2 hour easy - advice?

[DonovansMom]

DS is 10 weeks old and won't nap for longer than 45 minutes. If I catch him early enough I can get him to sleep without much fussing, but when he wakes up after 45 minutes it's impossible to get him back to sleep. It was getting to the point where it felt like I was spending the entire day trying to get him to sleep, there was no Y time, it was only EAS. So I gave up trying to fight him to get back to sleep and I've just been feeding him after he wakes up and starting the cycle over. He's only able to stay awake for about an hour at a time before he's ready to sleep again, so our EASY cycle ends up being less than 2 hours, sometimes closer to 1.5 hours. I know this isn't ideal, but it's what he's doing.

I'm new to this and don't know all the tricks yet. I read a post yesterday with a similar situation and the advice was to extend A time. While it makes sense to me that extending A time will make him more tired and therefore nap longer, I don't think DS has that figured out. I've learned that I have to carefully watch for his sleepy cues and it's much easier to get him to sleep if I swaddle him and put him down right away than if I wait. There seems to be a very fine line between sleepy and OT mess, and then we're playing catch-up for the rest of the day. So I'm a little bit hesitant to try to keep him awake longer than he wants to be. Plus, when he does get OT and I finally get him to sleep, he doesn't sleep any longer unless I'm holding him the entire time.

I'm at a loss. Should I accept that this is what life is like for now and deal with it? I should mention that although his daytime naps are short, he's sleeping better night than he was before we started EASY - goes down around 8pm, DF at 10:30 and then only wakes once to eat around 2:30-3:00 before he wakes again around 6 or 7. Before he was getting up every 2 hours through the night.

I appreciate any tips. I've only read BW, do you think reading BWSAYP would help me in this situation? TIA

[Shiv52]

Thats great you are getting such good nights.
Short naps can be typical of this age.

What A time is your LO managing?  Extending A time isn't always the solution with such a young baby.  The other thing at this age is not to worry about APing some naps.  Even aiming for 1-2 naps a day in the cot is fine.  At this stage it is more important he gets sleep and not OT. 

{{{hugs}}}

[creations]

Hi
Just thought I'd say that my LO (now 18 wks) only really got into the 3 hour part of the 3 hr EASY a few weeks back.  He used to indicate hunger at more like 2.5 hrs (and when he was younger still I think we went on a 2hr EASY, he's always wanted feeding more frequently than other babies his age seem to, I just decided he's a petite boy and doesn't have a huge tummy).  I used to gently encourage him to go a little longer with distraction, nappy change, song, walk around etc (not with crying) and now he appears to be moving himself beyond the 3 hrs and heading towards a 4 hr EASY.  So it will happen eventually with a little encouragement.  Don't forget that the schedule is always going to change as the days and weeks go by.  Also, like yours, he was sleeping well at night (he dropped his own night feed by about 6 or 7 weeks) so I didn't mind the day being less than the full 3 hrs and didn't mind naps being 30 - 45 mins, as he seemed fine on it.

My priority was to focus on a regular pattern of EASY and encouraging independent sleep rather than trying to get him to A or E for longer.  At least with a regular EASY you do get the Y even if it is only half an hour. You can get a shower in one, get the laundry in in the next...etc

[lizzymac99]

I just wanted to reply and let you know that I can relate and you are not alone... I have been stuck in the same 2 hour cycle everyday with my daughter (now 16 weeks) because she is a short napper and "delicate" eater - she is also tiny for her age so not sure if that factors in.  Right now she can handle about 1.25 hours of A time and like you I am tempted to try and stretch this out but don't want to mess up the day by getting her OT. 

I just wanted to lend some support, I know how frustrating and all consuming this schedule is and how it eats up your day!!  Here's hoping that our babies start to get on track with less demanding schedules... hugs!!