Everything is too early!

[mich0902]

DD is now 6.5 months old.  She's starting to sleep through the night, but her daytime routine is getting weirder every day.  Her wake up time is 5.45 and I can't get her to sleep later, even if I handle it like a night time feed, she won't go back to sleep.  I can live with that.  But then she needs a nap around 8.30 and will only nap for an hour: she's all happy and smiling after that and won't sleep longer.  Then she needs another nap at lunch time, around noon.  What am I supposed to do?

The last few days, I took her shopping so she would sleep in the car until lunch.  But I can't do that every day (it's getting expensive!  ).  Any ideas?  Should I leave her in bed babbling after her one hour nap?  Try to keep her awake longer (the nap is sometimes complicated if I try that)?  I'm at a loss, here!

She goes to bed around 7PM after a 6.30 feed.  Her afternoon nap (around 1.30-2PM) lasts about an hour too.  Pat/shush doesn't work anymore; she's just not sleepy anymore after an hour! 

Thanks so much in advance!!!

Michele

[Clarepie]

Hi,
My LO who is 7 months tomorrow was doing this at about that age too.It was 5:45 wake up,then 1 hour naps which progressively got shorter and shorter,down to 1/2 hour at one point.I decided at that stage to stop watching the clock and also to not start winddown and put her down when she starts yawning.Have now realized that she often has a yawn 1/2 hour before she's ready to go down.When she starts rubbing her eyes alot,this is the cue to start winddown.I put this into practice nearly 3 weeks ago and she's extended her awake time to 3 and 1/4 hours in the morning and 3 and half after morning nap.I let her nap for 1 hour in the morning,then she naps for 2 hours in the afternoon.She has also dropped the afternoon catnap by doing this,and is now waking at 6:30am when she hears the central heating come on,so am really pleased that this has worked.I think the key is to try and extend the awake time,and really watch their cues.My LO seemed to jump from 3 hour awake time to 3 and half hours in short space of time.Hope this helps.

Clare x

[mich0902]

I can't wait until she starts staying awake for 3 hours!  I tried keeping her up this morning and couldn't after 2:30.  She then slept for an hour...  I feel we're really stuck in that pattern!  This morning she was up at 5 AM, DH tried to get her back to sleep and I ended nursing her at 5:30.  She slept between 6 and 7 AM, went back to sleep at 9:30 and was up at 10:45.  Better, but I can't wait for her to stay asleep at 5 AM! 

She seems to have a longer A time before her afternoon nap, is that possible?  Should I encourage it or try to have always the same A time? 

[rebecaq]

Hi there,

Clare gave you some really good advice, most of all to not watch the clock and watch your dd    I often say if some mommies watch their lo's as intently as they watched the clock and timed things that many problems would make themselves very apparent 

when she wakes at 5, give her a small nip at the breast, enough to soother her hunger or thirst and then put her back to sleep. However, don't let her sleep past 7 or whichever time you want your day to begin. A lot of times sleeping through the night can cause problems during the day. But it's all a normal part of the transition.

Can you post what your day looks like? Also, what the winddown routine is?

- Beca

[mich0902]

A typical day these days looks like this:

5:00-5:30: wake up, DH tries to get her back to sleep but usually fails 
6:00: get up and breakfast (breast milk, cereals and fruits)
8.00-8.30: nap (lasts 1-2 hours)
9:30-10:00: wake up
11:00: nurse
11:30: breast milk + vegetables + fruits
12:30-1:30: nap (again, between 1 and 2 hours)
2:00-3:00: wake up from afternoon nap
4:30: dinner (breast milk + cereals + vegetables + fruits)
6:00: bath
6:30: last feed
7:00: sleep

Last night she was up at 4:30.     Again, DH tried to get her back to sleep without any success.  I ended up feeding her at 5:30, and she didn't even go back to sleep after that.  She stayed awake until her usual nap time and slept until 9:45.  I never manage to get that baby back to sleep.  Once she wakes up, it's for good.

Her winddown routine for her naps is just closing the curtains, sing a lullaby and I put her in her crib.  These days, she falls asleep just great in her crib.  At least, something easy! 

Thanks in advance!

[shimzy]

The only other thing I noticed too is that since she is not going back to bed when she wakes at 5am-5:30am is that you are putting her to bed way too late.

I would try putting her on a 12 hour day (even if that means putting her to bed at 6pm) and then extending her her gradually back to a 7-7 routine (or whichever you were working towards). 

I've often read on these boards that keeping them up later in hopes that they would sleep longer in the am doesn't work. I found this to be true with my daughter.  She wakes at 7am (sometimes 730am) but she is in bed by 6:30 most nights (depends on when her afternoon nap ended).

Also, her first awake time is 2.5 hrs, second awake time is about 3 hours and her last awake time is usually 3.5 hours.  I find that most little ones cannot handle the "average awake time" first thing in the am. Its usually the opposite and tends to be less than 2.5 hrs for the first awake time.  At 6.5 months my little girl was only doing 2 hrs - and that was pushing it.

Worth a thought anyway