Trouble with MORNING naps

[Britterbug84]

Hey ladies! I am having a bit of a problem with AM naps with my LO. She is 8 weeks old and has struggled off and on with 45 minute naps. Now I am afraid we are getting into an overtired cycle first thing in the morning, and then I resort to co-napping in the middle of the day, on MY bed, just to get her to sleep for 2 hours. After that, she usually will sleep through her whole nap times and sleep 8-10 hours at night. So, what am I doing wrong first thing in the morning to mess things up? Here is what our routine has looked like for the past several days:

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

E - 8:00
A - 8:15
S - 9:05
A - 9:45-50 (This is where I try desperately to put her back to sleep sometimes I will get 10-20 minutes more)
E - 11:00
A - 11:12
S - 11:45
A - 12:20-30
E - 1:30 (she usually starts the hungry crying early this cycle)
A - 1:45
S - 2:10-15 -This is when I will lay her down on my bed, lay next to her, and we will both usually sleep for two hours and I will leave her asleep on the bed until....
E - 5:00
A - 5:15
S - 5:55 (she will sometimes make a little noise at 45 minutes, but stay asleep)
E - 7:00
A - 7:10 - Bath, Massage, Lotion, PJ's, Story, Swaddle, Bed
S - 8:10-15

Then the next morning it starts over!

Our wind-down routine is really simple. We go into her darkened room, change diaper, swaddle, sit in rocker, hum a song (same one every time), and then put her in her crib. 95% of the time, she starts to scream as a swaddle her, and doesn't stop until she passes out asleep 10 minutes later. I have tried giving her the pacci to suck to sleep, but I don't want her to need that. When she goes to sleep with the pacci she wakes up as soon as it falls out. I don't use the sshh-pat because it seems to make her more upset and awake. I do pat her back while we rock, but stop once I put her down. I will admit that about 75% of the time she falls asleep on me before I can get her into the crib, but I have put her down awake the few times she is calm after I swaddle her.  I am getting REALLY frustrated, and don't know what to do! Help me!

[katakow2]

If I'm reading right... it seems like she's awake for 3 hrs in the morning first thing?  That's a pretty long stretch.  Have you tried to put her down earlier? 

[Britterbug84]

She usually stays awake for just under an hour after the first feed of the day. Then she goes to sleep for 45 at the most, and I can't for the life of me get her back to sleep so she stays awake until her next feed. Unfortunately that means she is awake for 2 hours and 15 minutes of the 3 hour EASY cycle.

This is where the whole problem is. Because she wakes early from that first nap, she is then OT for every nap until I lay down with her. I tried today to cut her first A time to just 40 minutes including feeding time, and she woke after only 30 minutes. I put her into the stroller and got out of the house just to keep my sanity without worrying about putting her back to sleep. She didn't sleep in the stroller at all....therefore making her OT once again. I laid down with her for her second nap and she slept through the 45 minutes. Now she is down for her 3rd nap....and is about 2 minutes past the 45 mark and is still asleep! ***never mind! she woke up about 30 seconds after I posted this***

I am pretty sure that if I can get her to sleep through that first nap, she will nap well for the rest of the day.

[*Jo*]

Hi there, are you keeping her up to match the 3 hour Easy or is it that she just wont fall asleep until then? i agree with PP its a very long stretch to start the day off and it is making your day a mess. If she wakes at 6am feed her again and start your day from there. could you get her back to sleep say around 7/7.15am? this is of course only a temporary measure until she is back on track.

her short nights are indicative of OT, at this age her A time should be around 1hour 15-20mins long

[Britterbug84]

I think maybe there is some confusion with my example schedule. She is sleeping wonderfully at night....or so I thought. Usually it is from 8:00 or 8:30 - 5:00am, which is 8.5 or 9 hours and then two hours after she eats at 5. Should she be getting a longer stretch at night?

E - 5:00am
S - goes back to sleep between 5:30-6:00 depending on how much she fights sleep. And then sleeps until our optimal wake time at:
E - 8:00
A - 8:15
S - 9:05
A - 9:45-50 This is where I try desperately to put her back to sleep sometimes I will get 10-20 minutes more, but usually she will just stay awake until her next feed at 11:00

Yesterday was the worst day so far. Even after she got 2 hours of sleep with me on the bed, she continued to wake early from every nap. Most of her naps yesterday were only 30 minutes!! She would wake up obviously tired, but I couldn't get her to go back to sleep at all! I observed one nap, and she moved and moaned and groaned through the whole thing. I am not even 100% sure she was asleep for that nap....just not awake enough to scream.

When DH came home from work, he put her down for a nap and she didn't even make a peep at 45 minutes; she slept straight through to her next feed. That is typical of her naps when DH does the wind down and puts her to bed. I have watched him though and he does the exact same things I do, in the same order I do them in. It is very frustrating when it seems that she sleeps better for him than for me.

I have tried to keep her up for the whole 1 hour 15-20 minutes and she is miserable and screaming at 1 hour and 10 minutes. So I usually shoot for an A time of 50-60 minutes because she doesn't give clear tired signs.

