is it something im doin wrong? please help?

[LucySol]

my baby girl is almost 5 months and is beginning to become hard to settle at nap times.she used to just go straight to sleep by herself but has recently become very upset and so hard to settle and im wondering if she is not tired enough or overtired and this is why.she very rarely sleeps for longer than 45 mins no matter how i try to resettle her when she wakes she wont go back to sleep.i wonder if i show you her routine someone would be able to tell me what she should be doin for her age and what the problem could be.thanks in advance ,Lucy xxx


7.00  wakes and breast feed

8.30-9.00  sleep  (bout 30-45 mins)

9.30   short b.feed and breakfast

11.00 sleep  (30-45 ish mins)

12-12.30  b.feed and lunch

1 ish sleep (30-45 mins)

3.15 ish sleep (30-45 mins)

4.00 5oz formula and tea

5.30 sleep (most of the time but has recently started to resist this so i then get her to bed earlier)

7.00 breastfeed and bed

10.00 dreamfeed

[sanaya]

luv, i wish i could be of more help but i'm in the same boat as you. really stuggling.
suggestion, keep your evening A time low key and try bed time earlier?
is she waking at night? or does she sleep thru?

marking...curious to see what the others suggest.
hang in there. these ladies know their stuff! u are in good hands.
good luck
sanaya

[deb]

I'd suggest a gradual lengthening of her first A time, maybe 5 or 10 minutes every day or two, and see if that begins to make a difference in nap length.

When she wakes for the day, is that her first waking of the day, or does she wake before dawn looking for a pre-morning snack? If she does wake early (Josie was waking around 5), she may be waking tired at 7 and so be already tired, but not quite tired enough to stay asleep longer than 45 minutes.

[LucySol]

she sleeps 7pm-7am with a dreamfeed at 10pm.not really the evening sleep thats the prob that is fine its the daytime.not even doin 45 min naps today im lucky if its 30 mins!

[sanaya]

luv, i'd do anything to trade babies with you at the moment. she sleeps thru the night!!!! wow! im going to follow your EASY.

seriously now!
the morning A should be the longest and evening A time shortest.
have u tried W2S?

(do u use a pacifier?)

[LucySol]

yes and yes! have tried w2s and yes has paci.do you think im not keepin her up long enough?

[Elke]

My LO (3months 10 days) was taking 30-45 minute naps due to staying in a semi-awake state during her naps due to her paci. Even if the paci stayed in her mouth she wouldn't transition from one sleep cycle to another. The same day we took away her paci, she began aking longer naps. It's definately worth a try.
Also, my LO's 1st A time is already 2 hours, which yours should be able to do quite easily I think.

[jess, lukeys_mom]

i noticed your lo is on 3 solids meals/day, is this a recent introduction? sometimes this really affects sleep as digestion can be hard an tummy hurts, etc - particularly with cereals. do you think this could have something to do with it?

also in looking at her routine i am thinking that she probably has 1 or 2 too many naps during the day. i notice she is doing 5. ideally she would be doing EASY in 4 hour cycles, each including eating (milk), activity and sleeping. so if her e times are 7, 11, 3, and 7 then there would be a nap in each cycle, does that make sense? sometimes naturally short nappers would need a 4th nap in there to hold them until bedtime, but I think the 5 is probably too much and she is therefore catnapping all day. what do you think? x

[LucySol]

jess,thanks so much for your reply. solids started at 17 weeks she is now 21 weeks on advice of health visitor.she only has v small amounts each time an only veg or fruit not used cereals.

as for the catnapping yes i can see where you are comin from.the reason she has poss 2 in each cycle is because she only naps for such a short time she only seems able to last 1hr15-1hr30 after waking,or maybe i am reading her wrong?
should i be keeping her up longer even after such short naps? what is 'normal' for her age?  any help would be so much appreciated!

[jess, lukeys_mom]

there are definitely lo's who require more sleep than others but i am thinking that if there are so many naps they can only be catnaps. typical routines for her age can be found here: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10385.0 and typical amounts of sleep here: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85130.0

what i am thinking is that you should inch up her 1st activity time a small bit, even 5 min a day if that is all she can handle, so that her routine gets pushed up a little bit (with other A times also extending in small amounts per day). with a little luck her day sleep might consolidate a little to extend her naps.

one other strategy you may want to try is wake to sleep (w2s), are you familiar with that? here is some more info: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64168.0  i used to find my timing was crucial - so often i would go in there at the 29 minute mark and wait till he stirred and then pat pat pat away

[LucySol]

have tried w2s and she just sees me and smiles and wont go back to sleep! will try extendin the a time and see if that helps.i thought 45 minutenaps were bad enough but now it seems to becoming a pattern of 30 minutes!!

[Elke]

I have just been through all of that. First, for 8 weeks they were only 45 minute naps then they became 30 min due to OT accumulated. One recomendation that was given to me was that I wasn't keeping my LO up long enough, especially for the 1st nap.
What I would recommend doing once your lo gets out of her OT cycle (when she at least starts doing 45 minute naps again) is try extending her first nap by 10 minutes. If you get a 45 minute nap it means that the A time was not long enough, if you get a 30 minute nap it means it was too much. I would imagine that within a few days you will have gradually lengthened her first A time and she will then take a long first nap. If you are unable to find the right A time like me for a long time, I would get rid of the paci.

Here is a really long thread about all of my LO's sleep problems. I have been given a lot of great advice here, includng the one I just tole you which was given to me by Peek-a-boo:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=137154.msg1509886#msg1509886

[jess, lukeys_mom]

Thanks Elke for sharing that and helping out other members!

SOL137 here is a link to some info about A times: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=128419.0