At my wit's end - please help my little one nap!

[becky1969]

At this age we really want to see 1.5-2 hours for a nap, and preferably 2 hours.  But every kid is diff, and some NEVER have 2 hour naps.  I think for your LO 1.5 hours (2 sleep cycles) should be your goal, and anything more is gravy! 

She's not ready to stretch to 1.5 hours.  I know it's tough with such a short A time,b ut it really is a short-lived period.  I have a feeling the teeth more than anything else are affecting her sleepiness.  If you're seeing 'several' bumps, then she's working hard to poke thru many teeth -- and that's hard work!    I strongly suspect once those teeth actually come in that she'll rapidly extend her A time.  I'd let her be for now.

On extending A time, I always went by my son's naps: when his naps started getting short, that told me I needed to lengthen A time by 15 minutes.  He was a textbook/touchy, so he was pretty clockwork with needing to extend 15 minutes every 4 weeks, almost to the day.    Now, while teething I had to shorten A time by 15-30 minutes for naps and bedtime or we had awful short naps and NWs/EWs.  Sounds like yours may be a bit like that too.

Hang in there! A month from now her A time will probably be in the 2h range and that will improve life immensely.  don't wish the time away! As you know with your older child, these months go by SO fast and before you know it they're toddling away on their own 2 feet! She'll lengthen A time eventually -- I'm reasonably sure you won't have the only college kid who has to take naps every 1h15! 

[JLMom]

Well, yesterday she woke up from her first nap after 1 hr.  I went in popped in the soother and she slept for another 1.5 hours.  I let her sleep because we were heading out and the rest of her day was going to be off!!

This morning she woke at 6:30 (after almost 12 hours of sleep - 1 feed!)
Hubby went to put her down for her nap at the 1hr25 min mark and she fought him a bit..she was asleep a couple of minutes later, but only slept 45 minutes.  We tried to put her back to sleep, but it lasted maybe 10-15 minutes..  She was happy though.  Is this UT or OT?

Enjoy your weekend!!

[becky1969]

I think OT because she fell asleep so quickly.  If UT, I would have expected her to fight it longer.  But it's really a crapshoot.  You'll just have to watch for a pattern and see what develops. 

[JLMom]

Thanks Becky!!

So here's what's been going on..

Saturday morning she didn't have the greatest of naps, but we were going out to enjoy the day.  She catnapped off and on in her stroller and in the car.  Got her into bed at 8 pm Saturday night (about an hour later than usual)

Sunday (sorry, i don't have the exact times, i hope that is okay)

Woke up at 6:10 (maybe because she went to bed later)

For all her naps, she went down 1 hr 20 minutes after the previous wake-up

Nap #1 - 2 hrs
Nap #2 - 1.5 hrs
Nap #3 - 1.5 hrs
Nap #4 - 50 minutes

We let her sleep figuring she was tired from the day before.

Nap #4 ended at 5:10.  She was happy and alert.  We did her bath routine and she was in bed asleep at 6:55 so 1 hr 45 minutes after previous wake-up.  She wasn't upset though, never fussed and even after i fed her she still seemed awake.

She slept until 3 am and woke for a feed.  But she was wide awake at 5:50 am.  Not good - even though it was 11 hrs of sleep!!  I fed her and put her in her crib, but she was cooing.  My husband ended up rocking her and she slept in his arms for 25 minutes.

Could it be all the day sleep yesterday robbed her of a good night sleep causing the early wake-up?  I like to aim for a wake-up between 6:30 and 6:45 as my husband has gone to work and DD#1 to daycare so it's quiet in the house and i can get her down without being overstimulated from all the activitiy going on.

[becky1969]

Honestly, you may just have to suffer thru some 6 am wakings for awhile -- it's only a little off from what you're aiming for.  As her A time stretches that bedtime will get later.  I really hesitate to play around with a routine that's working just to get a wake-up time that works for the family better.   because chances are in a week things will chnage on their own as her A time increases!  She's a sleepy bub, so I think the more sleep you let her have, the better she will sleep overall.  She's doing a GREAT job! Don't worry -- it feels like you're going to be on such a short routine forever, but it really is a matter of DAYS -- 30 at the most!  So, hang in there and I'm pretty sure that waking will slowly move later as her  A time increases. 

