm so confused about when he should eat, and I'm just a mess. My DH is making fun of me because he says every morning I wake up saying "OK. I figured out what I did wrong yesterday." I don't want to live like that!!!

So, today's schedule is like this:

6:45 wake up

E 7:15 (I was a little slow on the uptake this morning. Should have started my E a little earlier!
A 7:45-8:45
S 8:45-10:15

E 10:30
A 11:00-11:55
S 11:55-2:00

E 2:00
A 2:30-3:30
S 3:30-5:00

E 5:00
A 5:30-6:30 (includes bath, getting ready for bed)
6:30 final bottle
6:45 book and tuck in for beddy-by

I like a 6:45 bed time. We did that last night, and he went to sleep so much easier. That's more in line with what we were doing a few weeks ago, before we started doing the dream feed. I think it's in keeping with my LO's temperment more. Do you think this is OK? I ealize we have a long nap at the end of the day, but I think that's OK for my LO as he really gets tuckered out by his bath, so I think it will give him the energy he needs for the end of the day activities. I'm also a little worried about having 2 bottles so close together at the end, but this is the best I can do. He just isn't hungry at the 3 hour EASY any more, but definitely isnt ready for 4 hours yet.  I'd love to hear suggestions as I'm so confused at this point!