My son is 6 1/2 months. He was cronically a 45 minutes napper and had really bad colic/reflux when he was younger. Colic ended around 3 months and signs of reflux stopped appearing around 41/2 months. I thought maybe he was waking up hungry so I started giving him a bottle right before his nap. He would nap for 1.5 hrs if I gave him a bottle right before his nap. But that was throwing off our EASY routine (ended up eating every couple of hours) which he did well at from birth. Which in turn I think threw us off at night. I've always helped him to fall asleep until 6 months old. I started usually PU/PD July 1st. We have finally mastered it within the last week on the onset of the nap. But continue to still have 40-45 min wake ups and very lenghtly PU/PD and sometimes unsucessful. Is there usually a lag between mastering it at the 40 min mark for a nap? Could it be medical (i.e. still having 'silent' reflux though phsycial signs are gone or constipation as we are constantly struggling with that)? If I dont' work with him to lenthen naps, our nights start to suffer. Some days he may have several 45 mintues nap, never seems rested and in turn is very fitful at night, waking up crying frequently. He seems to have an extreme sensitivity to overstimulation and being overtired.
His schedule is as follows
7:30 Wake (usually plays in crib for 20+min)
8 eat
9:30 Sleep
11 Wake (usually not consolidated nap, usually several wake ups after 10:15)
11:30 Eat
1 sleep
2:30 (same as above)
3:30 Eat
4:30/5 30-40 min cat nap
7:30 Eat and Bedtime
I have tried getting rid of the cat nap thinking that was throwing us off and things got really out of control at the early part of the night. I've also tried wake to sleep which has about a 50/50 success rate.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I have a 3 year old that is getting pretty fed up with the amount of time I spend trying to get the younger one to nap well. But I know it is vital to our baby and to our sleep at night. Please help a desparate mom of two!!
ErikaK
