hi - i think what i have is just a very over-tired baby. ever since she was about 5 weeks old, she has been the queen of the catnap/45 min nap. i used to have to wake her for her feeds before 5 weeks! i didn't worry too much about it until she was near 8 weeks old, bc my pedi said it was developmentally appropriate for them to catnap at that age. she seemed to sleep when she needed too, but was always REALLY cranky at arund 7pm. probably very overtired. she has always been an excellent night sleeper.
now i believe the lack of sleep is affecting her breastfeeding. she has always been a fussy eater and we have had many breastfeeding challenges. some days are good, others its a battle to feed her. i posted some questions in the breast feeding and reflux (she is on zantac but i really don't think she has reflux) pages, but now i am thinking more and more this is a sleep issue. she probably sleeps about 12 hrs a day at the most. i know she needs more.
here's whats happening with the feedings:
the screaming usually starts before i even try to put her on. this is happening more and more frequently and feeding is becoming a long, difficult battle. i used to think this was just hunger cries but it seems clear now that its not. she will be happy and smiling in my arms but as soon as i lay her on my brest friend she will start crying. i'll start to try to put her on and she will push away with her arms, throw back her head, arch her back, and scream. lately this goes on for 10-15 mins before i can get her to calm down and eat. once she is latched on, however, she is fine. she eats happily. it used to stop there - and she'd be very happy and content after the feeding. now it continues when i try to put her on the other side, she won't go on. she arches, screams, etc all over again.
here is our "routine" 3 hr EASY: (i think the REAL problem is we've been off our routine since 2 weeks ago. we took her on a trip and she napped on the go pretty much the whole time. she also went through a growth spurt around this time which also got us off schedule. i had a hard time getting her to go back to 3 hrs btwn feedings again after that. then we went on ANOTHER trip and we just got back last night).
6/6:30ish - wake and feed
wake time of @ 1 hr 20 mins, sometimes less
nap - she will usually wake @ 45 mins, sometimes i can get her back to sleep with vacuum cleaner and paci. if she doesnt go back to sleep i usually walk her around with me while i do stuff and then when she yawns i put her back down and she goes back to sleep.
9:30ish - feed
same thing as above with waketime and naps
12:30ish - feed
same thing as above with waketime and naps
3:30ish - feed
same thing as above with waketime and naps
6:30ish - feed
same thing as above with waketime and naps
9:30ish - feed
same thing as above with waketime and naps
She is usually asleep by 10 or 10:30pm. She sleeps til about 5:30 (sometimes she wakes at 4:30) and I can usually get her back to sleep until 6/6:30ish. Sometimes she is hungry at night and there is an extra feed in there (say one at 8 and one at 10 - maybe i should be doing this consistently?)
At night and at nap time she usually falls asleep on her own. She is usually pretty easy to put down. She LOVES the vacuum/loud white noise and the pacifier. (our pedi actually recommending putting her down with the paci, he says it reduces SIDS by 20%).
when she wakes from the short naps, sometimes she is cranky (esp if it was LESS than 45 min) but a lot of times she is totally happy. she will lay there and look all around her crib and smile when i pick her up. i think sometimes she is awake in there before i know it and then she cries out of boredom/loneliness bc when i pick her up she stops. other times its clear she is overtired bc she just cries and cries until she goes back to sleep.
she usually gives me the 1st sleepy cue right at the one hr mark. so i start to swaddle her, etc. i have a consistent wind-down/soothing routine. maybe the wake time is too short? too long? it seems to be erratic based on her cues.
also - which wake to sleep mthod should i use??
today i fed her at 6:10, she was asleep at 7:40 (after trying since 7:15) she slept 25 mins and woke up crying. i got her back to sleep eventually. was going to try wake to sleep, but when i went in at 30 mins she was lying there awake looking around.
thanks so much for the help!!!!