[JLMom]

Thanks Becky!  I wondered if all thsi day sleep was robbing her of good night sleep.  Up to Saturday she was sleeping almost 12 horus during the night and the last few days it's been 10.. maybe because of our outing on Saturday... who knows.  Here's hoping she increases her A time soon!!!

The hardest thing for me to accept is for her to have extra naps when i know she should be having 3 or 4!  I'll try to be patient!!!  This morning she almost got to 1 hr 25 mins of A time for her first nap and she slept 1.5 hrs which is great!!!  We've been out since she woke up from that nap so we'll see how the rest of the day and night goes!!

[JLMom]

For the 3rd day in a row she had another NW around 5:40 am.  Tonight (Tuesday) we put her down at 6:30.. hoping the earlier bedtime will eliminate the second NW.

Here's her routine.

In bed Monday night just after 7

The new NW makes it hard to do a textbook EASY.  Right now i'm sticking to feeding her every three hours so sometime in the middle of her A time as opposed

to at the beginning.

Slept 7 - 3:20 and then had a feed.
Woke at 5:40 - fed and put back in crib, but would not go back to sleep unless rocked.
DH rocked her and she slept until 7:10 (i think she may have been awake earlier though - 7:10 is when i heard her on the monitor)

E - 8:00
A - 7:10 - 8:23
S - 8:23 - 9:55 (1.5 hr nap)

E - 10:45
A - 9:55 - 11:10 (1 hr 15 mins A time - she was rubbing her eyes and tired)
S - 11:10 - 12:37   (woke at 38 min point, plugged soother in continued sleeping)

E - 1:45
A - 12:37 - 2:01 (1 hr 23 mins A time)
S - 2:01 -  3:20      (woke at the 30 min mark - had to put soother back in several times.  She went down to sleep too late and did not have a good nap)

E - 4:15
A - 3:20 - 4:38
S - 4:38 - 5:08 (30 mins of sleep)

Bedtime - 6:30

[becky1969]

I think you might have to treat that 5:45 AM waking as the start to your day.  I think your day is getting kind of out of whack because 5:45 is actually a decent waking considering when she goes to sleep, so you're in essence giving her an extra nap/day, which may be leading to nighttime disruptions.  I think we're going to have to rely on A time increasing to fix that EW problem, rather than feeding and putting her back to bed -- that 5:45 AM feed is throwing off all subsequent feeds as well.

I KNOW that's the A**crack of dawn! My LO had the same routine for the first week or two after we moved him to a 4 hour EASY.  But then the A time increased and we were cool.  If you can at all stand it, have that be the start of her day and then we'll hope that we can get A time to increase enough over the next week or so to get bedtime 30 minutes later, which will give you a 30 minute later waking! If you think about it, you have about 3 A times to work with.  If each of those just increases by 10 minutes, there's your 30 minute later bedtime.  I don't think she's ready now, but she may be ready in just 7 days time.

You are probably going to have a LO that's sensitive to being OT for the rest of her baby/toddlerhood.  And as annoying as that is, it is usually also attached to a kid who LOVES to sleep.  So honoring her A times will give you some long naps eventually.  I know this phase is frustrating! But again it *is* short-lived. 

[JLMom]

Good thing my DH is a better morning person than I!!
All this started when we went away for the day on Saturday and she had to catnap in her stroller.  She doesn't sleep long in her stroller, maybe 20 minutes max.  By the time we got home and got her bathed and to bed it was 8 so a later bedtime.  She started the extra EW the next day and today was day 3!
We put her down at 6:30 tonight.. we'll see if that helps too otherwise we'll be up at the crack o'dawn tomorrow too!

You are right she is very sensititve to being OT.. hopefully it is a short lived phase!
Thanks again!

[JLMom]

I have a question for you..

