Laughing when she's meant to be sleeping!

[tamandamelie]

Hi,

Although I have tried very hard for the last couple of months to get my 5 month old DD onto an EASY routine I am having so many issues I just don't know where to start!  Hopefully someone can help me.

Firstly, on some days it is taking me ages (up to an hour) to get her to sleep during naptime.  She used to be down in 5 - 10 mins but now it can take up to an hour.  She just lies in her cot, alternating between laughing and crying.  I will comfort her when she cries, thinking that she must be getting tired but as soon as she stops crying she just starts laughing again!  It really is very frustrating.

Secondly, she has taken to waking up for feeds about 3 times a night, but won't eat her 7am feed - which throws out the whole routine! 

I am only keeping her up for 2 hours after every sleep - regardless of how long she sleeps for because if I try to put her down earlier it just takes longer to get her to sleep.  So the whole day is very dependent on when she wakes up and how long she sleeps for (which is anywhere between 30mins and 1.5 - 2 hours).  She usually gets between 2 and 4 hours sleep in a day.

So here's a sample of what may (or may not) happen in a day:

Wake 7am
E 8am - this is as soon as I can get her to eat and it's likely to be just a snack because of eating so often at night, sometimes she refuses this meal altogether
A
S 9am
A 9.45
E 11.30
S 11.45
A 1.15
E 3pm
S 3.15
A 4
E 5
wind down routine begins 6-6.30 depending on how grumpy she is
E 6.35-6.50pm
S 6.45-7

Any help would be great - I'm trying to roll with the punches but if there's something I'm obviously doing wrong I would love to know and sort it out!

Tam

[worriermum]

big hugs! I dont have any advice sorry but my lo is 2mths & does a similar thing, appears grizzly & tired and can cry on & off - but will smile when being swaddled but once its done start crying. I put him down to bed & he's smiling & babbling then crying again. SO am intrigued as to why they do this.
Hope someone can offer you some advice to help get things back on track

[brenda2]

hi
here is a link for you:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=128419.0

i think you could slightly stretch her first A time to 2 hours 10 min or so and see if this helps you to have a long nap for the first one, but if she only does short naps you need to shorten the A times to fit in more naps to avoid OT.  2 hours A time after just a 45 min nap is probably too long. 

2 hours of napping in a 12 hour day is not enough, 3.5-4 hours is about right.

what times are her overnight feeds? is one of these feeds a df?  if she won't eat anything for the 7 am feed then she's eating too much at night and if you want to get rid of at least one of those overnight feeds and replace with either a bottle of water or bottle of watered down formula or limit amount of time if BFing or use pu/pd instead of a feed this will help her eating during the day.

[Mummy of Hope & Lillie]

Jumping in here to say I have a nap giggler too...

My LO (4.5 months) is a horrid 20 - 30 or 40 min napper and wakes up from her naps always with a smile and a giggle almost like she says 'ok that's the nap over with lets play'. If I get her up she will be happy to play for awhile but then gets OT very quickly and we have to try and nap again it so frustrating. I completely sympathise with you and I hope that you can get it sorted. Wish I could help you myself but I'm going crazy trying to get her onto EASY as we often have EASASE instead of EASY.

I have just read Brenda's thread on what Awake times are and found it very helpful and hoping it will help us...might help you too.

Thinking of you