Frustrated - cat naps, no clue what to do!

[leah630]

So my two and half month old has been having 45 min naps for the past few weeks now, she was never a long napper before that either but would get an hour or so each time when she was a newborn. I'm at a loss of what to do, I've tried feeding her when she wakes and cries, but she doesn't seem interested at all so I know it's not a hunger thing. I've left her to cry for a few minutes but find she just gets angrier and angrier. If I take her out, I feel like I have to feed her to start the EASY cycle all over because it gets all messed up if I bring her out and let her have waketime for an hour then eat at the 3 hour mark. What do I do?!? Here's my typical day yesterday.

wake/eat: 7:00
activity: 7:15-8:30, starts to fuss a bit, put her in her crib for nap
sleep: 8:35-9:15 - left to cry for a bit, no falling back asleep, give in and feed
eat: 9:30
activity: 9:45-11: fussing, put in crib
sleep: 11-11:45, attempt to settle, no luck.
activity 11:45-12:30
eat: 12:30
activity 12:30-2
sleep: 2-2:45, crying, able to settle for another 15 min in my arms
eat: 3:10ish
activity: 3:30-4:30
sleep: 4:30-5
eat: 5
activity: 5:15-630
catnap in my arms at 6:30-7
feed at 7 again then bed at 7:30 for the night.

She sleeps all night so that's a start and she falls asleep on her own for naps after a couple minutes of crying in her bed. But I just can't get past that 45 min intruder (I read Babywise as well and then my whole day gets thrown off and we somehow end up on a 2 hour schedule rather than a 3, even though she isn't hungry really.

Help!! Is she OT, should I be shortening her wake time? I've tried helping transition her thru the sleep cycle by patting her back, etc, it just seems to wake her more.

Thanks in advance ladies!

[newkidontheblock]

Hi there and hugs. On my phone holding my DD for a nap right not, so just a quick post... Could you take the BW know your baby quiz and figure out her temperament? That would help when making a plan

[leah630]

Hi! Thanks for the reply, she is actually 10 Bs and 10 Cs so exactly half textbook and half touchy. Is that possible haha.

Also forgot to mention she doesn't take a soother, starting to suck her thumb a bit which may help self soothe a bit, her older sister did it too. She requires maybe 5 min of shush/pat pre-naps if I pick up on her sleep cues immediately, longer if she is getting too tired. She is EBF.

I did all this with my first daughter and it worked like a charm I just don't remember how old she was when we started or first learned about EASY... And low and behold, apparently they are different kids, who would think 

[newkidontheblock]

Okay. So at this age you would be aiming for 3 naps & a catnap
Our routine at that point was pretty much exactly what Tracy outlines except that I would keep the first A time of the day the shortest. So I would do 1 hr, 1.15, 1.25. This worked well for us. She took a good 45 minutes to nurse anyway, so then we would just look out of the window or do a diaper change and I would put her down. That nap was the first that fell into place well and she easily settled herself. We consistently got a 2 hour nap until the 4 month regression.

The mid-morning nap was the next to get longer but we never got a good afternoon nap and the catnap was always a pain! It wasn't until we dropped a nap that things got better.
So our routine was
7 - WU + nurse
8- 10 -- nap 1
10.15 - nurse
11.30 - 1 -- nap 2 
1.15 - nurse
2.30 - 4 -- nap 3 (always ended up being 45 mins)
4.15 - nurse
5.30 - 6 -- catnap
6 - nurse (split around bath)
bath -  massage
6.30 - nurse
7 - sleep

A few ways to get over the 45 minute hump is to keep the activities very very low key to prevent overstimulation, walk around talking softly/ singing before you go in for the nap to help her switch gears, get a good wind down in place (4 S works very well), get her down before she is OT, go in and place a hand on her just before to help her transition. You could try the Wake to sleep method too. 

So to begin with, maybe do stimulating activities right in the beginning of your A time and keep the last half hour very low key. A time is eyes open to eyes closed, so maybe put her down 5-7 minutes before you want her asleep to give her time to settle. It is so great that she is able to fall asleep on her own and that means that in time, she will be able to transition. I think if you help her through it for a few days, you should be able to extend the naps. You mention that patting makes it worse. That is probably because she is a touchy baby. I know there is a support thread on here, so maybe you could check it out and see what other moms have done instead.

Finally, after a 45 minute nap, if you simply can't extend it, just reduce the next A time by 10-15 minutes. You can keep the feeds on the original routine, so your day could be EASAEAS :p

Hope that helps!

[rugbykaf]

Hi there, I'm afraid I can't offer much advice but just wanted to say that DD is a similar age and we also have the 45min nap issue. What has worked (most days) is dropping the 1st A time right down to 1hr. So literally BF, and a slow nappy change then back to bed. This does make her first nap longer - usually 1.5 to 2 hrs. after that however things get a bit messy.  I can't seem to hit the right A time and end up with lots of top up feeds and cat naps :-( so I'm very interested to see if you find anything that works xxx

[leah630]

Thank you so so much newkidontheblock, so helpful and great tips. I'll keep you updated on progress. First nap was no change,  but changed up the A time a bit (length and what we did so we didn't overstimulate near the end) and that seems to have helped. I think we are at 50 min now haha.

Also, I had forgotten something in her room so went back in at the 20 min mark and turned off her sound machine that gradually shuts itself off after 40 min but I turned it off after 20. She stirred and jerked a bit but then dozed off again. Perhaps also part of it? Maybe waking when the music would run out and when she reached the 45 min mark she realized it wasn't still playing.

Hmm!! So that's todays progress so far. Thanks again for the tips. I'm hopefully she will get it eventually.

[newkidontheblock]

Fingers crossed for you!