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

[*Liz*]

   .

Fingers crossed for the night!

[anielasmommy]

yes we had a bad night! she was up 6 times! every time she acts like shes hungry and if i do get her to settle with shh/pat (took 30-45mins every time last night) then she wakes up 1hr-1hr 45 min later and acts hungry. i posted on night wakings about the feeding during the night. someone said there is a growth spurt at 6 m/o...but shes always fed through the night idk...

anyways she was up at 6:30 i dont even know what to try yesterday when i tried at 2hr 30 mins she was wide awake and would not nap after that. i guess i will just try to read her cues the best i can and put her down when i think shes really tired...we will be home all day today so i can really follow easy!

[*Liz*]

((hugs)) they do often try and BF when they are just very tired. It is a comfort/ soothe myself to sleep type of thing.

Half expected the bad night TBH  .

Cues is the best idea as even if you only get a 30 min am nap in that is better than nothing to start your day from.

Let me know how you both get on 

[anielasmommy]

OK today went better but not good lol

6:30 wake up E
6:50 A
7:45 she was attacking my breasts so i fed her again...
8:40 S
9:10 awake
10:45 E
11:15 p/d (i know it was late but we had a surprise poopy lol)
11:20 S
11:50 awake was hysterical
12:15 went for walk (in wrap)
12:30 S
1:00 awake (dog woke her up actually, im going to kill him lol)
2:45 E
3 tried to have nap with me finally fell asleep at 3:40...
5:20 awake (i cleared my throat not even load b/c i really needed to cough and didnt want to wake her but it woke her)
hysterical until..
5:50 E
6:20 S

i am REALLY hopeing for a better night i literally slept maybe 2 hrs last night. every time she woke up it was at least 30 mins to get back to sleep then i couldnt sleep and right as i would doze off she was awake again...

so i am clueless...

[*Liz*]

Hopefully she will have had a better night and we can try some longer A's again  `

[anielasmommy]

ok she had a good night last night. she woke up at 6 but i fell back asleep and got up at 6:24 so idk what time to go by. so i guess i will just try to read her and see where we end up today.

[anielasmommy]

ok today went fairly well alot better than it has in weeks!

6:30 E
6:50 A
8:20 pd
8:25 S
8:55 awake...i tried to let her "work it out" and she talked to herslef for 20 mins then i got her up.
10 E
10:50 pd
11:05 S
11:45 woke up but put herself back down for the first time ever!
12:40 awake
2:00 E
2:30 S (with me)
4 awake she woke up screaming?
5:30 E she kept fussing and fussing then was falling asleep at the breast so i p/d at
6 but is still awake and fussing...yelling/crying on and off it is escalating though so idk if its mantra? its stop and go though...idk i will probably go in

[anielasmommy]

i took her out and put her back down at 7 and she went to sleep

[*Liz*]

I still think that points towards needing more A first thing or after a good nap.

Essentially I think that shows that she needs 2hrs A after a short nap 

Broken naps are totally normal when your LO is learning to nap longer so you definately did the right thing by seeing if she would self extend. J was like that as well for a while  . Still does it sometimes as well  .

No idea what was bugging her in the evening but I doubt we can blame it on OT really - so something else really  .

[anielasmommy]

ive got no clue what happened that evening...
today was OK but not great.
7:40 A
9:35 S
10:20 awake
left till 10:35...very cranky
10:40 E
10:55A
12:30 S
2 awake E
2:20 A
4:30 S
4:50 awake hysterical so 2.5 hr A is not enough?
5 E
wouldnt go back to sleep and didnt sleep until after our whole routine and another feed...
6:50 S


so if i just go ahead and shoot for a 3hr A time or even 2hr 45 mins what do i do about our feeding schedule? i know she cant go 4.5 hrs without a feed and i dont think its a great idea to feed her before her nap...what did you do with J?

its so weird to b/c this morning she starts fussing and i put her in the wrap and 10 mins later she starts burrowing and i start singing to her and the second i p/d she goes right to sleep! that always makes me think oh ive got it this time but thats never the case. maybe she just gets bored...idk it seems like there is only so much ypu can do with her at this age and shes not sitting up or anything yet so i play with her and she'll be interested in a toy for a few mins and then shes over it and wants to do something else...i never thought A time would be a challenge lol i mean we read and sing like all day and practice sitting up and rolling and she does the gym and we do standing and i dance with her we go outside ect i feel like we've got it all covered but its not enough...well we have to figure out something thats for sure.
at least i can get a good nap after a short one! now we just have to make it all good naps and i will be happy!

