still at it...

[brenda2]

this is the first day that she has refused/battled the 2nd nap.  usually it has not been a problem.  she had short naps for so many months (it's been less than a month that she has actually done long naps every once in a while), that i hate to wake her but i know that limiting the first nap is a great way to get her to do a  second nap, just thought it was a bit too early for this!  i thought that increasing her A time would be enough.

anyway, managed to get her to sleep 5:25-6:00 in the carrier tonight for nap #2.

[Jiinx]

...hugs Brenda. We're here for you.

It'll just be a few days, hopefully, and she'll be back on track soon! My lo decided to stay up in her crib for an hour after I put her to bed..

It's so nervewrecking when their sleep habits change on you!! It just means they're growing up..and are showing you that they're changing through the only limited ways that they can - sleeping is a big one bc they spend so many hours doing it you know! Think of it as a way of "communicating" with you... Okay, not very comforting words when it's 3am and our los want to party, huh?

  thinking of you..

[Mom to M&M]

Usually at this age increasing A times works but your A times already look huge... And such a late nap, even a short one, can cut into night sleep... Hope you had a decent night.

[*Liz*]

Brenda - I went to one shorter nap and one longer nap with Jacob at 8 mths. That was after a holiday where we had agreed that we would stay in the hotel for one nap and the other would have to be 'on the go'. His nights had never been better  .

Once the A hits 3.5hrs it is reasonale to need to do this - as pp suggested a 1hr am nap and a 1.5-2hr pm nap owrked for me for ages with 3.5hrs A in the am, 3 between the naps and 3-3.5hrs to bed. I did that from 8-11mths  before we had to do the REAL 2-1.

Agree about very late CN's rebounding at this stage as well.

As she always been high on A times for her age?

[Jiinx]

how did last night go, Brenda?

[brenda2]

thanks ladies
yes she's always been high on A times for her age.  but i had just increased it slowly to 3 hours 15 min first thing and up to 3.5 hours for the second A time which seems to usually be longer for her and it was going fine for the last month (by fine i mean she was napping fairly well for her and wasn't getting those long nws where she was just awake, still many nws though but perhaps these are due to too much day sleep for her)...i thought that was enough.

yesterday:
7:45 awake and E
8:30 solids
10:30 E
11-12:30 nap
12:30 solids
3:45 E
5:30-6 nap
6 solids
8 E
8:30 bed

nws:
9 shh pat
10 E
12:30 shh pat
2 shh pat
4 shh pat

awake at 8 this morning (well i woke her up)

so no long nws last night, she settled within 10 min each time and didn't wake up 20 min later as she sometimes does.  and i managed to only feed her the once last night (last time i tried settling her without feeding during the night it was a long hard battle).  so i think this was marginally successful in that i cut out one of the feeds without her really protesting too much.  i think my plan for night is to not feed her.  i really don't think she needs it (she has gone 12 hours without food occasionally...4 times... since 4 mo), and it leads to longer easier feeds during the day (rather than struggling matches).

i really don't want to cut the first nap as when she has done a short first nap she hardly ever (only once) does a long second nap.  she tends more towards being a short napper so i am lucky if i get one long nap a day and usually that long nap is the first one.

soo...plan for today...3.5 hours first thing...followed by close to 4 hours A time if the first nap is long and try for a second short catnap, aiming for bedtime around 8.  we'll see.

[brenda2]

yesterday (friday)
8 awake and milk
8:45 solids
11 mik
11:20-12:50 sleep
1 solids
4 milk
4:50-5:30 sleep (woke her up...took her 20 min to go t osleep but she did it on her own)
5:30 solids
7:45 milk
8:10 bed

last night was better...woke at 10, 12 and 4 and settled HERSELF for each of these wakings after about 10-15 min of fussing/mantra crying, i never went in.  huge improvement for her.
woke at 5:30...i didn't really give her time to see if she would resettle, it was early and i wanted her to go back to sleep so i went in and gave her a 2 minute feed even though she wasn't screaming.  she went back to sleep until 7:40 and then she did take a full feed this morning.

so i am feelign better about this, last night was way better evne though she was awake and so was i becasue i was listening to her, it did go better and she wasn't up eating all night!!  so i feel like this is a step in the right directio nand perhaps she will continue to self settle. 

she seems to be on the very low end of sleep needs.  i mean i bet she's goign to be on 1 nap way before a year.  will keep trying for the late short catnap until sshe starts to refuse it and then look at shortening the first nap and doing a second long nap...just after the battles with short naps don't want to do it yet.

[Jiinx]

*hugs* Brenda! That's amazing...good for you listening to your daughter You're an awesome mommy...keep up the good work..

[Mom to M&M]

Brenda - DD was often the same - and I ended up doing a long first nap for her and second catnap for a long time. Eventually that nap moved later and later and the catnap eventually phased out (after getting shorter and shorter). Glad you are doing better!

[brenda2]

well last night was great.  she had her last feed at 7:50 and asleep by 8:10.  woke at 11:30 and resettled herself though it took half an hour, including two times where she fell asleep for about 5 min and then woke up again.  mostly mantra crying.  twice i got up but by the time i walked to her room she had stopped screaming and was settling so i never went in.  then slept until 6:45 this morning and woke up happily babbling in her crib.  i let her go for half an hour and then went in and fed her at 7:15!!!    yay!

[*Liz*]

Yey 

She is super low on sleep needs isn't she? Not that it matters at all - actually it is just great that you know that and can follow her (non sleepy) cues.

Hope it continues for you 

[Jiinx]

so awesome! Did you ever find out what the culprit was??? Just the daytime sleeping was causing night wakings?

[brenda2]

yes, i think she is low on sleep needs, i've known that all along but then i think she had a jump in A time that i didn't pick up on right away which i think caused those really long wakings this week.  so hard to keep on top of it until they go to 1 nap which i am guessing for her is going to be well before she turns 1.

she's had pretty bad nights on and off all along, i think she was waking for feeds so now that i've stopped the night feeds hopefully she'll stop the wakings.  fingers crossed for tonight.

[Colin Macs Mom]

Way to go Brenda!!!!