increased A time, short nap monster is back, going nuts!

[huntersmummyinoz]

i went into his room at 25 mins and applied pressure, first jolt was at 30 mins. hunter is still swaddled so arms arent really a prob but he lifts his legs a lot so put forearm over both legs and hand on chest.  contstruction outside could well have been why he didnt go back to sleep.

currently have him napping in pram with white noise in front room as it is sooooo loud in hunters room

[huntersmummyinoz]

hmmmm so managed to get 35 min nap in pram with no extension, just too noisy even in front room i think. so hope workers arent around tomorrow!

last nap for day, went in to do W2S at 25 mins and he woke completely. took 15 mins to get him back to sleep to get just 15 more mins.  DH is currently getting him down for bed early.  trying again tomorrow 

[huntersmummyinoz]

ended up having to use PU/PD for the first time to get him down for bed, poor little go is so tired. 

found this in nap FAQ, 'sleep interviews with tracy', certainly sounds like my little boy. 

Question:  In that age range, there seem to be two categories of short nappers:  You have the baby who has never napped longer than 45 minutes, and you’ll have the babies who used to nap very well, and now have regressed.  Let’s start with the regressions.

Tracy:  Great!  Because we’ve covered this at times on the site, but I really want to make it a special topic here.  Once it’s time to start to move your feeding schedule from a 3 hour schedule to a 4 hour, and it’s around 3-4 months that you’ll start to move in that direction, what you’re seeing is a baby who can stay up longer, but because they’re still eating on a 3-hour schedule, the eating will cut into what should be a 2-hour nap.   So then they start to do the 45-minute naps even if they’ve been napping well up to this point.  Now this will happen very gradually, and if you’re watching for it, you can see it as it starts.  You don’t need to let it get established.

What you need to do is respond to it, because this is where it’s going, to revert to the 45-minute nap. Because they can physically stay up longer, but they’re only having 45-minute naps, they then revert to only being able to stay up and hour and 15 minutes.  Okay?  But because they’re older, and can store energy better, they only need 45 minutes, because they’ve only been up an hour and a half, or an hour and 15.  When really, at about 4 months or so they can start to hold their own for at least 2 hours, earlier for some babies and later for others.

So this is when you get into that vicious cycle of, because I’ve only had 45 minutes I can only be up for an hour and a quarter, and because I’ve only been up an hour and a quarter, I only need 45 minutes! 

so i figure the only solution is to increase his A time in order to break the cycle. did A time 1hr20 this morning (yesterday only 1h10) and will see how he goes, as wondering if despite noise outside yesterday he couldnt extend nap coz he just wasnt tired enuf?

thoughts, ideas?

[sherry lynn]

That's exactly what I think it is. It is the weirdest thing. It's like they are too tired to increase their A times and too tired to make it through the 30 min mark - but not tired enough to extend
Good luck, I hope it works.
But truly if you are only getting 30 min naps anyways, I would really shoot for increasing like I did. Otherwise I feel like you will go through another month of madness like I did.   Just a thought.

[huntersmummyinoz]

thats what DH and i were talking about last night, coz if its not getting better in a couple of days then we might as well just start shooting for it (as if its already messy, might as well keep it messy and then let it get better, otherwise just prolonging the inevitable like you said and then it will get messy again then anyways, does that make sense? think my own OT is starting to show  )

[sherry lynn]

Heh, it does make sense
Trust me - I know how scary it is. And it won't fix everything. But if it can save you some trouble in the long run it might be worth it.

[huntersmummyinoz]

okay today looked like this

wake up 640am
E 700
A 1hr20 + 10mins to fall asleep
S 810 - 925 (25 + 50 mins, total 1hr15: tried W2S but woke as entered room)

E 10 00
A 1hr25
S 1050 to 100 (35 + 55 + 25, total 2hr: W2S but woke at 35 mins, W2S again, did 55 min and phone rang  , extended again)

E 115
A 1hr25
S 225 to 355 (30+25+25+10: tried W2S 3 times and woke each time about 1min before i was going to go in)

E 415
A 3hrs 5 mins!!!!
S refused catnap for DH who was trying to give me a break (he tried putting him down after 1hr20 and tried for 45 mins until 6pm)

tried for early bedtime
put down at 630,  very OT, had to use PU/PD again and lots of pat/sh and didnt fall asleep til usual 700pm bedtime (he did this last night too even when we tried early bedtime, didnt fall asleep til exactly 7pm???)

i think W2S time has to be somewhere between 20 and 25 mins (before 20 mins, not in deep enuf sleep so doesnt work and still wakes at 30 mins, i think he jolts at 25 mins) so will try that tomorrow

seem to have more success with stroking cheek W2S rather than holding as if he sees me even in semi conscious state he seems to wake fully, and then just thinks its a big game, smiling and laughing at me,  cute but...

any thoughts, suggestions?

[huntersmummyinoz]

the short napping monster has taken over and naps are even shorter, 25 mins - he just cant get past the jolts at all now, usually able to extend but am doing this every 15 mins to get to 1hr 30 and am soooo tired.

went to doc today and hunter has been diagnosed with silent reflux (had my suspicions but have been ruling out wind, etc) so meds start today plus doc suspects possibly teething too. no wonder the poor little guy cant sleep! well at least we hope that one of these things is the prob and we get back to normal after meds kick in, who knows.  unfortunately i think the poor little guy has been such a short napper for long enuf now for bad habits to have formed and i think he cannot settle himself anymore

so will give it a week, 2 at most and if no luck then either dummy has to go or we'll have to start teaching him to put it in himself. however he is still waking even with dummy left in at the moment.

please please please offer any help, i am at a loss as to what to do next

[huntersmummyinoz]

also our EASY routine seems to have gone out the window with this short napping.  as when i cant extend he is feeding right before a nap. i have tried several times to get more than one nap into a EASY cycle when this happens but no luck. how can i get our routine back??

pat/shh doesnt seem to work anymore, he just thinks its a game having me in the room and keeps looking at me and grinning or continues grizzling.  also started new game of popping dummy out over and over and grizzling inbetween (all while trying to sh/pat)

rarely gets to full cry to use PU/PD (usually only at bedtime as is soooo OT by this stage). so if pat/shh isnt working and he's not crying to use PU/PD and wont take dummy, what am i left with???