10 week old naps great when OT???

[samypoo]

Hi There,

My LO has always been a terrible napper and I've tried shorter A times, longer A times and APOP which haven't made any difference but a couple days ago she got really OT and cried a bit before her nap but it was the first time I was able to extend her nap in weeks, she slept for 2 hours and had a great night sleep. Usually her naps are only 30-45 minutes. This morning she got OT again and again I was able to extend her nap, she's going on 1.5 hours now.

Is this normal? Am I just misreading her cues? I usually start to wind her down when I see yawning or eye-rubbing which is usually after about 1 hour A time.

This is my dd#2 and I am just finding it sooo difficult to get her to have proper naps. These short naps are also playing havoc with her EASY, she ends up feeding about every 2.5 hours.

Any advice would be great, THANKS

[*Jo*]

im thinking maybe 1.5 hours might just be her A time, an average for a 3 month old is 1 hour 20-30mins and she will be there in a few weeks, so maybe shes just a little bit more ahead. however i would watch the crying before sleep, perhaps try to do something really low key before sleep so that shes still in a relaxed enough state when she goes to sleep that she will be able to get through the nap by herself

[samypoo]

Thanks calebsmummy, I'll aim for 1.5hrs tomorrow. What do you think is an appropriate A time after a short 30-45 minute nap? I've just done a lot of reading of other posts and I think my problem has been UT and OT naps as I haven't been shortening her A time after a short nap.

Her first A time of the day is 1hr - 1hr10 maximum and that nap is always the shortest which kinda throws the whole day out. I've tried extending that A time but then she got OT and woke every 10 minutes and had a terrible day. She does start showing tired signs at 30 minutes A time but she couldn't possibly have a proper 1.5hr nap after only 30 minutes of A time could she?

Thanks for your help 

[*Jo*]

no, not for the first one she cant, but perhaps if her first nap is short then yes possibly put her back down at around 45mins-1 hour and you might get a better nap, but lets hope changing the first A Time should fix that

[samypoo]

So this was our day today:

6:20 wake and feed
7:30 wind down (she started crying as soon as I swaddled her, took 10 min to calm)
7:45 asleep
8:30 wake (spent 45min patting, she dosed on and off looking really tired)
                   1hr25 A/45min sleep

9:15 got up and fed
10:00 wind down
10:15 asleep
10:50 wake (managed to get back to sleep)
11:40 wake (tried to resettle but no luck)
                     1hrA/1hr35 sleep

11:45 got up
12:00 feed
1:00 wind down
1:10 asleep
1:40 awake (tried to extend, dosed off for maybe 5 minutes)
                1hr30A/30min sleep

2:05 got up
2:10 feed
2:30 wind down (started crying as soon as I swaddled her, hard to settle)
2:55 asleep
3:20 wake (resettled)
3:35 wake (couldn't resettle)
               1hr15A/40min sleep

3:40 got up
4:00 wind down (started screaming, had to feed to settle)
4:20 got up (still very fussy, no sleep)
4:40 wind down
5:00 asleep (after fussing and crying)
5:30 awake
              1hr25/30min sleep

5:45 feed
6:00 quick bath and bed
7:10 asleep (after almost an hour of lots of patting, dummy and rocking (bad, I know, but I'm willing to do anything at this point)

After the first nap of the day (45 minutes) I did 45 min of patting where she had her eyes closed and dosed on and off the whole time. Do you count this "dosing" as sleep or as A time?

I really appreciate any advice, I'm sure there are a million things I'm doing wrong but I just can't work it out. I feel like I've been trying so hard to get things right for this baby but nothing I do seems to work  It's also taking a toll on my dd1 who also needs me but I end up spending all my time trying to get dd2 to nap. Luckily my dh is on holiday for another week so hopefully, by some "miracle" things have improved by then.

Thanks Again
                 

[lilisuze]

right here i am looking through your post. at 10 weeks old the A times look about right. I would be aiming for 1 hr 30 A. I think you will find if you read through loads of posts on here, babies seem to go through this short nap phase at about 8-16 weeks. It is a testing time for everyone trying their best to do BW and get long naps from their babies.

If following a set A time is not helping you to get consistent long naps i would be tempted to release the pressure on lo and yourself and see what she does for a week or so. Dont worry if every nap she has all day is 45 minutes long. Just chart what the A time was before each nap. If she wakes happy from a nap, and you have someplace to be, dont spend another 45 minutes trying to extend it, just go with the flow for a bit. If dd1 is napping, and you have time, try and extend it. You might find an A time pops up at you to say "aha 1hr 35 mins is right" when you look through the charts next week.

I really dont think its a case of doing anything wrong here, just a baby who's trying to settle down into this world, who is more aware of whats happneing, and interested in er surroundings. Who would want to sleep when there are new things to see?

Be easy on yourself, and baby. if you can do one good extended nap every day thats great. come back on in a week with what you have charted and i will look through again.

In the meantime, remember "this too shall pass!"

Lili xx

[samypoo]

Thanks Lili, I think I'm just finding it so hard because dd1 was so easy with napping that I just wasn't expecting it to be this difficult.

The last couple days have been a lot better though, had a 2hr nap yesterday and another today. I think her tired signs were sending me wrong, going by set A times has improved her naps hugely. She seems to show tired signs at random times even when she's not tired enough to have a good nap.

Thank you for your advice, I do need to calm down a bit and not get so stressed about her naps. I've decided that if she has a short nap and I can't extend after 15 minutes I'll get her up and look at adjusting A times rather than spending ages patting.

Thanks again

[Edesanja]

She seems to show tired signs at random times even when she's not tired enough to have a good nap.

Thought I'd have a read of this post since I have a newborn and just wanted to read up and remind myself on what's to come in the future....

But in case it helps, I found when my DD was 3-4 months I was getting her A times all wrong and we had short naps. Turns out I was reading bored cues as tired cues! Once I learnt to ignore the bored ones, things were a lot better.

[samypoo]

You're probably right about the bored signs, very similar to tired ones and sometimes hard to tell apart.

Just noticed you're in New Zealand, so am I! Where abouts do you live?

[Edesanja]

Christchurch. You?

[*Jo*]

ahhh ChCh, thats where i am from still miss it all my family are still there too

[samypoo]

I'm in Auckland, well actually Clarks Beach which is in Franklin.