Short naps 6 MO - Nothing seems to work

[rblott]

Hi,

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be sure that I gave enough detail.

I'm wondering if anyone can advise on a problem I have been having with my almost (in 1 week) 6 MO daughter. For several weeks now DD has been waking up from her naps (mostly morning) after only 35 minutes.

I have considered both UT and OT and adjusted the routine to test this out, but neither works. Basically when I watch her cues and put DD to bed on time she wakes up after 35 mins happy (indicating enough sleep), but if I then get her up, she is tired and crying after only 15-30 mins (so clearly not enough sleep). I wouldn't mind the short nap if DD was happy with it, but it doesn't seem to work for her and impacts the rest of the day.

Things I have tried so far

1. Putting DD to bed earlier - No difference
2. Putting DD to bed later - No difference
3. Extending the wind down - No difference
4. Patting her through the transition - DD just wakes anyway and smiles at me
5. Wake to sleep after 20 mins - This extends the nap a little, but only by 20 mins or so.
6. PU/PD after DD is fully awake - She seems to flip from being tired and crying to being really alert flapping her arms and legs and smiling at me. This will last throughout the entire nap time and then affect the rest of the day. Also I have a really bad back and find the constant PU/PD excruciatingly painful and exhausting. We just end up doing PU/PD throughout the entire nap time EVERY time, i.e. it doesn’t get less and less each time.
7. Getting her up and re doing the wind down - As with the wake to sleep, this extends the nap a little, but not by much

It may seem from the above that I am chopping and changing, but the above have all been tried over a period of several weeks.

Two things worthy of note are that the wind down is around 10 - 15 mins (nappy change, soft music with cuddle, then sitting) and DD always seems to poo during her nap. There's not much I can do about that except change her without engaging, but obviously this then makes her even more awake.

I have considered just letting DD get up for 30 mins then putting her back for a second nap, i.e. have 2 catnaps instead of one long nap. I am worried about DD getting in to a bad habit of waking after each transition though. Currently DD is a great sleeper at night - 12 hours!! I do hear her stir during this time, so clearly she knows how to transition. I don't want to jeopardise what I already have.

I have posted my EASY at the bottom of this page for reference.

The afternoon nap is a similar problem, but I am usually able to get DD back to sleep using PU/PD because she is so tired at this point from not having slept enough earlier during the day.

I have read through several other posts and the only conclusion I can draw is that it is developmental (seems to be an age thing). Does anyone agree or have an idea of why this is happening and how I can address the issue? Do I keep persevering with the nap times or alter my EASY? Please can anyone help? This is driving me insane.

Many thanks,
Becca

EASY
07:00 - E: Wake, nappy change and BF
07:30 - A: Low key playing
08:15 - E: Solids (Breakfast)
09:00 - S: Aspiration is 2 hours, but issues described above
11:15 - E: BF
11:30 - A: General playing
12:30 - E: Solids (Lunch)
13:00 - A: General playing
13:30 - 14:00 - S: Depends on nap disaster earlier what time DD goes to bed
15:30 - 16:00 - E: BF
16:30 - A: General playing
17:00 - E: Solids (Dinner)
17:30 - A: General playing
18:15 - A: Bath, massage
18:45 - E: BF, then wind down ritual
19:00 - S: Sleep until 7 am the next day

[creations]

Hi there
It looks like your first A (2hrs) is too short leading to that short nap (so UT).
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.0
For her age she should be able to cope with 2hr 15min up to 2hr 30min A time.

After this first nap though you have a very long A time, looks like around 4hrs if she is only getting 35 mins or thereabouts meaning A time is from 9.35am to 1.30pm.  You must count A time as every moment that your LO is awake, regardless of how long you want the nap to be, if she only sleeps 35 min then S is 35min and A is all else.
With a short nap you would need to reduce the following A a little.
Try
A 7 WU
A 2hr 15
S 9.15 for 1.5 - 2hr.  Go in prior to the 35 min and try to extend.  If you only get a short nap reduce next A to 2hr.

