Author Topic: Short feeds - difficult to keep LO up for full A time (Read 838 times)

scruffymax · « **on:** December 27, 2013, 22:37:21 pm »

DS 7.5 weeks is a short feeder - max 10 minutes usually. This makes it hard to keep him awake for an age-appropriate A time as 50mins+ of getting nappy changed, lying on a mat etc is a long time for a bub of this age (especially a touchy one!) So if I put him down when he is showing tired signs he is actually a bit UT and can't take a long enough nap, but if I keep him up for an hour+ he is OT/OS and difficult to settle and then wakes after 30 mins! Help!!

jessmum46 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 29, 2013, 19:28:04 pm »

Could you wear him in a sling for the second part of A time so he's awake but calm and close to you so a bit 'protected' from stimulation? Or maybe once you see tired signs take him away from the action (I know you have an older one to contend with so this may be tricky to do for long) but maybe you could just push him the extra 5-10 mins that way? Or add a 5-10 min section of looking at a soft toy in room with lights on dim, or a story, or a song to your nap wind down?

scruffymax · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2014, 01:31:32 am »

Thanks for the ideas Katherine. I tried him facing out in the baby bjorn yesterday morning but he was still cranky. The only thing that really helps is giving him a dummy, which I am a bit reluctant to do because I don't give him one for sleep as he ends up waking every 10 mins for it, and I don't want to confuse him... ah babies, they are such a challenge! Even more so when you've got another small child! I wish I was one of those people who could just go with the flow, put the baby down for a nap when they seem tired and if they wake up after 20 minutes, just get on with the day... but my babies have never been able to deal with short naps and breaks to their routine :-(