14 weeks and little napping- Many questions

[sayds19]

My 14 week old is on the EASY plan (started 2 weeks ago), but I am having significant problems because she will only nap for 45 minutes. She is great about going down- I am able to put her in her crib awake and she will put herself to sleep, but like clockwork she wakes up 40-45 minutes after she goes down. The strange thing is, is that she doesn't wake up crying, she is happy as a clam and "wide awake". However, after being up for 10-15 minutes she is miserable and cannot get back to sleep on her own. Even if I rock her back to sleep, she never really goes back into a deep sleep- her eyes are open a tad. I have extended the nap by putting her in her swing, but I know that is not a long term solution. Since she is not crying when she wakes up I don't know if I should do the shush-pat or PU/PD or neither. I do not believe that her waking up after 45 minutes is the result of her being over-tired or over stimulated because I am very on top of putting her down before the sleeping window closes. I tried the wake-to-sleep and it has not worked- it just woke her up. She is also having issues at night, but that is a topic for another thread.  I have to go back to work in three weeks and I so want her to be napping during the day and sleeping at night. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Zoey]

Hi there!

What Easy is she on 3h, 3.5?   Can you post your exact routine pls - just as it is.

She is too young for PUPD but you can use pat/shh - I would suspect something in the routine needs a tweaking though.

How many days did you try wake to sleep?  Is her room blackened?  Is she swaddled?

If your goal is eventually indep sleep, you may want to think about taking the swing and rocking out of the sleeping equation.

Look forward to hearing back from you
Zoe

[sayds19]

We are on a 4 hour EASY- I started out on the 3 hour (the same napping problem has been happening since birth), but moved to the 4 hour in anticipation of returning to work.

Our routine is as followed:

6am- wakeup
6:15- Eat (5oz +/- 1/2 oz.)
6:45- Activity
7:45- Sleep (Swaddled, sleeping in a room with shades pulled, and I usually sit and rock her for about 5 minutes and put her to sleep awake.
8:30- Awake
8:30-9:15- Try to get her back to sleep (usually doesn't work)
9:15-10:15- Awake (tends to cry a lot and is in overtired mode)
10:15- Eat

This process continues until her 8pm bedtime and then her dreamfeed is at 10:30. Her nights are okay, but sometimes erratic- I suspect because she is overtired.

I tried the wake-to-sleep for 2 days for all naps and when I stir her she wakes up. I suppose I should experiment with different times, but I felt horrible waking her up even 5-10 minutes before she would have woken herself up since she is not getting a lot of sleep already.

[Zoey]

A few more questions, trying to get the best picture.

When she goes down for the nap, or bedtime - does she go right to sleep or is it a fight?  Is your goal for her to sleep independantly?  Does she have a paci?  Does she have reflux or any medical thing? 

8pm is kinda very late if her wake is 6am.  You want to aim for a 12 hour day and a 12 hour night at this age.  If she wakes at 6am, then a suggested bedtime would be 630ish pm.

How many night wakings is she having and how many of those are feeds?  When did you move to the 4 hour Easy?

Thanks!
Zoe

[sayds19]

When I put her down for her nap it takes her about 5 minutes or less (she typically moves a little and stares into space) to fall asleep and she doesn't fight going to sleep unless she is overtired (she fights it once she has awoken from her 45 minute nap and is tired again). My goal for her is to take a longer nap so that she is not in a grumpy mood once she gets up. She does have a paci, but will spit it out and not wake up about 10 minutes or so after she falls asleep. She has no medical conditions.

She wakes up at about 2 to eat and then goes back to sleep. Between 2-6 she wakes often and has some trouble getting back to sleep.

We moved to the 4 hour EASY last week because I have to return to work and I wanted to get her in a stable routine and work out the kinks before then.

She eats at 6pm and then has her "A" time and then heads to bed after that- around 8- at which time she goes to sleep without complaint. I would eventually (soon) like to have her sleeping throught the night 8-6 with the dream feed, but I don't know when she will be ready for this.

[Zoey]

Hey there!

As far as sleeping through the night,  not sure when that is going to happen.  Babies sometimes need 1-2 night feedings until they are 1yr old. I do not think there is much you can do to speed that up any.  She will most likely stop waking in the night to eat, when she is ready.  She may give you some clues, like drinking less when she wakes for the night feeding.  Not to say it never happens, but at this age most still need at least one feed in addition to the DF.

About bedtime.  If she is on a 4 hour easy, going by your routine - I am guessing her catnap is around - 4p or 5p?  I'll guess that it's for about 40 mins or so?  So, she is then awake from 440 or 540 til 8pm, this is a really long A time before bed for 14 weeks. At 3months average night sleep is 10 hours but that is with 5 hours of day sleep. 
On a 4 Hour easy, typically there are 2, 1.5-2hour naps and 1 catnap of 40mins approx.  She isn't taking good naps - so she may not be getting even 4 hours of day sleep.  So if you add the late bedtime - she may not be getting enough total sleep.  If you feel its working for you, well then don't change it - but I would be curious to see if her naps would be better if she was getting more sleep at night. It may make a difference in the length of her naps, to get more sleep at night.

If you want indep sleep you may want to stop rocking, it may become a prop.  You want her to get sleepy and fall asleep in the crib to associate that feeling with the crib not your arms, and not rocking - or she may grow to need them both to fall asleep. 

Try experimenting with pat/shh and find a form of it that she finds soothing.  Do your wind down minus the rocking, you can try sitting and singing or talking instead, put her in the crib with your phrase, then you can leave or duck out of sight.  If she goes off to sleep fabulous, if she cries a proper cry, go to her roll her on her side and begin pat/shh.  P/S her until she starts to settle and seems to be melting into the mattress, slow your patting and stop shhing, gradually slow the patting as she is settling more, when she seems to be ok, stop but keep your hand on her for a moment, then let go and watch.  If she is going off to sleep, you can duck out of site or leave.  If she wakes at 45 mins, you can use this method to help her settle again so she can go back to sleep.

Also, you may want to try wake to sleep again.  I use method 2 - go in 10 mins before she usually wakes - so in your case try going in at 35 mins into the nap go in and gently stir her by gently touching her cheek, when you see her stir - then leave.

I think the key may be with the bedtime

I hope this helps some!

HUGS
Zoey