My dd is 4 1/2 mos old and on a 4 hr EASY. She is bf. She is a great night sleeper but has had multiple issues with naps. She does go to sleep independently, we have a 15 min wind down routine that we use. We've worked with extending her A time and w2s and pu/pd. About a month ago, napping fell into place
She would take 2 2 hr naps and one 30-60 min cat nap. Her 4 hr routine was really consistent. Then it all went pear shaped (thanks to my British bwers for that useful phrase!) about 2 weeks ago. She suddenly started taking 45 min naps again, and crying whenever she wasn't being held.. First I thought it was teething, since she's drooling a ton and chewing on everything. So we've tried teething tablets, orajel, tylenol...nothing seems to help in terms of nap extension. Then we thought maybe she needed more A time, so we tried extending her to 2 hr 15 min, that worked once, but not since. Then I thought maybe a growth spurt, so tried feeding more often, she then stopped eating well, wasn't as interested in nursing, so clearly she was getting enough before I tried adding an extra feed. So I went back to trying my nap extension techniques that worked before. Only they're not working this time. Here's what happens.....she will cry out about 35-45 min into her nap, usually just once, and then get quiet. In a few minutes (usually 5), she'll fuss...she does the whine/talk/cry sound when she's trying to get herself to sleep (I believe this is her mantra cry), then quiet, and that cycle will continue to repeat. If I go in her room, she is on her side or stomach (she can roll both ways), sucking her thumb, with her eyes closed. Every few minutes, she'll pull her thumb out of her mouth, turn her head to the other side, cry, kick her feet, stick her thumb back in, and the cycle repeats. If I try to intervene with pat/shh, the 5 min interval between cries gets shorter, but she does not escalate, nor does she settle. She doesn't ever cry enough for pu/pd, I've tried it, but since I think she's mantra crying, it doesn't have any affect. If I don't go in the room, she'll stay with the every 5 min cycle until I get her up (she'll go for 45 min to an hour doing this). But if I go back in, it's the same result or worse.
I don't know what to do....I feel like I'm incompetent and can't figure out how to help my dd. It's now the end of our second week with this cycle, and I'm no closer to figuring out what to do than when I started. Any suggestions?
