Author Topic: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse  (Read 2495 times)

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Offline 1tamara1

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Hi everyone, i have posted on here previously and have found it invaluable, especially when my confidence is down :-(. I have been following EASY since day 1 and was working really well. She was napping for two hours and sleeping really well at night, even slept for 8 hours at night! But the last week or so she is becoming a nightmare with napping. The only thing that has changed is that our routine had been upset a little as we were out alot last week.

When it comes to napping they were gradually getting shorter and now she is really hard to settle at all. She has now settled after a ling stint of shhh/pat but I can't keep doing this as by the time I finished it's nearly time for her to wAke again. I sm wondering if she I'd overstimulated, I have been keeping her up for longer and wondering if it'd for too long at about an hour and 20 mins?

Now that we have got into the short nap habit she wakes after an hour then by the time she is due for a feed she has been up for too long and the vicous cycle of OT begins so we are all out of whack with EASY. So my questions are: if she wakes early do I leave her in her cot until it's time to feed and if I do, do I try and settle? When she does have playtime once she is done I take her down to her room and settle then put her to bed but then wakes not long after. She also sleeps in her own cot in her own room. Our day at the moment goes like this:

E 8am
A 9am
S try to get her to sleep at 9.30 but struggle until next feed

E 12.30
A 1
S again struggle from 1.15 to get to sleep

E 4pm
A 4.30
S 5

E 6pm
S goes to sleep straight away as she doesn't really wake for this short feed

E 9pm
A bath and then bed where she can sleep anywhere to 3 or 5

last night for the first time in a ling time she woke twice, once at 1 and again at 5 and I date say it was because she was so unsettled during the day crying.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated, I am losing my confidence fast and becoming paranoid each time I put her down :-(   

Offline Shiv52

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2010, 11:29:26 am »
Can I just check your E times? 

If she feeds at 8am, is her next feed not until 12.30? 

Is she still on a 3 hour feeding schedule at 9 weeks?   Are you bfing or FF? 





Offline 1tamara1

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2010, 11:43:22 am »
She is now ff and is on 3.5 EASY sorry i mucked up the time! Each time she feeds she drinks about 6oz on average, sometimes more in the morning. Thanks

Offline Shiv52

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2010, 14:09:23 pm »
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.msg476652#msg476652

2 months 1 hour and 15 - 20 mins
3 months 1 hour and 20 - 30 mins

About 9 weeks you're looking typically at 1hr15-1hr20 A time so I think your A time is spot on.

How many days have you been back to normal since your busy week last week?  Maybe its just taking her a bit longer to get back on track?  Normally waking after an hour and not resettling for us would be UT and would indicate needing a bit more A time but wouldn't want to recommend that given your routine has been a bit up and down (we all have to get out and live though so don't beat yourself up about that!)

If she wakes early I would try and resettle but for sanity I did ssh-pat for about 10 minutes and then just got her up.  And did shorter A time for next one. 

HTH xx





Offline 1tamara1

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2010, 06:57:45 am »
well it has only been two days but I am out again tomorrow at the maternal nurse but that should be all for the day. Today she has had two good naps whilst we were out but I gave her a pacifier those two times and she spat it out once she was well asleep. For her afternoon nap after an hour and ten I took her into her room, swaddled her and put her down and read to her.  She yawned a couple of times which I took as tired signs but nothing so I shh/pat for an hour and  she still isnt asleep! The first time I did for 15 minutes and she woke crying, second time for ten and she woke crying.

I then got her up to see if she was hungry and she had a little bit of food. I have re-settled her with a pacifier and she still hasnt settled. I get frustrated but then think I need to persevere. Can you let me know if there is anything I am doing wrong or suggest a schedule to help her wind down? Now she is so overtired she wont settle at all :-(

thank you

Offline 1tamara1

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2010, 06:59:37 am »
one more thing, when she is this overtired and not due for a feed for another hour, is it best to get her up, try and re-settle then try again? I dont want the 'getting her up' to become a propo to help her sleep.

Offline Shiv52

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2010, 09:00:15 am »
I think it may just take a few more days of consistency to get her back on track. 

Can you let me know if there is anything I am doing wrong

You're certainly not doing anything wrong!  You're a great mummy who is doing her best!  That was great about the two good naps yesterday!  I used a dummy at that age and I found it great for settling.  Its all about what works for you and your LO.

I'd stick to 1.20 A time and see how that goes?  Or do you get the feeling she is ready for more A time?

When settling for a nap I'd try for 15 minutes and if it in no way looks like she's settling get her up and keep things low key and try again in a bit (20 minutes later or so?)  and see does that help her settle?  I wonder was she UT yesterday when you put her down a 1.10 and couldn't settle as wasn't tired enough but then ended up OT? 

