been on EASY since 6wks but never had a good one. 5 m/o now i need help please!

[anielasmommy]

so here is a brief little story about DD:
Since the day she was born shes never napped well..she was VERY stuck on the 45min nap her whole life and of course the 30min nap from being sooooooo OT from never napping. she used to sleep well at night...but thats now a thing of the past. she seems to be over the whole 45min nap thing i believe it was developmental. she has some sleep problems as well...she will cry and scream in her sleep sometimes and some nights shes up every 2hrs...its been a very difficult journey but i havent given up on her. she DOES sleep independently and can get herself back to sleep at night as long as shes not hungry...during the day she never gets herself back to sleep and i cant seem to get her to sleep if she wakes up either. shes not the kind of baby that can be AP'd easily so we have had a rough time trying to get "caught up" on sleep...but shes back in the crib. she seems to get fussy and what i percieve as tired early but then naps will be short im sort of all over the place with our shedule right now and i need to be "walked through it"
shes a spirited refluxer with MSP egg and beef and peanut intolerance...shes EBF at the moment. im on a strict diet and shes doing much better and her meds were just increased so shes no longer in pain.

so my thoughts are i will write out my easy for the next three days so you guys can evaluate it better since its never the same. i will start tonight. THANKS A BUNCH! 

[anielasmommy]

oh BTW Charlotte told me to post in EASY b/c we think Aniela needs routine tweaking rather than it being a literal sleep issue.
so here was our easy today it went REALLY WELL compared to the norm

she was up at 3 and 4

6:20 awake
6:30 E
6:50 A
8:20 S
9:40 awake
10:30 E
10:50 A
11:50 S
12:20 awake (tried to extend didnt happen)
she was crying and crying but woulnt settle essentially her whole A time
1:50 E i fed her thinking if i did get her to sleep i wouldnt want her to wake up from hunger
2:05 S
3:24awake
3:30 E (she was rooting and fussing so i gave her a "snack" which is one breast)
3:40 A
i would like to say she slept afterwards but we had a Dr appt with her GI at 5:15...it ran wicked late
we got home at 6:30 without so much as a catnap
6:45 E
7:15 S

obvs. she was overtired so she woke up at 30 min mark and was flippin HYSTERICAL i couldnt calm her down so i gave her a boob....i know it was stupid but she was sooooo upset

[*Liz*]

How is her reflux Kami? I know you have been doing loads to try and fix it all - but do you think it is all fixed or are there still symptoms? Mummy instinct tends to know best on this one  .

Your evening was that OT monster, of course, as you said.

I think she perhaps needed a teeny bit longer for her first A to get it past 1.5hrs, but I think that 2h 10 was too much A after a 1h 20 nap.

Perhaps 2hrs after any nap longer than 1hr is a decent starting point for now  .

But how long have you been doing roughly 2hrs - if I remember rightly it has been quite a few weeks even though she has been unwell?

[anielasmommy]

hey Liz,
i do think the reflux is under control. shes back in the crib and its going better than it ever did even though its not wonderful. i do agree that she had too long of an A time following that nap but i was looking for signs and i never got any so at the 2hr mark i did her pre WD and then put her down. EVERY time i put her down now unless shes wicked OT she fusses for 30 sec-2min then settles and goes to sleep. she just mastered humb sucking so that helps.
last night she woke up every 2-3 hours and was doing her hungry cry...i kept feeding her. is there a growth spurt she might be hitting? can a baby manipulate using her hungry cry? maybe she just wanted to nurse to sleep? every time i gave her a chance to settle she kept doing the "cough" crying and wouldnt settle. it was a disaster needless to say but i didnt co-sleep like i normally would have...
b/c of last night i asked her father to take care of her for 30 mins so i could get a nap and he ended up letting me sleep until 7:40 (yikes) and i woke up on instinct (DD was only fed one breast at 5) the second she saw me she started doing the "cough" cry so i fed her and did our pre WD i put her down at 8:05 (she woke up at 6) the thing is she seems to get really tired at the 2hr mark so im going to take it slow with increasing her first A time b/c she gets hysterical if i miss her sleep window and it takes FOREVER for her to settle. i will post tonight how it all goes

[*Liz*]

is there a growth spurt she might be hitting? can a baby manipulate using her hungry cry? maybe she just wanted to nurse to sleep?

There is not a classic GS at this age, but as she has been ill and lost weight it is perfectly possible that she is having her own little GS to catch up now.

She can't manipulate you as she is so young and doesn't understand how too. She CAN be OT and feel that she needs her nursing comfort to sleep.

I would guess it is was a bit of both last night - catching her food up but being more unsettled than usual as she went to bed OT.

A lot of LO's like their first A to be shortest - so 2hrs might be all she can handle first thing - especially after last nights little picnic!!

Let me know how the day works out and we will try and tweak from there.

[anielasmommy]

ok so today was a NIGHTMARE. omg was it bad
5 half E
6:00 official wake
A
7:40 E
8:05 p/d 8:14 S
9:44 awake
10 E (trying to get back to a schedule)
10:20 A
11:30 tried to p/d was absolutely hysterical after 20 mins of hysteria i took her out walked around a bit and p/d again
12:03 S
12:33 awake (saw that coming)
was miserable whole A time
1:20 E she was rooting
1:40 tried to p/d after a few yawns and failed, tried to sleep with her and failed. took her out and tried again she fussed for a while but went down
2:05 S
2:45 awake
3:45 E i fed her thinking she might calm down b/c she was miserable...
4:00 tried to have her sleep with me on couch but she wouldnt settle
4:30 took her in the room with me she fell asleep in bed with me at
5:00 S
6:00 i woke her up and we took a bath
7:E
7:30 S

i know it looks bad with the feedings we usually stick pretty well to every 4hrs but she was so miserable today and she was acting hungry so idk everything was just a mess today. i know before you said a 4th nap would fail but if i put her to bed at 4:30-5 she would wake up at 4:30-5 shes not the kind of baby that will catch up at night she will just wake up really early and then our whole day will be screwed up...im hopeing she will be ok tonight and wake up at a normal time so we can have a fresh start.

