It's gone from bad to worse and I need some advice

[DJs mummy]

DD used to be a great napper until about 4 months when she started 45 min naps.  Thought it was due to needing A time extending.  Did that but she never really got over the 45 min nap thing.  For about 6 weeks now this has basically been her routine:
7am - wake and eat
9am - sleep
9.45am - wake and play
11am - eat
11.45 - sleep
wakes after 45 mins but can usually get back to sleep and then naps til about 2pm (but quite broken sleep)
3pm -eat
4pm - sleep
4.45 - wake
6.30pm - eat
6.45 /7pm - sleep

This past week things have just got worse though.  For instance today so far :
7.20 - wake and eat
9.30 - sleep
10.00 - wake after only 30mins (off out to playgroup - to keep DS happy!)
11.00 - eat
12.00 - sleep
woke up after 30 mins and just will not go back to sleep. She's now been awake for an hour and won't resettle.

HELP!

Some other info - she uses a dummy and I'm beginning to wonder if this is not helping.  PU/PD doesn't seem to work, though I've not tried it properly.  But half the time she's not crying, she's just awake and unsettled.

Other concern is my ds still has a 2 hour nap between 12 and 2 and the last few days Hannah has been waking him and now he is grumpy. 

What can I do to get her back on track?

I'm guessing she's really over tired so don't want to try extending her A time anymore.

Should probably add she sleeps well at night.  straight to sleep at 7pm.  Dreamfeed at 10.30 (though she usually wakes up). Then sleeps through til bout 6am.  Dummy popped in and back to sleep til 7am.

[DJs mummy]

Well, having put her down at 12 she woke at 12.30 and then took til 1.45 to get back to sleep.  She's just slept an hour and has now woken up.  She's due a feed so I'll get her up now.  But that's still only 1hour of what I would call 'proper' sleep.

[DJs mummy]

Hannah is definitely overtired.  She had about 20 mins for catnap so, in total, has had only about 2 hrs sleep today - not enough for a 5month old 

My question is how do I start increasing her sleep?  If I put her down sooner after A time (say 1.5 hrs instead of 2) won't she just wake up at 30 mins again?

She had a complete meltdown at bedtime and I just feel like I'm failing her.  Please someone help - I'm really struggling today.   

[Sharondp]

I'm no expert with napping but I do remember at around 5 months Leo was getting hungry and wouldn't sleep 'cos he wanted to eat.

Might be worth upping the quantities you are currently giving Hannah to see if this makes a difference?

Leo was ready for weaning at 5 months (big hungry baby!) and his npas got better within a couple of days of weaning onto solids.

This might not be the answer - just a thought!

[DJs mummy]

Hmm, that has been one of my more recent thoughts too.  She only usually takes about 6oz at each feed (4 bottles a day + dreamfeed) and we've not started solids so it wouldn't surprise me if she's hungry.  I'll try making up more in each bottle tomorrow and see how much she takes.

Thanks

[KathrynK]

Hi Hazel
how are you getting on?
I have re-read your post and I agree Hannah is definitely overtired. Your A times appear to be about 2hrs, which would be fine at her age on a good 1.5hr nap but if she is only sleeping 30 mins then she's not going to be able to handle 2hrs. I would put her down after 1.5 hours and try to get an extra nap into the day until she has caught up. A couple of days of shorter A time and more frequent naps should help her catch up. I appreciate it must be difficult with 2 to look after. My dd was almost 6 mo when she started to extend her naps all by herself, after months of stubbornly waking after 45 mins, so hang on in there and she may surprise you. But definitely you need to eliminate that o/t first.
How did you get on with offering her more milk? let us have an update x

[DJs mummy]

Hi Kathryn.  Thanks for thinking of me.  Things are much the same as before.  She's still having 30 mins at each nap.  We tried giving her 7oz in each bottle and she's taking most of that at each feed now so that's good.  To be honest though I'm pretty sure it's not hunger waking her up and hindering the naps.  At her lunchtime nap she feeds at 11 and is put down at about 11.30 or 12 and still wakes up 30 mins later.  So I think we can rule out hunger.

What I don't understand though, if it overtiredness, is why she would start the day overtired and not take a good first nap when she's literally just slept solidly for at least 11 hours (usually 12).  I could understand if the naps got worse as the day wore on indicating she's just getting tired out by all the day's activity, but after a good night's sleep she should surely start to day ok.  I posted yesterday asking about this.  How can she sleep soooo well at night and then struggle so much in the day?  I just don't see the logic (yeah, I know - babies don't work on logic  )

Tomorrow may well be quite a busy day and difficult to keep the naps as planned as we're at church in the morning and she always ends up going down late for the 2nd nap.  Oh and on Weds we're moving house   So I'm not holding out too much hope for the week ahead  

Thanks again for your help.

[DJs mummy]

Well I'm happy to report that today went quite well.  I stuck to your suggestion of 1.5 hrs A time and Hannah played along too    Up at 6.45am and back down at 8.15.  Slept through til 9am (45mins).  Off to church but managed to get her to sleep in my arms for half an hour from 10.30 til 11am. Came home and put her down at 12.30.  She chatted for about 30mins and then fell asleep and slept for nearly 2 hours solid   That is the first time she's done that in about 3 weeks I think!  Down again at 5pm and had 30 mins again.  To behonest though I am more than happy to have short morning nap and catnap so long as the lunchtime one is good.

Now I am completely prepared for tomorrow to not go the same way, but at least I know she can do it and that's given me hope.  I'm going to try again tomorrow putting her down after 1.5 hours (if her previous nap was 45min or less) and see how she goes.

Thanks for your suggestions here.

[KathrynK]

so glad you had a better day, fingers crossed for tomorrow and keep us updated x