Arrrgh!! 3rd-nap-of-the-day!!!!

[laurenhendo]

Hey all

I have a lovely 8 week old DD who is napping well for for two of her naps of the day but the 3rd nap is always a no-go nap! I cannot get her to sleep at all and even when i put her in the swing, she stays awake for ages, eventually drifts off and then wakes 45 mins later? She doesn't cry or become impossible to settle, she just won't go to sleep!

I tried resettling her in her cot, giving her her dummy, rocking her for a bit in her room with the white noise on etc, but i feel like im always running up the hallway to her room at this time and i also have 4 yo DD to take care of and trying to get dinner sorted!!

It's been along time since i did the BW stuff with my first DD so i'm a bit rusty, but have a few questions, i will post our EASY below:

PS we are on 3.5 hour EASY...DD was 5 weeks early and the special care nursery had her on 4 hour routine, when i brought her home i tried 3 hour but she wouldn't feed well, so we stretched to 3.5 hour...

7:30 feed
8:30 swaddle, brief wind down and into bed, sometimes with dummy, sometimes not.
11:00 - wake for feed.
We usually head out most days after this feed so the next nap is spent in her capsule, and she sleeps fine.
2:30 feed
3:30-3:45 - try and settle and here is where it all goes pear shaped...try and settle for around an hour then give up and put her in swing where she looks around for a while then falls asleep for 30-45 minutes, so it's usually around 5pm that she finally naps.
5:45 wake her up and give her a bath, then bottle then bed around 6:45 - 7pm. She then goes around 5 hours until the next feed (don't do dreamfeed, i've been a bit lazy...should I? What time?)

Also some of the other questions i had were....is it ok that she only has one nap per day in her bed? Is it ok that i have to use a swing for that last nap? Can someone please reassure me that it's ok not to have it all perfect when you have 2 kids...i'm so hard on myself!!

Thanks ladies!

Lauren H

[laurenhendo]

Anyone??

[ZacsMumme]

Hi Lauren,

Can someone please reassure me that it's ok not to have it all perfect when you have 2 kids...i'm so hard on myself!!

(HUGS) I have one and its not all perfect. You are doing a wonderful job.

I will pop back on when my DS is napping in a few hours and have a good look at your post Hang in there.

[ZacsMumme]

At 8 weeks most LOs are taking 4 (some 3 + a CN) good naps a day, so my first thought is that your LO is OT.
Your first nap is good, quite long but if this is her only good nap during the day at the moment I would leave it

How long is that second A time before she takes her nap, and how long is that second nap usually? I suspect this is where things may be going a touch wonky.

As 8 weeks I wouldn't worry about her sleeping in the swing or car. However, be careful how often/long your LO sleeps in a carseat as too much capsule sleep can be bad for their spine/growth.

[laurenhendo]

Hi Zac's Mum.
The second A time is around an 1/1.15, although sometimes if i have to take other DD to playgroup/preschool etc it's straight in the capsule and she usually falls asleep in the car on the way there, which means her A time is very short!....but i can't really prevent this as we need to get out and about....

To be honest, she did quite well on the 4 hour routine that they put her on at the hospital, i just thought i had to get as many feeds as i could into her during the day, but maybe i should go back to the 4 hour EASY?

[ZacsMumme]

I suspect she is UT when taking that second nap how long is that nap usually? If it is only 45mins then she is likely to be getting OT by the time the third nap rolls around IYKWIM.

I personally think she is very young to be on a 4 hourly routine. However, if she has been on this since birth maybe it is what she knows and expects. When you say 4 hourly routine from birth do you mean for feeding only or for her complete EAS?

[laurenhendo]

Oh sorry, should have clarified...eating every 4 hours..how would that fit into an EASY if she is very young or am i just better off keeping her on a 3 or 3.5 hr EASY?

[Lolly]

Hi! From a feeding point of view if you feel she feeds better on a 3.5/4 hour routine I would stick with that to be honest. The reason a 3 hour feed routine is more appropriate is to get more calories in during the day to help the night and because of the A times. That said, formula fed babies often need to go to longer apart feeds before their A times are up to it so you won't be able to have a "perfect" EASY until she is up to 2 hour+ A times. Oh- I never managed a "perfect" EASY with one, let alone 2 either

That's the beauty of EASY really, you can follow her cues and still have a good routine, it doesn't matter if it's not eat/ activity/ sleep if that's what suits your LO best. I have 2 refluxers who needed to go to 4 + hour feeds before their A times were up to it so we did something like EASAES (or some such combination ) for a long while, I just made sure that we didn't feed to sleep when E came just before S - so a nappy change or 5 mins A was enough so we put them down awake.

HTH!

Laura

[laurenhendo]

Thanks for that Lolly...have been so anxious about the whole thing, this pregnancy really took it out of me, so i need my sleep at the moment, as does my other DD and hubby! Last night she slept well though, so that's a plus!