[*Liz*]

I would probably have flung that last nap in as well if she was mega screaming OT.

Hoping your night wasn't too bad.

I think we need to aim to have her back asleep at 2hrs A in the morning - so PD 10 mins before that to give her chance to fall asleep on time. It looks as though anything over 2hrs is too much at the moment.

If she does a long nap then I would guess 2hrs -2h 15 for the next A, but if she short naps then cut to about 1.5hrs.

Lets see where we can get with that sort of a plan  .

((hugs)) to you both as well, of course  .

[anielasmommy]

lol thanks Liz. last night went beautifully! she woke at 11pm to eat then at 2:30 to eat (a little early but ok) and she was up at 5:40 am which isnt great but not too bad. since she had steady sleep i think today will go good. she did her first yawn at 7:40 and fell asleep at 8...i didnt read your post until now...but shes past the 30 min nap now so i dont think she was OT at all. she went out like a light when i put her down. its so cute she grabs her lovey now and cuddles it then pops her thumb in her mouth and just doses off! i love it lol im really hopeing for a better day and will let you know how it turns out tonight. thanks a bunch!

[*Liz*]

Well it will certainly be interesting to see hey?

Looks like that last nap saved you this time 

[anielasmommy]

ok so it was a disaster today!

5:40 E
6 A
8 S
9:05 awake (coughing idk if that is what woke her)
9:40 E
10 A
i put her down at 10:20 ans she fussed on and off for 40 mins! i didnt know if i should just help her? well she ended up crying and then wouldnt settle so i took her out...after trying until 11
11:50 S  (AP'd in wrap)
12:53 crying in sleep...led to some screaming when she calmed down she ended up opening her eyes and then would not settle..
1:10 awake
1:40 E
i babyweared her this A time..she didnt want to play anyway so i put her in a hip carry and "we" washed dishes...
at 2:15 she started burrowing her head into me so i did our pre WD and WD (rather quickly) and p/d at 2:30 she seemed likeshe was settling and then became hysterical and was screaming for 1 hr on and off but mostly on..it was an OT scream not a pain scream. i tried to AP her nap and she still wouldnt sleep. i kept trying and having little breaks until 4:30 pm...
5:20 E
5:40 S

i put her down for the night...thankfully my homeopathic infant sleep aide came in the mail today (it was backordered) and i gave her some and shes been out since i p/d! too bad its only for occasional use lol we will see how the rest of the night goes

so tommorrow i will put her down at 1hr 50mins and see how that goes for first nap
i feel like shes so all over the place with sleep...will there really be a "right time" for her or do some babies just never sleep well? im feeling hopeless!

[*Liz*]

Yes aim for 2 hrs asleep for the first nap. I'm sure the second one was UT though - I'm sure she would do more than 1h 20 after a 1 hr nap.

[anielasmommy]

ok. i p/d early b/c shes was yawning and fussing- thats whats hard for me is when shes cranky b/c shes OT and i try to keep her up? idk it just seems strange...but i will try it. well last night wasnt bad she only woke up to eat. so she woke up at 6am and i p/d at 7:50 and its a disaster! after our pre WD she did yawn twice so idk whats going on. shes screaming and screaming so i took her out after 15mins of trying to settle her to see if she needs a break and we walked around for 5 mins and i tried again and shes screaming and screaming! now im sure shes OT and everything is going to hell real fast...idk what to do she wont stop screaming i sent her father in to try to help her b/c hes not working until 1pm today but shes still screaming... shes been screaming for almost 40 mins now! i took her out...

[*Liz*]

It is odd as that is the same A time as yesterday, and the same that has worked before  .

I must admit I found yawning to be VERY unreliable in Jacob. I never worked them out at all. He did have other signs though. He would go kind of quiet for a bit, then get a bit fussy and that was nap time. Eye rubbing was always a sure one - but he kind of needed to be going to bed when that happened. These days he usually rubs his eyes as I zip his sleeping bag on - so I guess I prempt them.

Your LO clearly has a VERY narrow sleep window - too early and she screams and too late and she screams. But with her being unwell we haven't quite got a grasp on her A times and sleepy cues yet as she has often had something else going on - sore tummy or cumulative OT.

What do you think? Do you think she went down too early or too late?

[anielasmommy]

i do think it may have been too early and agree her sleep window is VERY narrow. it almost seems hopeless. i couldnt get her to sleep until 1:30! shes sleepin on the couch with me right now...
the 1hr 30min naps were the best we've gotten...idk what happened today

[*Liz*]

I think I agree with you - my thinking is just that your LO is 5mths old and any less than 2hrs would be really quite a short A time.

((hugs)) and we will get there.

My DS was a dreadful napper until about 5.5mths and it took me so long to 'figure it all out'. But I guess I just struck lucky in that he could be horribly wound up and OT but wasn't much of a screamer.