A 3 month Child - how make him sleep one nap during the day in the easy rutine?

[skarinka]

Hello,

My child is three month old and I am using the EASY routine, which means he sleeps a nap every cycle of eating.
The last days those naps becomes shorter and shorter (about half an hour till an hour), and I think it is because he is getting older, and he has to sleep two longer naps during the day. But, I don't know how to make it with the EASY routine. Usually after eating he is alert and starts his activity, and wants to sleep about hour and a half or two hours from the eating. Every cycle is about two and an half hours till three.
His night sleeping is about ten hours but wakes every three hours to eat and falls asleep during the eating (breastfeeding)

Thank a lot,

Karin

[becky1969]

At around 12 weeks lots of babies go thru a phase of short-napping. It's a natural shift in REM/non-REM sleep that occurs; at somewhere from 35-45 minutes into sleep they experience a light sleep phase which they aren't used to.  Instead of briefly becoming conscious and going back to sleep like they need to, they come fully awake.  We need to teach them to ride out that light sleep cycle.

We typically use a method called HTTJ (holding thru the jolts).  What you do is make sure you are in child's room about 5 minutes before he typically wakes.  Then the second you start to see him jolt a little, you apply gentl pressure to arms and legs to help him get thru that jolts.  You continue holding for a good 10-20 minutes to ensure he's truly back to sleep.  Each sleep period he'll jolt a little less and you'll need to hold him down a little less.  After about 3 days most kids are back to sleeping a full 2 hours for each nap.


You also want to make sure your Awake time isn't too long or too short.  At 12 weeks we expect them to be about to stay awake about 1h20 and by 16 weeks about 1h30.  Longer than that and you risk short naps as well.

HTH!

[~Lori~]

I tried the HTTJ today for the first time with my 16 week old baby today and dang it, it didn't work.  He did 3 little jolts at around 33 minutes, then a big one at 35 minutes which woke him up.  I kept holding him for around another 15 minutes, but he never was able to go back down.  Should I keep doing this even though it didn't work this time?  If he knows I'm in the room, he usually NEVER goes back to sleep.  So he "felt" me, even though he didn't see me and wasn't able to get back to sleep after that

[becky1969]

It almost never works the first time!    It usually takes a good 3-4 times before you see it start to work, and then it takes 9-10 times (minimum) before they start going back to sleep on their own.  When I explain this technique I usually warn the mom to EXPECT it not to work first time.  That's OK and totally normal.  He'll get used to your presence and then he'll ignore your presence.

You also want to make sure that you are there before the jolts begin.  So if the first ones were at 33 minutes, you might want to be in the room at 28 min to make sure you don't miss any.  Also, you'll find the amount of pressure that works for your kid.  Some need just the lightest touch and some really need to be held down (my son needed to REALLY be held down! I felt like I was wrestling him, LOL!).

Keep at it for a few more naps and then let me know your progress!

[~Lori~]

I started holding him down at 31 minutes yesterday.  I will keep trying it.  Seems we can't get past 35 minutes for the life of us, regardless of awake time, so I'm wondering if the jolts are just way too much for him.  He hasn't been swaddled since 2 mths old, am wondering if we need to try it again??

[becky1969]

Yes, probably need to try swaddle.  Most BWers keep swaddling until 5-7 months old.

[~Lori~]

I swaddled my first till 6 mths.  With this little guy, we swaddled but it really didn't seem to help any with naps, and he would get so wound up when we did swaddle him, that it would be hard to calm him again for sleep.  He also really has started soothing himself with one of his hands.  He rubs his hand over his eyes as he is getting to sleep.  That said, I did just swaddle him for his current nap...in the miracle blanket.  He just looked at me with huge eyes as I did it, lol.  We'll see what happens!

[becky1969]

Make sure it's tight enough -- some LOs don't do well unless it's SUPER tight, so tight you should be worried about it cutting off circulation, LOL!

[~Lori~]

welll....he napped 1.5hrs!! STRAIGHT!!!  Will try it again tomorrow!!!! 

