Help! It's all going horribly wrong!!

[skatty]

My DD is exactly 16 weeks and her morning nap has gone out of the window!! She is getting over a cold but I am not sure this is the problem! She always goes down for her first nap between 1 hour and 1hr 15 after she wakes but the last 5 days she has been napping for 30-45 mins then waking wide awake. I try and put her dummy in and get her to sleep again but she just grins at me and starts constantly squealing for me!!! Yesterday I got her up and thought I would put her back down when she's tired again, within 15 mins she was screaming because she was exhausted and overtired so I spent my whole day trying to get her to nap. In the end the longest nap she had was in my arms in the afternoon (45 mins). By the evening she is overstimulated and has to scream her head off to wind down, the kind of screams that go silent and she cannot breath! She also wants to be held constantly and I have to wear her in a sling most of the time. She used to have a good 3 hour nap in the morning sometimes 4 and this suited us fine as she only tends to catnap in the afternoon. Her nights are problem free once she's unwound and gone to sleep and she sleeps through the night.

Do you have any suggestions? Should I increase her awake time first thing even though she is giving sleepy signals? Today I got her out and fed her in case it was because she was hungry but it has now been 30 mins since I put her back and she is still struggling to fall back to sleep. If it didn't make her so miserable I would accept the short naps but she gets so tired and upset!

I did wonder if it could be a growth spurt because she does seem to be hungry a little more frequently and seems to be draining the breast more but she is still sleeping through the night. She had a very definite growth spurt between Xmas and NY and at that time she was having a very late bedtime due to wanting to feed more.

Sorry it is such a long post any help or thoughts will be much appreciated x

[macdee]

This is the age where funny things happen to our babies, what with rapid development and growth spurts!! My daughter is just over 4mths and she had the same problem...well, still has but improved somewhat. Before she turned 4mths, she was napping fine even when I was transitioning her to 4hr easy routine. Then all of a sudden, her naps didn't get past the 45min mark (which is one sleep cycle) and like your lo, she'd grin and squeal...cute but a pain when you want her to sleep !

With the 4hr easy, our lo's are supposed to be up for 2hrs from wake up. It was very difficult because my lo would get so tired after only 1hr initially. So I stretched her awake time gradually until now, I wind down 15mins before the 2hr mark. And lo and behold, her naps stretched to 1.5-2hrs. I couldn't believe it! I thought she would be over-tired and stimulated but apparently, being up for the full 2hrs helps her to nap longer even though she becomes a huge crank.

Believe me, it's still difficult to keep her up but somehow she pulls thru. Of course on some days, there should be exceptions but it means you have to be ready deal w/ the short naps. When she's up, I just leave her in the cot and she'll babble and move around until she's tired for the next round of sleep. When she starts fussing and crying, I'll reswaddle her and put her back in and she generally goes back to sleep. Even though it doesn't always work, most of the time she does sleep.

I hope this has helped a little...

[skatty]

Thank you so much! I soon realised she is having a teething spell so have had 2 days of not being able to put her down! This morning I kept her up for 1hr 45 mins, she just got to the half hour mark and squealed but when I got there her eyes were shut and she just wanted her dummy so fingers crossed she'll be back to sleep soon!

I am now expecting  the 4 month growth spurt! 

Thanks again for your advice 

[macdee]

Well that's something if she went back to sleep!! Progress!!! My lo also went thru her teething spell just this last wk and it was quite a trying time as her sleeps just went down the drain. However, she's a lot better and has gotten back on track. Bonjela has been my best friend!

By the way, do you give her any juice during the day? That's another way to keep her up longer. I usually give about 2oz baby apple or pear juice (very slightly diluted even though the baby juice is already diluted) an hr or little over hr after her 11am feed. I found that this helped to curb the growth spurts...