8mo was sleeping well, now i need help

[traceyt]

Hi there, my daughter will by 8mo May 4.  She has always slept very well at night - for months, it has been 6:15 - 6:30 pm bedtime, very easy, rarely crying, to 6:15 or so a.m. with one night feed and no problems putting herself back to sleep.  No props, no nursing to sleep, very good at going to sleep for both naps and bed.  However, i have always had problems with nap lengths - can't get past the 45 minute mark no matter what.  I can NOT go in her room to calm her, it never never never works.  A couple of weeks ago i discovered this site and started extending her A time from 2 hours to 2.5, and it worked like a charm - got a 1 hour morning nap, 1.75 hour afternoon nap and 30-45 minute catnap and was still sleeping great at night.  However now she is back to 45 minutes for every nap no matter what and she has also started waking up at 5:45.  She recently acquired the skill of sitting up but she isn't trying to do it in bed or anything, no teething problems, nothing obvious.  If i try to leave her at the 45 minute mark (as per Healthy Slepe Habits) she just fusses until i go get her.  She desperately needs more sleep, she has always been a fabulous, happy, charming baby with good sleep but she is starting to always look and act tired.

This is what her schedule was before:

6:15 wake and bf
7:00 solids for breakfast then activity
8:45 nap
9:45 wake and bf
10:00 snack
11:30 lunch
12:15 nap
2:00 wake and bf then activity
2:30 snack
4:00 bottle
4:30 catnap
5:00 wake and supper
5:45 bath and bed routine
6:15 down for night with one wake to feed any time from 1:00 to 4:00


Now, she is waking at 5:45, napping sporadically for 40 - 45 minutes and going down earlier than 2.5 hours because she is exhausted.  Yesterday she had 4 naps of 40 minutes throughout the day and was completely exhausted by bedtime, the up again at 5:45 (with a brief waking at about 5 first, but i think she fell back asleep until 5:45).

I know that i started the problem because about 2 weeks ago i tried to get her to have her morning nap in the car - DOES NOT WORK and screwed her schedule up completely.  Then of course i tried it again on Easter and she just completely missed her nap and got even more screwed up.  How can i get her back on track?  Sorry about the length of this post!

[traceyt]

I kept her up for almost 3 hours this morning from 5:45 to 8:40 (put her down at about 8:35 and she cried for a few minutes) but she still only slept 45 minutes.  I left her in her bed for 30 minutes longer to see if she would go back to sleep but she didn't, just fussed the whole time and I felt awful.  She has just gone down after 2.5 hours and was completely exhausted - she couldn't possibly have stayed awake longer; maybe this time she will magically sleep 1h 45 m again! (not holding my breath though)

re catnap: she has always been a little slower than average in terms of napping - eg, still needed 4-5 naps a day when she was 5-6 months old.  Also, she is soooooo tired by the end of the afternoon esp now because she is only getting 45 minutes in her afternoon nap, which means she is waking at about 12:45, and she can't possibly stay awake until bedtime - if she does, she screams when i put her down for bed because she is so overtired and we get into a bad cycle.  When she was doing 1.75 hours in the afternoon and a 30 minute catnap at 4:30, she was happily going to bed at 6:15-6:30 and waking after 12 hours - it's now that she is getting chronically overtired that she is waking early.  If i can get her back to a good nap length i'll try dropping it if she keeps waking early.

I'll give it a try extending A time tomorrow before pm nap if she can - maybe even just another 10 minutes at a time.  Thanks for your comments, i really appreciate it and sometimes it is just good to know that you are not the only one obssessing about sleep!

thanks.

[traceyt]

she would cry for a bit then just fuss, then cry a minute then quiet, then fuss etc;  i don't like cio but i don't know what else to do - she has just woken up again after 45 minutes on the dot and is crying again, this time serious crying so i am going to go get her but i can tell she is exhausted becuase she woke up crying which she only does when she is completely exhausted - normally she wakes up happy and cooing.  i just don't know what to do to give my sweet girl the rest she needs!  She was doing so well, i don't know why i can't get back to her great schedule.

[traceyt]

well i JUST saw a tooth poking through, but she hasn't been drooling or anything, though she does want to put everything in her mouth.  we've been waiting on that tooth for awhile, i have seen it under the surface for at least a month but it looks like it has just broken the skin.  Could that be it?  That's the only thing - no separation, i am off work until she is 1, no changes at all in life. She was sick a few weeks ago but slept fine through that period too - didn't even wake up fussy in the night.  She didn't even have any problems with daylight savings time.  In fact, all week i have made a point of not going out, no errands, nothing that would cause her to miss any steps in her routine or even delay any steps by a few minutes - i have just been trying to work through this nap problem.  We still go out for walks and have visits and stuff but all in our area so we are here when she needs to sleep or eat.

I just tried putting her down again after just over an hour of A time, because she looked as if she had been awake for 24 hours straight and was so clearly exhausted - she is asleep.  This can't be good for her nap routine.

again, thanks so much for your help; i really appreciate it.

Tracey

[traceyt]

Really?  i didn't realise that; she is a "mama's baby", she still won't readily go to anyone else (other than dad) for very long without getting worried - not even other family.  And i have noticed that she has become a lot more exploratory lately - wanting to touch everything, including my face etc and seeming to realise that people and things are distinct from her.  Maybe she has begun to know that we are separate people and doesn't like me not being there. The only hitch is that she has no problem falling back asleep when she wakes in the middle of the night or early early morning.  I guess i'll try again tomorrow - maybe i'll try a 3 hour A time in the am and see how that goes. (btw, she did not end up sleeping earlier - but she went down easily for a nap about 40 minutes ago).

thanks so much for your help and for listening to me!