Try and remember she's still only very little.  The independent sleep will come, still very early days! 





Offline nenee

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2010, 11:03:51 am »
Hi everyone, i have posted on here previously and have found it invaluable, especially when my confidence is down :-(. I have been following EASY since day 1 and was working really well. She was napping for two hours and sleeping really well at night, even slept for 8 hours at night! But the last week or so she is becoming a nightmare with napping. The only thing that has changed is that our routine had been upset a little as we were out alot last week.

When it comes to napping they were gradually getting shorter and now she is really hard to settle at all. She has now settled after a ling stint of shhh/pat but I can't keep doing this as by the time I finished it's nearly time for her to wAke again. I sm wondering if she I'd overstimulated, I have been keeping her up for longer and wondering if it'd for too long at about an hour and 20 mins?

Now that we have got into the short nap habit she wakes after an hour then by the time she is due for a feed she has been up for too long and the vicous cycle of OT begins so we are all out of whack with EASY. So my questions are: if she wakes early do I leave her in her cot until it's time to feed and if I do, do I try and settle? When she does have playtime once she is done I take her down to her room and settle then put her to bed but then wakes not long after. She also sleeps in her own cot in her own room. Our day at the moment goes like this:

E 8am
A 9am
S try to get her to sleep at 9.30 but struggle until next feed

E 12.30
A 1
S again struggle from 1.15 to get to sleep

E 4pm
A 4.30
S 5

E 6pm
S goes to sleep straight away as she doesn't really wake for this short feed

E 9pm
A bath and then bed where she can sleep anywhere to 3 or 5

last night for the first time in a ling time she woke twice, once at 1 and again at 5 and I date say it was because she was so unsettled during the day crying.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated, I am losing my confidence fast and becoming paranoid each time I put her down :-(  

Hi ya

When i read your post its very similar to my DD whose 9 weeks also.

she use to have such large naps in the day she would nap 2 x 2 hr ones and then have a 1 hr one in the afternoon and it was going so well.

BUT as soon as she turned 8 wks which is when the cat napping starts her first am nap has gone down to 45 minutes most of the time and her next one can be just over a h,r then by the afternoon EASY is all over the shop she ends up OT and at 6.30 pm which is her bedtime  weve found she can scream for up to 45 mins before she goes to sleep.  any other time she settles really well without a prop etc, we just swaddle her and just lay her in her cot, she may whinge a little but thats it, i made sure from about 4 weeks she could self settle.

iv tried putting her for her nap at 1 hr then 1 + 15 mins then 1hr + 30 then (as she was wide awake and no yawning etc) and she settled quickly, and she still woke up at 45 mins.

iv read that 45 min cat naps can be either OT or UT so im confused big time! iv also read that over stimulation can cause cat napping so i make sure shes chilled before bed.

im just wondering as time goes by do the naps sort themselves out cause no matter what i do they are the same.

nenee

« Last Edit: May 28, 2010, 11:07:07 am by nenee »

Offline Shiv52

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2010, 11:45:32 am »
I had very up and down naps, sometimes long, sometimes 45 minutes etc. 

im just wondering as time goes by do the naps sort themselves out cause no matter what i do they are the same

This was my experience.  I had fab naps initially and then it all went to pot and to be fair I was fairly consistent.  Looking back though I know now she was OT a lot of the time but live and learn.  I learned to go with it.  I extended with ssh-pat for 10-15 mins and then got her up and moved on with the day.   At 5 months it all fell into place and I suddenly had 1.5 hour naps and a CN and it went from there!  Don't know if things just clicked or if developmental he was just ready to nap longer.  The trick I found is to aim for the longer naps but don't be annoyed if it doesn't work out and just go with it!  Easier said than done I know! 





Offline 1tamara1

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2010, 23:45:55 pm »
thanks for your replies. We are still battling with the short naps, they are sort of hit and miss. Over the weekend we had some good results, after an hour of A time I went into her room swaddled and cuddled for about 15 minutes, then at about 40 minutes I went in if she woke I put her paci in and she conituned.

This morning though I think she was UT, she yawned 3 times but I put her into bed and she only lasted 30 mins. However she has settled now after using the paci and opening the door slightly, whenever I shut the door she'd spit the paci out and the waterworks began so i've left the door open slightly and she is ok, not sure if this has anything to do with it?

thanks again ladies :-)

Offline Shiv52

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Re: Help!! My 9 week old is starting to short nap and getting worse
« Reply #10 on: June 04, 2010, 09:18:36 am »
Sounds like she is having trouble transitioning if she's waking at 40 minutes.  Have you tried w2s?  Even going in about 30 minutes and waking her slightly and replacing her dummy and then letting her resettle?