Try the 2hr 15, see if there is improvement.  If naps are still short take it up to 2hr 30.
When increasing pay attention to LO too, maybe take it up 5 mins at a time if she looks very tired, this way she will adapt to the slightly longer A time over a period of days.  Stop at 2hr 15 for 3 days to see if the nap gets longer (prevent OT which as you know can lead to a short nap too), increase again if needed.

You don't appear to have a CN (cat nap) later in the day.  At this age you'd expect either 2 really good naps or 2 slightly shorter (though still good) and a CN of 45min.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85134.0
If you have two short naps I suspect you need a CN in there (around 4pm ish) to help her get through to BT without becoming OT.

What do you think?

[rblott]

Many thanks for your post

I agree that the first awake time seems way too short. I did read somewhere that as a rule a short nap of 35 minutes or less usually means OT and around 45 mins means UT. Before reading your post and with this in mind, I brought DD's nap even earlier (after 1 hour 45 mins). She still woke after 35 mins, but remained semi conscious for around another 25 mins. This does seem a ridiculously short period of A time for a six month old, but after carefully observing her, she really is tired after about 1.5 hours! When i get her up after this nap, she is tired again within 45 mins. My inclination is to try 2 short naps with the view to merging over a period of time, i.e. gradually increase the first A time by 5 mins at a time as you suggested in your post. Hopefully I can then merge the naps in to one longer one. Do you think that sounds reasonable?

[creations]

Personally I wouldn't go for two naps because a short nap is not restorative the way a long nap is.  If you are on the right (or close to the right) A time and naps are still short, extending not working etc THEN I would go for more naps in the day to avoid OT (in my case we had 5 naps per day to avoid OT but there was a mixture of waking with pain due to reflux and too short an A time - if only I'd known then!), but I see more naps as 'plan B' not 'plan A' iyswim.

35 min naps can be OT or UT.  Based on the very short A time I really think it's UT.  Being tired a short while after the short nap can be because the nap has not been restorative due to being too short due to being too early - clear as mud?

Looking tired after 1.5hrs can be her body clock telling her that she usually has a nap at this time so start preparing for it.  It can take small increments and some pushing to get past the body clock signal.  Similarly I was utterly convinced my LO couldn't stay awake beyond a certain short A time, but ultimately what improved our naps was to extend the A, not reduce it.  DS yawned, rubbed his head etc etc, but I had to find ways to get him a little further then a little further.  Then we got a 2 hr nap, no fuss going down, and waking up happy and cooing.

I'd up the A (if you've dropped back down then you need to go back up in increments, doing one leap will cause OT upset) and try to extend the nap.  Go in at 30 mins and prepare to shush/pat (or adapt for your LO's preferred soothing, a firm hand etc), observe what happens, step in to sooth and help transition.  If you don't succeed in extending then the next nap go in at the same time but put your hands on to begin the soothing prior to wake up (rather than waiting to see what happens) and continue through he transition and into the next cycle.

[rblott]

Many thanks for your quick reply. It looks like I went in the wrong direction :-(. With that said, with DD waking so early from the first nap I have no alternative but to bring the second forward. I am therefore I hope not a million miles away from what I should be doing to resolve the problem. I will attempt to gradually increase the A time and see if I can extend the nap. I hadn't considered tiredness due to a body clock signal, o that was a particularly useful insight. Hopefully by upping the A time I will increase the nap.

Many thanks,
Becca

[creations]

No problem.
Around this age they can also give you the tired signs (yawning and so on) if they are bored or need a change of scene.  I'm not in any way saying you don't play with your LO or provide enough toys, no doubt you do, but they can still need something else.  Just moving to a different room can help, or having a cuddle whilst waling around the garden or looking out the window, something quite chilled but different.

I suggest not cutting the second A by too much.  Yes it needs to be shorter to compensate for the short nap, but I think we sometimes go a bit overboard with reducing it.  They still need to get tired enough to have a good sleep and not have another UT one.  Hard I know.

FWIW I went in the wrong direction too, way back when I got 40 min naps.  It's what brought me to the BW site

Good luck and let us know how you get on with it.  If it all goes way off go to plan B with the increased number of naps to avoid OT (AP if needed) and we'll tweak again ok?

[rblott]

Will let you know how I get on.

Many thanks again