wake to sleep help

[mpac]

I have a five month old girl and for the past 3 days she has been waking up after 40 minutes rather than her usual hour and a  half naps.  i have been doing shush pat and pu/pd in combination and it has worked in the past but the last few days when she wakes up there is not much i can do to get her to go back to sleep.  i have kept her in the room for the time that she is supposed to be napping 1hr30mins and i am shushpatting and pu/pd but her eyes are wide open the whole time.  today i tried doing the wake to sleep for the first time and it was a nightmare.  i sat with her for the next hour trying to help her go back to sleep.  it was a complete backfire.  of course when i take her out of her crib she is grumpy and whiny so i know she is tired.

i read in another section that wake to sleep does not work for children that have soothers.  My daughter uses a pacifier to fall asleep, should i try to put her to sleep without a soother.  would that help?

someone mentioned that perhaps she is too young for wake to sleep.  is this the case?

I have been swaddling my daughter since birth and find that she sleeps better when she is swaddled, but could it be time to stop swaddling?  i feel that i am at whits end and don't know what to do.  I am looking forward to any suggestions.  Thanks

[*Natasha*]

Could you post your routine? Perhaps her awake time needs to be extended?

[mpac]

My schedule for the day was something like this:

6-7 wake up (somewhere between)
Feed cereal, then breast
Awake for 1h30 - 2hrs depending on how tired she is
8:30ish nap
10:00 breastfeed
11:30 food
12 nap
1:30 breastfeed
3:00-4:30 nap
5:00 food
6:30 breastfeed
7:00 sleep for the night

NOW (the last few days)
6:00 awake, cereal and breastfeed
8:00 nap
8:40 awake, but keep in the room shushpatting and pu/pd until 9:30 at least
9:45 breastfeed
11:00 nap
11:40 awake but keep in room until 12:30
12:30 eat cereal, then breastfeed
1:00 nap
1:40 awake, but keep in room until 2:30
2:30 breastfeed
3:30-4:10 nap
5:00 eat supper cereal or fruit or veg
5:30 bath
6:15 prep for bed, breastfeed
6:45 in bed
6:45-7:15 it took this much time to fall asleep.  I gave her the soother and eventually she didn't want it and continued to fuss.  i shushpatted and pu/pd and she eventually went down without a soother.

Since she has been taking shorter naps she has been sleeping well (the last 2 nights) getting a 10:30 dreamfeed and going until 6ish.  The 40 minute naps are brutal though because she is grumpy and unhappy which makes my days not so nice.  I keep her in her room because I don't want her to think that it is time to wake up.  I have a single bed in the room and whe sucks her soother with her eyes wide open.  I lay on the bed hoping she will sleep.  when she cries i calm her with a shushpat and pu/pd but she did not fall back asleep.  So frustrating.  She was great last week, then suddenly a change.  Parenting is so tough!!!

[babynat]

Okay - you and I are in the EXACT same position.  My LO is 5 months, uses a paci to go to sleep and is swaddled also.  I have been struggling with the following:  extending 45 min naps, whether to wean the pacifier, whether to wean the swaddle, plus, she is up 3-4 times at night out of habit.  Our schedules during the day are almost identical.  My LO, however, gets up during the night quite a bit, but not for her paci - just out of habit.

I have posted several times to try and find some suggestions and I am currently on Day 4 of Wake to Sleep.  However, the more I read on W2S, the more I am confused.  At first, I was stirring her after 30 minutes, but that didn't seem to work, now I am stirring her after 15 minutes of sleep.  I have had some success with that, but not much.  I read the link that directs you how to do W2S and has success stories, but from that I couldn't get a feel for what time to actually stir her.  Some say 30 minutes into sleeping, some say 5 min before she usually wakes, some say after 15-20 minutes of sleep.  So, I just don't know. 

What cues are you looking for to indicate whether you should stop swaddling?

One other thing, I also tried to extend her awake time.  She was generally awake 1.75 hours.  I tried to go to 2 hours and had a very tired and cranky baby as a result. 

If you want to, we can try and work through this together as we have such similar situations.  Hopefully we can get some great advice and clarification.  I am also sooo frustrated.