13 week old eats every 4 hours, 40 minute naps, crazy routine!

[lizziegirl]

Hi all, So my lo started having 40-45 minute naps around 10 weeks.  He is now 13 weeks.  His night time sleep is ok, but neither day or night is that great so I am wondering what to do.   At night he sleeps from 730-7, and wakes twice in the night to feed.  Occasionally he will wake around 5am and be unsettled until it is time to wake up and I calm him and he will sleep for a few minutes, and it just keeps reoccurring until time to wake up.  We have a bedtime routine of bath, bottle, rock for a minute and sometimes he goes to sleep with a paci, but it usually falls out after a few minutes and he doesnt wake up for 5/6 hours for a feed.

In the day time he is grump a lot of the day.  He eats every 3/4 hours because if I feed him more often he will take it, but spits it back up.  He usually doesnt start to show tired signs until being awake for around two hours.  I know that sounds like a long time, but if I try to put him down before he just stares at me and cries if I put him in his crib.  If I wait until he is looking tired, around two hours, I swaddle him and give him his paci and he goes down easily, but wake at the 40 minute mark.  For the first nap of the day I put him down earlier but still the 40 minute wake.

I have tried w2s going in at 20,25, and 30 minutes but he still stirs at 40 minutes and wakes up.  If I am in the room when he is starting to stir I can pat him through it and he will sleep for a few more minutes but continues to wake up unless I start patting again. 

He goes down for the naps great, and usually wakes up in a decent mood but not long after he starts acting really fussy like he didnt really get enough sleep.  By 5/6o'clock at night he is veryyy cranky and usually acting sleepy but I am afraid putting him to bed earlier will make early mornings even worse.  Here is my easy from yesturday, thanks everyone for reading!!


Thurs 7/14/10
Wake 725

E 745 6oz
A 2hr
S 925-1025

E 1050 4oz
A 2hr
S 1228-125

E 245 6oz
A 2hr
S330-417

A
E645 7oz
S 735



(Today put him down for first nap after 1hr 30 min and he only slept 30 min?!)

[bbandit]

I know that if he is only sleeping for 40 minutes at a time then a 2 hour A time for the rest of the day is way too long.  It needs to be cut back after he has taken such a short nap.  You sound like you are in the same boat I was in (and I'm still in some days).  The first nap is short, so he doesn't wake up refreshed and then the rest of the day is a cycle of being overtired. 

Does he always go to sleep independently?

[lizziegirl]

Thanks for replying! I know that 2 hours is so much awake time, he just REALLY doesnt seem tired before that.  But I decided to try less A time anyways because maybe he doesnt know he tired :/.  So 1.5 hr after he woke up this morning I put him down for a nap which was as usual very short.  I decided to put him down again an hour and a half later even though he wasnt showing any signs of being tired.  I put him in his crib and he slept about 5 mins, then cried. I patted him and he slept another 5 mins, then cried.  And I patted him a 3rd time and he has now asleep again so we will see if cutting it to 1.5 instead of 2 hours is working. 


I usually take him in his room and swaddle him, give him a paci and rock him for about a minute until his eyes start getting heavy and then put him in his crib.  He falls asleep on his own pretty quickly.It wouldnt be so bad to have lots of little naps, since he goes down easily, but he just seems so unhappy when he is awake! Im thinking maybe I should put him down 1.5 hr after he wakes no matter what?

thanks!

[*Jo*]

hi there, i think that because hes already so OT that you will still need to cut back the A time a little bit more just until he gets some decent sleep under his belt, so perhaps try 1 hour 15mins and see what kind of a nap you get. and if you do have a short nap you MUST reduce the A time afterwards, he wont be able to handle a full A time (which for a 3 month old is around 1.5 hours) after such a short sleep. once hes had a few days of good naps then you can put the A time up again to 1.5 hours.

how does that sound?