4.5 months - help with A time

[aisling]

Just a cautionary note to all: Before administering any medications to babies and children for that matter, it is strongly advised you contact your doctor for full information and approval.

Aisling

[judypdx]

Thanks for the reminder Aisling!  Just trying to get my LO to nap as much as I possibly can today.

[* Paula *]

Judy, how has your day looked?

[deb]

Depending on who is reading which thread, I'll post this here too:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=649.0

It's about 45-minute naps and how Tracy helped us extend them and get rid of the OT cycle!

[sanaya]

how is your day today judy?
all of us have been thru the days of 45 min nap monster. just help your baby thru the ot cycle, hang in there, it will get better.

[judypdx]

Hi Paula/sanaya!- Thanks for thethoughts and for checking on me! 

Hi deb! - I read your post a month ago and have been reading it over and over again when I get discouraged!(It's absolutely great-thank you so much for sharing!)


This was what happened:
To continue from NW
NW (6am-7am) - Ok, I really don't know what to do here as it's already 7 so I made the decision to feed her at 7 and hope she'll sleep til 11

7:15 E
7:40-10:00 S (we both passed out!)

10:40 E
11:15-12:15 S

2:45-3:38 S (took her ~45mins to settle)
3:40 E

5:15-6:00 S
6:30 E

7:15 in bed but didn't settle to sleep until 8:30

Update:  NW: almost every hour after DF! From 5-5:30am, she decided to make it tummy hour.

Is there anything I should do besides try to help her nap better?  I also posted a msg on Night Waking for help and filled out the questionnaire. Extreme OT  Let me know if there's any other info you need.  Thank you!

[* Paula *]

After reading your post on the NW thead too, I am wondering.......

Do you think that the DF could be affecting your lo's sleep?  The DF can start affecting lo's sleep by causing more night wakings.  You say you DF at 11, and you had night wakings from Midnight, I am wondering if this may be the cause 

Have you tried offering the DF closer to 10pm?  Tracy suggest offering close to 10pm, so as to not affect their sleep cycle anymore.  I would definitely try the DF at 10 for a few days and if you see no improvement, then perhaps consider dropping it and see if there is any improvement there.

I am not saying that she may not wake in the night for a feed, BUT, she will have woken herself and may be easier to settle after a feed in the middle of the night - if that makes sense?

Let us know what you think.

[judypdx]

Hi Paula!  Yes, after reading the success stories on NW  - I've been contemplating about the dream feed with DH this week too and I'm so glad you brought it up, I just need some assurance to implement change.  Since she's BF, I'm always worried about her making a long stretch w/o eating and we were aiming from a 8pm-8am schedule. 

Having said that, we're did a DF at 10:30pm last night and had one long NW from 5-6:45..she was practicing her rolling!  I had to step into her room twice to roll her back as she appeared to be stuck for a long time.  (I do try to give her as much tummy time as possible during the day-it's even part of her wind-down routine to help get it out of her system). 

So things are looking better; not sure how it could be worse than the previous night . I'll let you know how the next couple days go.  Thank you Paula!

[* Paula *]

I would not worry about the long stretches.  If she is ready to sleep through the night without it, then she will, she will soon start making up for the calories during the day.  Also she may wake in the night for a feed, but she will be sleepy, and will be easier to get back to sleep, especially if you do the feed in a quiet dark room with no interaction, and put her straight back to sleep.

Good luck, keep us posted on how you get on.

[judypdx]

If there's a contest of LOs with the least amount of sleep, my LO would be in a top contender!  She even has her parents figured out.  Yesterday she took a 45min nap AND skipped her CN, so we grounded her and sent her off to bed by 6:45pm.  She felt asleep easily and was hungry by 10, so I feed her and consider that part of the dream feed. 

THEN 2:30am I heard her give a yell out to let us know that she's awake.  For the next THREE hours, she rolled onto her tummy, squealed, threw her feet up, and try to sleep.  All I could do was watch this on the monitor(afraid that she'll fall asleep face down) because each time I think she's asleep as she'll lay really still,  she'll be back on her tummy 2 mins later and the cycle repeats.  She doesn't cry and is content hanging out by herself in the crib.  Finally ~5:30-6, she felt asleep and was awake again at 7.

When we put her to bed for naps or bedtime, she no longer protest.  She'll be really quiet tricking her parents into thinking that she's asleep and find ways to entertain herself in the crib for a really LONG time much to her parent's disgruntle.

What can I do at this point? 

[deb]

It sounds to me like this is a developmental thing. Right when a new skill emerges, it's a really big deal, something they practice at every possible opportunioty, including when we silly adults think they're really supposed to be sleeping. (What do WE know? ) IME, once the novelty wears off, sleep starts to normalize - until the next developmental leap, teeth, growth spurt, illness, or whatever.

I'd say as long as she's not screaming bloody murder for you, pop some popcorn and enjoy the show.

[* Paula *]

Hugs hun, I know it is hard, but have to agree with Deb, developmental milestones can wreak havoc during sleep times.

I would give her as much opportunity as possible to practice rolling during her A time so that she can get it out of her system.

Also I would not worry too much, if she can roll from front to back / back to front and falls asleep on her front, she will be able to roll back.

[judypdx]

Thanks deb and Paula!  Development milestones, short naps, night waking..I simply can't win..

LO is having lots of NW lately (probably from OT) but DH and I are having a big debate over the DF.  I've been giving the DF around 10:20PM and the next feeding is at 8am.  I'm considering dropping the DF to see if things improve with NW but then that would mean I probably have to feed her in the middle of the night.  DH thinks this is backwards and we'll have to work on weaning the night feed later. We worked so hard on weaning night feeding. Any advice?  I'm leaning toward keeping the DF around 10:15 and work on overcoming OT and nap issues during the day.

[* Paula *]

If you are not sure about weaning the DF, then bring it forward to 10pm.  Tracy suggests closer to 10 pm to prevent it from affecting their night time sleep.

Keep us posted.