[anielasmommy]

LIZ WE HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH!

she was up at 6:20
i p/d at 8:55 and she started sucking her thumb and didnt even make a peep and shes still sleeping!!
its almost 10 now! we passed the 30 min mark woohoo

so now im all nervous about the next A time b/c i remmember yesterday 2hr 30 mins was not enough and i know first A times are usually shorter.
she didnt show me any tired signs until she was in the wrap and we were walking around. i just figured i would put her in the wrap at 2:25hr  mark...

i totally dont want to screw this up having a good am lol maybe i will put her in the wrap at the 2hr 30 min mark this next A. i just hope she wont wake early from hunger...? this is crazy shes soo little and everyone i always talked to before would tell me shorter A times 30 min naps are OT and i kept cutting them down and down and taking away stimulation ect ect and thats the exact opposite of what she needed! no wonder we have been screwed up for so long! even if we can only get a 1hr 20/30 min nap out of her thats fine if its all she needs! im just soooooooooo happy to not have an OT baby all the time! the screamfests are over! i have been praying for her to sleep for so long i could literally cry just for the past few days. i have felt so bad for my DD for so long and now i get to just enjoy her and see how happy and wonderful she is without all the tears and meltdowns. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!! (((hugs)))

[*Liz*]

Yey Kami that is great. I had a feeling she was UT and was going to agree that you needed to extend a littel more.

this is crazy shes soo little and everyone i always talked to before would tell me shorter A times 30 min naps are OT and i kept cutting them down and down and taking away stimulation ect ect and thats the exact opposite of what she needed!

BTDT as well. J short naps at 30 or 37 mins for a UT nap as well and again I fell into the 'surely it is OT?' trap. But it wasn't - he just didn't want to go to bed and was fed up and not tired enought to sleep.

Spirited LO's often do have longer A's and less sleep than average -especially as they get older. You should here us all on the toddler board.

At 6 mths Jacob was doing 3hrs A first thing and second thing, then slightly less before bed.

So I guess aim for the same A again and take it from there. There are plenty of babies that do not increase their A as the day goes on - lots stay the same and some (like my DS) decrease.

Fingers crossed and SO pleased for you 

[anielasmommy]

ok so today was essentially perfect! this is the first real EASY day we have ever had! im so excited!

i think i kind of screwed things up a bit towards the end though. i think we both are so used to her being so OT our evening was completely different. it was funny b/c after i fed her (shes usually passing out) she turns to me and starts laughing like what do we do now momma? lol i had no clue what to do...we sang some songs and cuddled and i was watching the clock like by the minute lol but i still think i put her down a little early but shes not fussing or anything...
btw i think we may have hit a legit GS but not sure. she has a cold but she was after my breasts like crazy today! i got wicked food sick too so idk whats going on but omg i feel like im dying! idk if she can get sick off of my milk..anyways here was our practically perfect easy!
6:20 awake E
6:50 A
8:55 S       2hr 35min
10:18 awake
10:20 E
10:30 A
12 E  i think something is up she was soooo cranky during the A and it wasnt OT...she was crying randomly and thats not like her.
12:15 A
12:42 S she couldnt hold out any longer i put her in the wrap at 12:33 and she was practically knocked out at 12:42 when i p/d..
1:58 awake
2 E
2:15 A
4:20 S i kind of forced her to sleep...not sure what actual time she dosed off but im thinking about this time we went in the bedroom at 4pm b/c she was yawning and fussing. she didnt go down without a fight so im thinking it was too early..but i passed out lol
4:50 awake
5 E
5:15 A
7 S


so heres my question obvs its not going to be a 7am -7pm kind of deal here. if i increase the last two A's its going to be even later...so we will be looking at a 8 or 8:30 bedtime if shes up at 7? that sux lol i mean im certainly glad shes actually sleeping so, so be it if it needs to be that way... is this what happened for you and J? if not what did you do differently?

[*Liz*]

Quite a lot of people find their LO has to do an 11hr night during nap transitions to fit in enough A time. J was never a 12 hr night sleeper anyway.

Very very soon you won't need tha CN anyway - that goes once they are doing 3hrs A time and 2 good naps.

I so so hope you get a repeat today 

[anielasmommy]

well thats ok i just look forward to bedtime lol im soooo exhausted at the end of the day and i need to veg out!

today was screwey but thats because we went to the Dr's i thought DD might have an ear infection but nope. guess whos teething? lol i knew something was up she's got two teeth comming in the bottom. the Dr.(not our normal one) was a little surprised i didnt know and i said to her i dont just go shoving my fingers in her mouth! lol i try to respect her! but anyways i stayed on track and her next nap was 1.5 hours. again today with the 3rd nap struggle though. i gave her 2hr and 30 mins before i lay down with her and she was still fighting like crazy...dozed off at 2hr and 45 min mark i believe (i dozed off myself) but then woke at 30 mins...but went back to sleep and was up at 1 hr mark...i was hopeing for a long nap since her first nap was only 40 mins...idk what to do about third nap really i tried to put her in the crib and she flips out and with me shes not happy but will give in eventually lol

thanks for everything Liz you are a life saver! just wish we had talked a few months ago! better late than never though! lol