45min nap

[bessie26]

What do you do after a 45min nap? Do you try to pat-shh them back to sleep? Or just start with E again?

And why do they wake after only 45min? (sorry, have forgotten all this since doing it with DD1 2.5 yes ago!) is it because they are OT? or UT?

TIA

[deb]

Baby sleep cycles are 45 minutes, so they stir between cycles and sometimes wake fully.

I try to get in there before they wake fully and get them back to sleep to extend the nap: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=649.0

[bessie26]

Thanks for link, I read that earlier but am still confused about why naps that were previously 1.5hrs are now 45 mins? (she is 5 weeks old)

[deb]

Her sleep and feed needs are changing, and with each shift, aka Growth Spurt, sleep tends to go wonky for a while. Happens more often around 3 months, but not exclusively. May need to tweak A times a little bit, altho at 5 weeks no extend as much as we had to - try a little bit more A like 5 minutes, watch cues, that sort of thing.

Is your LO Spirited? Touchy? Personality can make a difference in how you handle situations like this too. Some babies go from UT to OT in a heartbeat, while with others you get more of a cushion.

[bessie26]

Thanks for the reply debs.

TBH I'm not sure what her A times were, we're still winging it & going by her sleepy cues (yawning is the only one I've noticed so far)  which seem to vary enormously depending on how the previous night has been. Last Thursday we pretty much followed the example EASY routine in the book for a 4wo & it was great, in the afternoon I swaddled, cuddled, put her down in her Moses basket & she self-settled! :-)  Every night since then she's been disturbed (gas or wind) and that's messed us up for the day :-(

She had a short nap this morning & so when she did it again this afternoon I sent her out in the pram with DH (I needed to nap!!). He walked for an hour before she fell asleep & then it was only for 15mins (she was due a feed by then) He said she kept dropping off, but waking a few mins later which is what she's been doing this nap time (& she's swaddled!) I'm currently holding her just so she can get a bit of sleep before her next feed (is it still AP if you do it on purpose?!)

I probably need to do the personality quiz again. I did it when she was 2wo & she was textbook/angel :-)

Sorry for the long & rambling email, am tired & typing with my thumb on iPhone while holding sleeping baby!

[deb]

Lots of gas or wind might be swallowing air, or it could be a food/dairy intolerance. IS she BF?

If you get a chance to chart something resembling an EASY, do post it - might be able to sort it from there. 

[bessie26]

Yes, she's bf.  The wind/gas isn't all the time (which I thought it would be if it was an intolerance?), it usually causes a problem at night but can sometimes happen during the day too. I need to start doing tummy rubs etc throughout the day to try to stop it building up.

I could post what we've done today, but it seems fairly pointless as it would be immediately obvious that she hasn't slept enough!!

[deb]

The point of posting an EASY routine is to get a look at things like what time she wakes, how long her A time is, how often she's feeding, and to look for patterns.

[bessie26]

Ok, here's what we've done since bedtime yesterday...

Friday 
S 1750 in sling
E 1840 25min R
A
S 2015
E 2300 15m L
S 2320

Saturday
E 0200 15min R
S 0215
E 0540 15min L
     0555 Awake
E 0700 15min R
A 0715
S 0830
E 0930 40min L
A 1010
S 1100
A 1145
E 1220 15min R
A 1235
S 1350
  1430 awake - out in pram
S 1600 15min in pram
E 1620 20min L
A 1640
S 1815
E 1910 20min R
S 1930
   1940 Awake
S 2025
     2110 awake - unswaddledS 2120
2140 awake - gas
E 2200 20min L
S 2220

[deb]

Bear in mind I'm still caffienating this morning, but a couple thoughts:

45-minute naps are usually UT, but naps of other odd lengths like 20 minutes are usually OT, if I remember all this. (Been a while since I had a baby in the house. )

On Sat morning, that first A time - looks like she was awake from 0540 (awake to nurse, so I'm starting there instead of 0555) till 0830, which would be a REALLY long time to be awake. Then asleep for that full hour before the next feed? An hour would be an odd length of sleep cycle, which would lean toward being OT by then. At that age if she's already awake before 6AM, I'd treat that as a NW if I could and try to get her back down straightaway, but if she decided she was up for the day, try for a nap no more than maybe 60-90 minutes later (depends on baby and sleep cues), and then try to extend the nap from there and see if I couldn't get the day on track.

I notice she's waking lots at night, so she may already be waking tired and unable to do a long A time initially, hence being UT at the first naptime, and then ending up OT by the time she does finally give in and fall asleep. Is the Friday feed at 2300 a DF, or is she waking for that?

[bessie26]

Thanks for your thoughts Deb,

A week or two ago she was going 4-5hrs between her night feeds... when she first started waking more frequently I assumed it was a growth spurt, but it's been going on a very long time now!

I did try to get her back to sleep (pat-shh) after that 0540 feed but she couldn't be convinced! Will try the short nap as you suggest if she repeats this.

I think that some of the odd waking times are due to gas, or her sister (2.5) I just forgot to write it down.  I'm not doing the df atm, just feeding when she wakes, but perhaps I should as it might help give me a more consistent morning start time(?) as well as her more continuous sleep!

Anyway, she's napping now, so I will too (fx it's longer than 45mins!)