Help! 8 wk old stopped napping!

[sweetemma]

Hi, I had my 8 wk old on a 3 hour easy and it was going great.  Now for the past week she will not nap for more than 20 - 30 minutes.  I can see that she is very tired. She doesn't necessarily scream like an overtired baby, just whiny.  Now she won't eat regularily because she is so cranky!  Should I keep trying to put her back to sleep?  It takes so long that she is due to eat again, but she will only eat for 2 minutes and gets mad.  I realize that it is because she is so tired, and I just go in this circle!  Any ideas why her napping has gone out the window??  She goes down at night pretty well, so I am confused! Thanks for any help!

[lilylover]

Hi!  Not sure if I will be any help but I will give you congrats, sounds like you are doing a fantastic job with your lo.  I agree that it sounds as if you are going in a vicious cycle and that she isn't feeding too well because of tiredness.  Wanted to ask are you using the shush/pat method to help your lo to sleep?  Is it possible that she is overtired when you put her down so she isn't settling into sleep properly?  When my dd had a similar problem I introduced some music (sounds for silence cd is excellent!) which helped to not only wind her down but help her nap for longer.  Sometimes as well if I could catch my dd before she was fully awake- just stirring I could shush/pat her back into a deep sleep, and sometimes if I left her to whine for a little she would drift off to sleep on her own!

Sorry if I didn't help too much!  It is very common for most babies to go through phases where they just don't want to follow the plan.  Let me reassure you that you will worry and your dd will just probably fix everything herself.  Take care, and goodluck!

Sam

[MackMum]

Hi Sweetemma, haven't got any words of advice I'm afraid, just wanted to say that I completely understand your frustration - my DS is doing exactly the same thing for the past week or two (the short naps, cranky awake time and touchy feeds). So hard to know where to start fixing things when everything is interrelated. Looks like I have an intensive week or two ahead of me sitting in his room trying to extend his naps. Tedious and no Y time but I guess I don't have any anyway while he is so whiney! Good luck and I hope things improve asap for both of us!

Lilylover, that was a lovely post - v reassuring and gives us hope that things will improve. At the moment I'm finding it hard to stay positive as one after the other, things that were working are now going downhill, so your post was a little glimmer of hope, thankyou

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hello,

just to let you know that sudden short naps, after everything has gone well before, are often a sign that the lo is growing, and is therefore able to take more A (awake) time. She probably seems cranky b/c she's now having to work on short naps, when she's used to having good ones.

Have you tried keeping her up a little longer between naps? It might be worth a shot, but don't do it too suddenly. 10-15 mins increments a day are the way to go to prevent her getting overtired.

HTH