I am so lost!

[*Jo*]

she needs to be doing 11-12 hours at night, the reason she cant meet her A time of 1 hour 15mins is because she is OT. if she goes t o bed at 8.30 then her ideal wake up time needs to be around 7.30-8.30am, if she doesnt get enough night sleep she will continue to be OT, thus affecting her daysleep

[Britterbug84]

Wow! I had no idea! I think the longest night we have had ever was 10.5 hours back at 5 or 6 weeks old.

Last night she slept from 7:30-3:00 then she woke to feed, and slept again from 3:30-8:00 when I woke her up to start the day. I guess that in total is 12 hours. Is that ok? or should it be 12 hours straight through without a night feeding?

Today, we have gotten a 45 minute nap, one 2 hour nap, and one 2.5 hour nap. Granted there was a lot of APOP going on to keep her asleep, and her A times are really short, but I figure she has a lot of sleep to catch up on. I am guessing there is no quick fix for the OT. Is there anything more I can do besides keeping her from getting OS and doing my best to get her sleeping through her full naps?

To get her sleeping "through" the night I have been feeding at 5, and 7, then she goes to bed around 8-8:30, with a DF sometime between 9 and 10. Should I add another cluster feed?

Thank you so much for responding, and explaining!

[*Jo*]

yep that sounds like a good night, its fine to have feeds in the night especially at this age, they need them.

I wouldnt worry about anotehr cluster feed, if she is on a 3 hour EASY with a DF and one night feed thats excellent.

There is no quick fix for OT, its just a case of helping her catch up on sleep and riding it out, a couple of days of really good naps and she should be right again. You are doing all the right things

you had a short nap for the first one but the other two were brilliant so well done! most OT babies find it difficult to transition past the 30-45min mark so you are on the right track, keep us updated!

[Britterbug84]

Things are getting better!

We have had a couple shorter nights, one 10 hrs total, and the other 10 hrs 45 minutes. Naps have been better too. The first one of the day is still the hardest to get through, but they get better through the day.

Now that she is getting more sleep, should I gradually extend her A times out to where they should be? Or will she just naturally start staying up longer? Right now she is still only making it to about 50 minutes before she starts getting upset and cranky. That includes feeding.

Yesterday we had an outing at the state fair which went surprisingly well! Its a good thing she had gotten a day and a half of good naps. She was really tired and OS by the time we got home, but slept almost 11 hours last night and is having a some what decent nap this morning. I am hoping that the rest of the day goes well.

Thank you so much for letting me know that I am doing what I am supposed to. I started to feel like I had no clue what I was doing, and that everything I tried just made it worse. I guess I am a half decent BW after all!

[*Jo*]

im glad things are improving for you its so good to hear when mum and baby are doing alot better

in regards to her A times, once you feel she has caught up on her sleep i would try and extend them but do it gradually in 15 min lots or the jump might be too difficult and set her back to OT again. if she is really good at giving tired signs perhaps just watch her and see what times she is telling you to put her to sleep and see how that goes.

let me know how you get on

[Britterbug84]

Well, things went downhill fast. We got two days of decent naps, and then it all fell apart. I don't know what triggered it, but she woke early from the first nap of the day and every nap after that. Then she refused to sleep for most of the evening and ended up going to bed late. The next day was even worse, and the next night even worse, with an even later bed time. Last night she wouldn't go to sleep until almost 10.....and we started at 7:30.

Today she is starting to get better naps, so hopefully this evening is better. I have also been dealing with a dwindling milk supply and have discovered that Kaylee has mild reflux as well as dairy sensitivity. Needless to say, things have been a bit challenging

[*Jo*]

oh dear! im sorry to hear things arent going so well, is she on meds for the reflux?? reflux and dairy sens will mess with naps, we had the same problem and once he was medicated and on different formula (i know you breastfeed) he became a different baby altogether

[Britterbug84]

yeah she actually has been on meds for a couple weeks, but they don't seem to be doing much for her. I mean, they keep her from screaming 12-15 hours a day like she was, but she still has really bad days. She is on Prevacid and I am going to see what her doctor thinks about trying Zantac instead.

What kind of formula did your LO get switched to? Just checking in case my milk supply doesn't come back.....it basically disappeared overnight.

[Britterbug84]

Oh, I do have a question about a new thing she does during some naps. She will make little cries and turn her head back and forth for the WHOLE nap! I have watched her and her eyes stay shut, but she doesn't really seem to be asleep either. Any thoughts about that? Is it just her being overtired?

[*Jo*]

hmmm dont know about taht one, could be OT, sounds like a restless sleep.

we are on Pepti Junior for Calebs intolerance, its prescription only so definatly ask about it if you need to, it tastes foul but he drinks it no problems, he knows it wont hurt his tummy so he chugalugs!!!

I would go to the Dr and say theres been a slight improvement but you want to push for a better medication. We are on Omeprazole (Losec) and its really good. let me know what the Dr says, until you get it sorted your naps are likely to be haywire for a bit, Reflux and routine dont mix well