A time regression for 18 week/12 week adjusted? Growth spurt?

[_newmom_]

Hi

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question, so please move if required.

My DD2 was born 6 weeks early, and is now 12 weeks adjusted age.  She has always been quite sleepy, but started spending more time awake in the last few weeks, doing about 1 hr A time when she was 9 weeks adjusted.  She seemed ready to stretch it a bit longer to 1h10m last week, so I just followed her cues and put her down when sleepy.  However, the last couple of days she seems to have really regressed, and can only handle about 40 minutes, starting to fuss around 30 mins.  She just doesn't seem herself, and is maybe happy for 10 mins after waking up in the am & after naps but then starts fussing.  She can self soothe, so we're not doing any AP.  I may do a little bit of ssh/pat sometimes, but it seems to infuriate her more than anything, so I tend to just put her into her bassinette and she sticks her fingers in her mouth & falls asleep.  Sometimes she cries really hard, and I find it's better to leave her there stroking her gently, patting or holding my hand on her chest, and just stay with her until she calms down.  Picking her up seems to just aggravate her more.

She has reflux, so I'm wondering if this is bothering her more, and will check with the paed when I go for her checkup this week, but she still naps well, so not sure it's the reflux. 

Could she be going through a growth spurt?  Do LOs sometimes get extremely sleepy during these?

Our routine is a bit all over the place because of her sleepiness, but she feeds about every 4 hours, and used to do 45-60 min am & catnap + a long 3 hr mid day nap.  The last couple of days she's done 2 am naps if about 1 hr each, long mid day nap of about 2-2.5 hrs & 1 hr catnap. Bed time is 6.30.  Dreamfeed (slightly stirred to eat) is 10.30.  She tends to stir at 4 am, sometimes needs a feed to get back to sleep, sometimes, resettles herself, and is then awake around 6.30am.  She is formula fed.

Any tips or advice would be helpful.  I thought she was supposed to be able to handle more A time at this age, but not so...?

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi hun, sorry for the late reply.

could definitely be a gs. LOs get very sleepy during this time and A times often drop a little. could also be that she is ready for the extra A time but maybe after a few days the extra time was too much for her and she got a little OT. she may do better with 5 min increases in A time rather than 10. also many LOs do better when just one A time is increased at a time rather than all A times across the day (so add 10 mins to first A time for a few days, then to second A time as well for a few days and so on)

dont worry about what A times she 'should' be handling for her age. rather, follow her cues and she will let you know what she can handle.

[_newmom_]

No problem - I appreciate any reply I get!

That's a good tip about increasing A time one at a time - I hadn't thought of that before.  Will definitely try it.  Today, she did one long am nap, woke midway thru pm nap, but I resettled her, and is now down for catnap, although she took 15 mins to settle.  She actually seems UT sometimes, but just fusses after 40 mins that I always assume it's OT, but then when she's down, she struggles to settle.  If I didn't have the experience of getting DD1 to nap, I think I'd be going insane by now, but I just take each day as it comes.  I just feel so helpless when she cries, like I can't really do anything for her until she finally calms down a bit and puts her fingers in her mouth.  We're doing a long flight over xmas and I'm dreading it if she's still like this then.  Crikey - she'll keep the whole plane up!!!

[huntersmummyinoz]

good luck and let me know how it goes. also, if you could type future routines in this format (just makes it a little easier for us to see what is going on)

E when, how much?
A how long? (remember this is the whole awake time from eyes open to next sleep)
S when and how long? (also good to note if she took a while to settle or settled quickly and if you had to resettle during a nap)

after recently doing a 24hr plane trek with my LO, i dont envy your trip at xmas. APOP (accidental parenting on purpose) away for that flight if you can, you never know she may surprise you. my LO was a dream when we did the same trip at 7mths old but with a 1.5year old it was a nightmare!

[_newmom_]

Thanks - sure thing, will post routine in that format in future!

[huntersmummyinoz]

good luck