Today we have music class at 1:15.  DD is due for a nap (#3) at 1:00.  She can catnap in the car a bit, but it wouldn't be a full nap.  We would be home around 2.  Do i put her down at 2 and then have some A time and then her catnap?  I can't stay home all day.. i'm so hoping she bumps up her A times too.. the 6:30-7:00 wake-up time lined us up perfectly for stuff like this!!

Here's today so far:
Wake-up:  5:50

E - 6:00
A - 5:52 - 7:08 (1 hr16 mins of A time)
S - 7:08 - 8:52 (woke up at 42 min mark, plugged soother back in, continued sleeping)

E - 8:55
A - 8:52 - 10:07
S - 10:07 -

[becky1969]

I'm not sure there's any great way to do this.  You probably won't be able to stop her from sleeping in the car on the way to music, as that's right at her nap time.    I'd definitely try putting her down as soon as you get home.  She'll probably be ready. 

I didn't even attempt any classes with my son until after age 1 because of napping issues.  For my son, missing a nap or short napping meant NWs and I just could not handle losing the night sleep! We stuck to going to the park, walks, grocery store, etc. for our outings because then I could control the timing etc.  But I chose that route because my son was just so sensitive to being OT etc.  And for him a music class would have been OS and not fun AT ALL!    It's amazing how different kids are.  We had an 8 month old in his last music class and I was amazed at how happy the kiddo was! My son would have been crying from all the noise/action going on!

[JLMom]

I think the music class was more for me.. I needed to get out.  I'm finding it hard to be stuck in the house especially since her A times are so short.

Here's the 1st and 2nd naps
Wake-up:  5:50

E - 6:00
A - 5:52 - 7:08 (1 hr16 mins of A time)
S - 7:08 - 8:52 (woke up at 42 min mark, plugged soother back in, continued sleeping)

E - 8:55
A - 8:52 - 10:07
S - 10:07 - 11:57  (woke at 36 min mark and plugged soother in, woke again at the 1 hr 13 min mark, plugged in soother)

E - 12:20
A - 11:57 - 2:07

So interesting development.. she woke at 2:37 in the car.  When DH came home, i went to get some zzz's and he watched LO.    She stayed up until 4:27 and really didn't show any signs.  She slept 45 mintues for her catnap and woke happy!!!

For the second nap, she woke 36 minutes into it was cooing.  I went in, put the soother in and left.  She fell back asleep and then woke again at the 1 hr 13 min. mark.  Soother in and kept sleeing.  She slept for 1 hr 50 mins total.

Now the third A time of 11:57 - 2:07 is not good.. that's when we were at music class.  She was fine until 1:30 and that's when i saw the first eye rub.  But she remained fine for the next 15 minutes and then started to look tired.

So it's coming back to.. am I giving her enough A time or still too much. Yesterday i put her down at 1 hr 10 mins for her first nap and she slept through for 1.5 hrs, no wake-ups.  Today it was 1 hr 16 mins and she woke up at 42 mins.  After the first nap, i put her down after 1 hr 15 mins and she woke at 36.  Then her next A time she didn't give me any signs until just past the 1 hr 30 mark..  i'm confused.
Yesterday I tried putting her down for a nap around the 1 hr 25 mark and that too was cut short and it was a fight to get her back to sleep.
I just don't know what her true A time is.. it can't be 1 hr 10 minutes can it?  She's 4 months old?  Hence me needing to get out of the house during her awake times and nap times because i can't get very far!!!  Sorry... i'm just really frustrated.

[becky1969]

What's going on with teeth? We did decide she was teething, yeah?

[JLMom]

No teeth yet.. a lot of knawing on her hands and mine and lots of drooling!!

Do you think i should try and extend A time seeing as she was able to handle 1 hr 50 minutes A time before her catnap?

[becky1969]

LOL, you are just DYING to increase A time! Handling a long A time before cat nap isn't too impressive as the cat nap is short no matter what.  You absolutely have my permission to try lengthening A time if you think it will help -- it's totally up to you! If you do, just let me know what happens.