Pls Help, 8w old naps no longer than 10mins & cries badly before bed time

[obladi]

Hi all,

I have read a few topics here about short naps but I havent found any case that is like mine. I am very worried and desperate at the moment.

My LO is 8w old and been on EASY 3 hours pretty well until week 7 things started to change. Normally her A time is abt 1h15mins for the morning nap and 1h10mins for the afternoon one. Before when I put her to bed it took her max 5mins to fall asleep on her own and sometimes with the help of pacifier. Night sleep was very good from 7 to 7 with feed at 10.30 and 3.30. These days, I put her down as usual, she falls asleep and wakes up after 5 to 10 mins and starts talking to herself, she does not seem very tired or unhappy, just talking. I wait for 20mins (past 1.5h A time) if she's still awake I give her the pacifier whether she wants it or not and shush pat. She will fall asleep afterward or spit it out, when she spits it out I will wait for another 10 mins to see if she can settle herself or not and then put it back again. It continues like that. As the result the morning nap took her 2 hours to fall asleep, she wakes up at 11.

In the afternoon it was worst, nothing could make her fall asleep unless I breastfeed her and let her fall asleep being feed (which is bad I know but that's the only choice). I became breastfeed her the whole afternoon, breastfeed, catnap, wake up, breastfeed catnap so and so...

As the consequences, she becomes OT and cried very very badly before bed time (today 50mins), nothing could calm her down. She even cries louder if I offer her pacifier or breast.

I tried to extend A time for another 5mins each nap as I guessed she is UT, it did not work! I moved her bed time to 6 on the days that naps are bad, she still wake up a few times (and talks of course) but manages to fall back asleep on her own afterward (normally her night sleep is much deeper, she never wakes up except for feeding).

Her feeding has reduced (from 150ml in the morning to 100ml and from 120ml other meals to 60,80) plus the crazy catnaps I take that as a sight to extend A time and properly transit from EASY 3hrs to 3.5hrs but I dont know where to start right now.

Please help! I am not sure if it's a wonder week thing, if it is it seem pretty long. I think there must be something wrong with the schedule at the moment.

I am desperately looking forward for your advice. Thank you in advanced!

Note: she has reflux as well

[deb]

Is her reflux medicated? If not, that can make a big difference. One little burp of acid up the esophagus as she's drifting off to sleep will indeed wake her and she won't get any restorative sleep.

[obladi]

Hi Deb,

Thanks for the reply. Her reflux is not medicated. However normally before the naps I burp her carefully and I rarely see any relux during her naps. Except  the naps that I breastfeed her to sleep it does wake her, so in both cases breastfeed or not she wont sleep either ( ( what should I do?

[deb]

Not all reflux is visible; silent reflux is just little burps that stay inside the body but are painful nonetheless.

Might not hurt to investigate meds. Alternately, refluxers often sleep better with one end of the mattress elevated (so they sleep "uphill"), or on their tummies (we did this with one of ours and I wish we'd done it with our first, because the first 3 months were hell, but understandably not everyone is comfortable with that suggestion). Sometimes sleeping in a carrier helps. If you're desperate, you can try her sleeping on her tummy on YOUR tummy (make sure you use the bathroom first - I learned that the hard way!); no, you won't get anything else done, but we would sometimes sleep for 2-3 hours that way if mine was tired enough!

In the end, it was meds that saved us because neither kid would do the sleep-on-my-tummy thing after 10 weeks or so.

[obladi]

Thanks Deb we will definitely try that. Today I successfully made her sleep by carrying her and shush pat, I felt into a trap of using a prop

[deb]

If they're in pain, or when they're sick and can't sleep any other way, then we APOP - Accidental Parenting On Purpose. Sometimes the sleep is more important than the sleep training.  And sleep training is a lot more successful when they aren't hurting. This too shall pass, even though right now it probably doesn't seem like it ever will.