Never ending "Growth Spurt" ??

[alanconceicao]

Hi ladies!

It's been a couple of days after my last post and I've taken everything that was said into account...

Just to correct my last post, DD didn't wake up after 30 min of her BT that night, which was a huge improvement, but still had the other 2 NWs.

We have managed to drop the feed before naps, which has been great. I've been waiting for her hunger signs and she has been feeding between 3.5hs and 4! So we've been doing EASAES sometimes.

What has changed these days has been her A times. I'm not sure I'm doing this right, but her squirming and fussiness at her WD was getting crazy, so I decided to lengthen her A a bit more. We've gone from 1h40 to 1h50/1h55... Even a 2h A once!  is it too uncommon for a 12 week old to have this A?

We have left her naps uncapped and that has led to naps over 2hs which have left us with a catnap at the end of the day, then a really long A before BT, creating an over 12h day for her. I'm not sure what to do about that, because even though she hasn't woken up within 30 min of her BT, she still has 2 NWs. Her second NW has been around 5:30am with her then waking up for the day at 6:30/7! It's like a catnap right at the end of her night/beginning of the day and I'm not sure how that influences her day. So we start our day with our E's "off" because of that 5:30 feed and 6:30 WU! 

This is what our day looked like yesterday, for example:

WU 7:10 (not hungry)
E 8:00 (last E was at 4:45am)
S 9:00 - 11:35 (uncapped)

E 11:40
S 13:30 -16:00 (uncapped)

E 16:00 (this E was over 4hs because of the uncapped nap!!!)
S 17:50 - 18:20 (struggling at the WD.. Not sure if UT?)

E 18:30
E 19:40
BT 21: 00 !

This A before BT was really long, she just wouldn't show tired signs and even when I went to her room, she got really agitated again, squirming, wide awake.
But again, no waking up 30min after BT.

Had 2 NW with feeds at 00:30 and 5:30.
She then slept after that last feed until 6:30 only and we started her day.

Should I keep her naps uncapped? Any idea why her last A would be so long? Could it be due to the long afternoon nap? Maybe I misread her signs?
I keep wondering why she can't sleep more than 5 hs at night, even though a couple of weeks ago she was doing 9! 

So now this morning, after waking up 6:30, I fed her at 7:30 (2hrs of E), so she could feed before taking her nap and she was exhausted! Tried to keep her up a bit but she went down for her first nap at 8, with 1h30 of A. Just wondering what's going to happen today... ....

Thank you once again for all your help!

[creations]

Hmm... that's a long A time for her age but we do have LOs who move to 2 naps early so it isn't totally unheard of and she's doing 2 really good naps and the early NW has stopped which is good, but something is not quite right with the routine for her to be refusing BT until so late and it looks like the 6.30 WU could be due to OT before BT.  The night is a bit too short (even for those who have shorter nights).

I know she used to do longer stretches between feeds at night but I'm wondering if it was perhaps just that she had such a sleepy phase as a new born and let you have a nice sleep before wanting a feed?  2 nights feeds is quite normal and "sleeping through the night" is officially one stretch of 5 hrs (not what I would call through the night ha ha) and really she is doing 2 of those which is good, so I'm not sure that these NFs are linked to a GS or if she's just settled into a 2 NF routine because it's what she needs. Maybe bec has thoughts on this?

I think the options could be:
- now that you have the E more sorted out in the day go back to capping naps at 2hrs and see how that goes, if she is rested enough. And this could settle down into a nice neat routine like you previously had (minus the 30 min OT NW hopefully)
or
- follow the cues she is giving regarding the longer A time and longer naps but help her to work out a suitable BT.
If you look on these typical amounts of sleep she is basically getting the regular amount of sleep for both the 1-3 month age and the 4-6 month, the 1-3 month is around 5hrs sleep which she gets in just 2 naps.  The 4-6 month is between 4- 6 hr day sleep.
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85130.0
You could for example leave the naps uncapped, let her sleep 2.5 - 3hrs and then go directly to BT which would need to be earlier, say 6pm if she had a 6/6.30am WU.
or
- you could continue 2 uncapped naps plus a CN but then watch out for the A time after the CN.  IMO you'd need to reduce the last A quite a bit because it comes after a CN not a 2.5hr nap so she ought to be tired sooner, if you miss that window she could become OT leading to BT refusal and an EW.

You might have an instinct for which option to go for, or something else I haven't thought of.
If she was able to manage on a routine like that you could see 5-6 hr day sleep and 12 or 12.5 over night.