Could Naps Be Ruining Nighttime Sleep?

[Peach]

My daughter started sleeping through the night (8 pm - 6 am) at about 2 1/2 months old.  The only problem we had was that she was napping very little or not at all and by late afternoon she was so cranky that it was unbearable!  I tried and tried to enforce naptime and this past week I've finally had great success!  (She's now 4 months old)  Two 2 hour naps per day plus a half hour catnap in late afternoon.  Fantastic!  I can finally get some things done around the house during the day! 

But a worse problem has begun over the last few days!  She's no longer sleeping through the night!  Last night she was awake from 2:15 am - 5:30 am.  Not crying, just laying in her crib babbling away with eyes wide open.  Then after a while she'd cry out at which time my husband and I would take turns going in to resettle her.  It just didn't work.  She was wide awake!  The night before she kept us up almost the entire night.  She was awake at 10:30 pm, 11: 30 pm, 12:35 am, 2:00 am, 3:00 am, 4:30 am, 5:30 am, and finally at 6:30 am (the normal time she begins her day).  We are going out of our minds!  Why is this happening and how do we fix it???  We want and need our night time sleep back!  I can't think of any reason why she's changed all of a sudden, other than the fact that she's now napping during the day?  Could it be responsible for her night time problems?  Please help!

[zelkad]

I'm sorry to say that I don't have a solution but rather we have a similar problem.  I posted mine under general sleep issues this morning
"6 months and starting his day at 3:30 am"  All I can say to you is that I'm thinking that maybe if I cut my son's naps he'd go back to 8pm till 6am, too.  However, this goes so against what Tracy's books say. 

My girlfriend's baby (5 months old) sleeps 12 hours a night but only naps 2 or 3 times for 30 minutes each.  Like you, she gets nothing done but sleeps well at night, amajor catch22.  Like I said, I'm sorry I don't have a solution but I just want you to know we're going through something similar!

Good luck!

[1babyboy]

So pleased to read this posting as I am having the similiar problem - my 91/2  mth old has just increased day sleeps from 2 45 minute sleeps to 2 1.5hr sleep.  I achieved this by using the shhh method which worked really well.  I wasn't too worried about the night time sleeps because they were fine (occasionally he would wake but easier settled once a night).  Now that his day sleeps have increased the nights are shocking.  He is waking and expecting me to come in, as soon as he sees me he goes back to sleep but sometimes for only 20 mins and so the night progresses.  I feel like now he is dependent on me to come in even if it is for just a minute.  What have I done wrong!!!!
I should note that he is in a secure-a-sleep sleeping bag and is teething so I really don't know what I am dealing with. :roll:

[Peach]

Just wanted to update:  over the last few days I've limited my DD's naps to 1 hour each and her late afternoon nap to 30 minutes.  The last two nights she's only woken up once or twice instead of 5 or 6 times.  And she was much easier to settle back to sleep.  Not sure if it's the solution, but it seems to be sort of working for right now.

Hope you guys are having some luck as well.

[pjs mom]

Yesterday I reduced PJ's naps from 2 2-hours and 1 45 minute nap to 2 45 minute naps (one morning and one later afternoon), and a 2 hour nap in the middle fo the day.  Only up twice last night, as opposed to every hour or all night!!  I am going to keep working on that middle nap.