Is this normal with Spirited babies

[glw5779]

Hi there,

I have a text book spirited baby. Infact she's mastered the rolling from back to tummy thing already and is thinking about crawling at 4 months! We've always had problems with her sleep except between the hrs of 10pm and 7am thankfully but we've found that she needs to nap during the day once she has been awake for between 1hr and 1.5hrs. we don't get any sleep clues except for becoming more frantic. She normally only sleeps for 45mins then is awake again. If we put her down after 1-1.5hrs of being awake she will self settle but if we wait any longer she won't go down at all. Shh pat and PU/PD haven't been sucessful.

My concern is that at this age everything you read sugests that she should be able to stay awake for longer that 1hr at a time. Am I doing the right thing? It seams to work for her. has anyone else experienced this with a spirited baby?

[KaiArsenault]

Hi my lo is almost seven months old and i would say that she is a spirited baby too......daytime naps suck 30-40 minutes max is all i get out of her but same here that her nights sleeps are really good.  I find that she is ready to go down for naps 1.5-2 hrs as well and i think that it is because she only naps for such a short time.  She has always been a short napper and i think until she starts moving then she might sleep longer......ha ha i can only hope!  Anyways, i say if it works for you and your lo then go with it.  If she is happy between naps then that is all she must need.  Her biorhythms might change as she gets older.  Good luck hope this gives you some comfort.

[marensmama]

Hi and welcome to the BW community!  I think your LO is getting 45 minute naps because she is ready for more A time, but I'm not sure why you're having a hard time putting her down later... I'm checking with some of the other moderators to see if this is a spirited quality and how best to approach it.  What happens when you do PUPD or pat/shh?  Is she swaddled?  What if you gradually added A time, by five or ten minutes for a few days and continued to increase is slowly? 

[emmiebruce]

My lo is spirited too and exactly like yours.  He only haps for 40 mins at a time and his tired cues are really hard to read.  You can't trust the yawning as he seems to do that all day, you have to go by the fact he starts to get frantic and fussy!  If I miss the window I have one hell of a tantrum to deal with.  He goes roughly an hour between naps because they are so short and so far nothing can make him sleep longer...

[* Paula *]

It can take some babies a little longer to transition onto a 4 hour routine, and some need a little help with it.

Have a look at this FAQ posted under EASY, that one of members created about increasing A time in 5 - 10 minute increments.

Hope this helps 

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=120362.msg1265311#msg1265311