When nothing helps short naps...

[newmom09]

hello,

I have browsed through the discussions about short nappers and have tried everything that has been suggested! My son is 3 months old and has been on EASY for over a month. He does sleep through the night, waking up hungry only once around 3:30am (and sometimes not at all). He will only sleep for 30-40 minutes during daytime naps, which is making my house messy and me crazy.

I have tried shhh/pat and he hates the pat, so I do sshhh and caress his forehead or put my hand on his chest. This does help him relax initially but once he wakes from his 30-40 minute nap, there is no going back. He will not settle back down.  I also tried wake to sleep and holding his limbs down when he jolts but neither of these have been successful in extending his nap time.

He is not overstimulated because he just sits quietly or chats with me during his A time. No tv, no noise, no toys in his face. Sometimes I do put him on his play mat but only for a few minutes. He is OT of course, but that is because he doesn't sleep enough during the day! I have tried shortening his A time too.

We do have a wind down ritual, and perhaps it is not adequate. He cries his head off when I sit in the glider with him until I give him his paci and begin shshhhhh. Sometimes he fights the pacifier so I just try to calm him down with my voice and my touch. Then he jolts into a half sleep (within a minute I swear! he goes from shreaking to unconscious in a snap!) and I put him down. This ritual lasts about 5-10 minutes because otherwise he is either crying or sleeping in my arms...
We have swaddles him and unswaddled him. Given him a paci and taken away his paci: nothing helps.

Apparently he is too young for pupd so I will try that when he gets to 4 months. I suspect he will likely tire me out before he gives up! he is a stubborn boy! Anyways, here is his general routine, the times vary:

6:30am E
7-8am A
8am-9am S (including wind down and my lame attempts to extend his nap)
9:30 E
10-11 A
11-12 S (as above)
1pm E
1:30-2:30pm A
2:30-3:30pm S (as above)
4pm E
4:30-5:30pm A
5:30-6pm S (cat nap)
6:30 E (snack)
7 bath
7:30 bedtime (usually wakes once or twice but out cold by 8:30 or 9pm)
11pm df


Thoughts???

[blessedbear]

Hi,
Are you continuing to swaddle?  This was a very necessary technique with our LO.  Also depending on the type of baby some LO's do not like a long wind down.  My girl is kind of like that so we keep it short for naps about 15 mins (longer for bedtime routine.)  Shhh/ptt never really worked becuase LO did not like the pat part either so I just did the shshh part sometime with success.  also are you still feeding every 2-3 hours?  Could he be waking from hunger?  It is awesome that he is STTN so early.  I always had a great night sleeper (not always so great with naps) but I said I will take the good night sleeper thank you very much.  Maybe try putting him to bed earlier at 6:30 pm since he waks at 6:30 am.  HTH.

[newmom09]

we still swaddle him and sometimes leave one arm out since he has found his fingers. I don't think he is waking from hunger...he doesn't seem hungry, just tired! But maybe I will try that next nap to see for sure. I do feel very lucky that he sleeps at night. Obviously I would take that over a day sleeper anytime. But the poor thing is exhausted at the end of the day and gets very fussy. These short naps pretty much make the Y time non-existant since I wash his bottles and prep his formula or do the laundry in the 30 minutes of nap he does give me.  He used to be happy just sitting or lying down alone but these days he wants attention, specifically to be held!
When he falls asleep at night I shower and go to bed!
Oh well, thanks for the reply. I might try putting him to bed earlier tonight too.

[blessedbear]

Hi,
Ok good that you still swaddle and ruled out waking from hunger.  I originally was putting LO down around 8 pm and it was suggested that I try for 12 hour days so maybe his bedtime is a little late so I would definitely try putting him down earlier even as early as 6:30 pm like I mentioned before.  Also for the A time remember that is everything from eyes open to eyes shut.  During his A time let him do tummy time(he will probably hate it at first so keep it to a couple minutes only) but give him time on the floor a lot to distinguish that this is A time and hold and cuddle when you start wind down.  HTH.  

[*Jo*]

just looking at your routine, you state that wind down is part of the S but its actually part of the A so i would start your wind down 15mins before he is meant to be asleep as it does seem that by the time he goes to sleep he is already OT and unsettled. its good that he STTN so you can start the day afresh, we had the same thing with Caleb, he always STTN so it made it easier to try and get back on board

[newmom09]

Ok, so two days ago, I tried tweaking the wind down ritual a bit and it seemed to help because he slept for 2 hours at his first nap and had two shorter naps (longer than 30 minutes, but still a bit short). I was so excited! then that night he woke up at his dream feed...I mean AWAKE. I tried settling him down and it took about an hour to get him back to sleep. He woke up at 5:30am and there was no getting him back down.
  Yesterday he was great: slept for 2 hrs, 1.5hrs, and another 1.5 hrs during the day. It was wonderful: I can see my floors again because I had time to clean! I got him to be nice and early as suggested, probably about 6:45pm. He woke up screaming at 10pm, I fed him because he was hungry and put him back to sleep. He woke up again at 1:45am, 3:45 am and then again at 5am. It took a lot of settling to get him down the last two times. After the 5am waking he went back to sleep from about 6-7am. A very tired mommy!
   He has always slept pretty good at night so I am wondering if he would benefit from keeping the daytime naps at about 1.25-1.5 hrs??? He was tired when I put him down for naps yesterday for sure, so I am not sure what's causeing the NW/EW!!!  I also considered he may just need some time adjusting to the naps...I will keep trying and see what happens! Thanks for all the help so far!

[*Jo*]

ok are you able to put up your new tweaded routine?? also how close to four months is he? could he be transitioning to the four hour EASY?

take a look at this: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63161.0

[newmom09]

I changed the wind down routine by adding some quiet time in the nursery with soft nature noises (like rainfall and birds chirping). Basically I put him in a sling and carry him around in there, either just walking around or putting laundry away etc. When he starts to look sleepier (or when I run out of chores)I sit down in the glider until he starts getting the heavy eyelids.
  I tried extending his EASY schedule by 15 minutes so that it would be gradual, but he doesn't seem to be reponding well. I will keep with it though. He will be 14 weeks tomorrow.

(Yesterday he was back onto short naps again - but he did STTN...)