2.5 mo. old - Great Nights, Bad Naps

[carolynq]

My son is almost 12 weeks old.  In the last week we have started a new (wonderful) nighttime pattern of going to sleep around 8pm and waking up between 6 and 7am (no dreamfeed OR nighttime feeds).  I've been moving from a 2 hour eating schedule to a 3 hour eating schedule.  The great nights started around the time I made it to a 2.5 hour eating schedule and just yesterday I managed a 3 hour eating schedule (today - so far, so good).

The problem is we are still not getting any good daytime sleep.  For example, yesterday I had this experience:

7am - wake up and feed
8:30am - start to put down for a nap (he is quiet and still and even starts sucking his thumb, he appears to drift off and then 10 minutes later he is fussing I do the shush thing until 9:40am when he is finally asleep)
9:00am - wake up (on his own) and feed
11:15am - start to put down for a nap (he his calm and quiet and seems tired and this time I do the shush thing until 12:25am when he finally falls asleep)
12:55pm - wake up (on his own) and feed
2:15pm - we get in the car to pick up his siblings and at 2:45pm he falls asleep in the carseat
3:15pm - we get home and he wakes up as soon as I start getting the older kids out of the car
4pm - feed
5:20 - 5:50pm - sleeps in the swing while I get dinner for everyone
6pm - feed
6:40pm - feed
7:40pm - feed
8:30pm - Bed

The combination of long effort to get him to go to sleep and then the super short naps is very trying.  Plus, I only have 3 days a week that I have him on my own and that ends after next week.  I can't spend an hour getting him down most of the time.  Plus, he seems tired and he's only fussying a little bit, but he won't go to sleep!  I don't know what to do...
Thanks-
Carrie

[debo620]

Hi Carrie
maybe start a nice long windown a little earlier, ie at 8:15 am, aiming to have him in his crib totally calm and swaddled etc. only ssh-pat if he is upset, he may be sleepy enough from the winddown to just drift off.  I think it is taking him a long time to fall asleep and thus doesn't get a long rest and is increasingly overtired by the end of the day. ssh-pat seemed to stimulate my spirited little boy and you may need to do a variation of it, if you find it is stimulating him rather then calming.

He is also quite young and at the prime age for the short 40min naps.  They are somewhat developmental. A baby sleep cycle is 35-40min and instead of transitioning to the next cycle, they wake. Very frustrating! The night sleep is the first to develop and then comes the day sleep, somewhere around the age of 6months.

HTH

[carolynq]

Thanks.  That's good to know.  I will try winding him down a little earlier (usually I don't have much choice).  I believe this one is a spirited baby and I've found the shh/pat thing rarely gets him to go to sleep quickly or easily.  I tried just patting during the wind-down and putting on a noise maker that mimics a heartbeat.  He's not going to sleep any quicker or sleeping longer, but I don't have to exert as much effort and he is drifting off on his own in his crib.

I'll be holding on until 6 months!  Now that you mention it, I think that's how old my son was when he finally started taking good naps (he was spirited, too).
Carrie