[~Sara~]

Congrats Lori!  I wish swaddling produced that effect for my LO.  He is a swaddle Houdini!  I wish he'd stay swaddled because he rubs his hands in his face and wakes himself up even more from his horrendous 40 minute naps.  *sigh*  I've also tried the httj..and it doesn't work for him.  I want to pull my hair out some days.

[~Lori~]

yah, well, so much for my excitement...have had 3 35 minute naps again today WITH the "miracle" blanket.  Not much of a miracle here....sigh...so it goes on (it's only been like this for the last month straight!  AGH! )

[becky1969]

Review what happened before the 1.5 hour nap:

How long was A time?

HOw big of a feed?

Was a time different quality? (e.g. more mellow, less mellow)

Did you burp enough -- in other words burp right after eating but also several other times before putting down for sleep?

In other words, try to think of ALL the possible variables and see what else might be going on. You may have a touchy, in which case they need a perfect sleeping environment for things to go right.  I have a touchy myself and once we figured out his 'hot button' issues, he had 2 hour naps for the rest of his babyhood and even does now at nearly 4 years old! So get in your baby's skin and see what might be bugging.

A 30 min nap also can mean UT, so it's possible A time wasn't long enough.

[~Lori~]

we have been struggling with figuring out A time for awhile.  It seems no matter how little/how much it's still 35 minutes.

Yesterday for his 1.5 hr nap, he was awake at 1:30, and asleep by 2:45, so 1hr15 of Awake time.  He was also swaddled in his miracle blanket for the first time in forever.  He had a good feed during this cycle

Tanner is a textbook/angel baby BUT very very touchy with sleep.  Has been since day 1 actually.  No drowsy newborn here.  We have white noise, he is in a side positioner (doesn't sleep on his back), darker room.  He goes down to sleep GREAT, maybe 1 paci insert in the beginning but that's it.  It's the staying asleep part.

[becky1969]

That he slept well on 1h15 tells me he's on the low end of A time.  That's good to know for future!

Since he's so 'touchy' with sleep I'm beginning to wonder if you have a silent refluxer on your hands.  Silent reflux doesn't have any telltale spit up so it's VERY hard to dx.  My poor boy didn't get dx until 16 weeks and until then we had awful crying jags particularly at night.  I'm not saying for sure this is what's going on! But falling asleep but not staying asleep sounds like he's in pain or discomfort of some kind.

Another possibility is you have a child who is lactose intolerant.  So if you are BF and are eating any milk products that can cause some extreme discomfort for LO.  If he's FF and you are giving him a regular formula that can also be an issue.

I might bring my child in and talk wiht the ped about finding out if either of these things might be at work!

[~Lori~]

oh yes, he has DEFINITELY always been on the low end.  At 11 weeks he was still on 50 minutes Awake time.  We started adding minutes when he started doing 45 minute naps.  But have never "gotten it" right yet.

My daughter did 35 minute naps consistently, no matter what.  Stopped at around 5-6 months or so.

With the "reflux" thing, he is on meds, Prilosec, but honestly, I'm not convinced he has reflux.  I have over active letdown and a lot of the symptoms are similar.  I am pretty much off all dairy, to see if that makes any difference, and only when I have eaten ice cream (bad momma) does it seem to upset him.  He doesn't act uncomfortable.  I took him in at 2 weeks b/c of this, and have had a few med changes, but even on meds, his sleep hasn't improved at all, which is making me think it's not reflux.  I watch him at 33-35 minutes and he does big jolts consistently, huge ones that just startle him awake.

I try to burp for a long time and keep him upright awhile after a feed.  I have talked to his ped about his sleeping issues since day 1 and she just brushes it off saying "that"s a baby for you!".  When I have brought him in to the dr he is always so happy and smiley and gaining weight so well, that I don't really think the dr "Sees" what I am talking about. 

He has started sleeping longer chunks at night, at least 6 hrs now.  We were at 3-4 for a LONG time.

I am bewildered with all this, since I tried to be so proactive with things from right away since we had so many sleep issues with our daughter too