Sooooooo many naps....PLEASE HELP

[KimMackay]

Awake @ 7am

E - 8am (light feed)
A
S - 8:45 - 10:20 (40 min - then extended by picking up)
E - 10:45
A
S - 11:55 - 1:30 (40 min - extended by picking up)
E - 1:50
A
S - 3:05 - 3:35
A
E - 4:45
S - light sleep 5 - 5:30
A
E - 7pm
BT - 7:30pm (45 min to get down)

Night wakings - 8:20, 9:20, 11:30, 2pm, 4:15, 5:40....awake @ 7am - wasn't up to eat each of these times

***When he was skipping his last nap all together he would go anywhere from 2.5 - 4hrs awake before BT and go down WAY faster than he has the last week

[KimMackay]

Yesterday we had two 1 hour naps (both by extending), one 30 min nap and one 40 min nap.  Went upstairs to start BT routine one hour after last nap (upstairs at 5:45pm)....took me 1.5 hrs from start to end of routine (bath, feed, sleep).

[lady5280]

Hi Kim, you are having a really rough time of it! I'm hoping our LO is on the way to better sleeping, but now that his naps are getting slightly better (using wake to sleep and having some success) he is starting to wake up more at night. I'd much rather have crappy naps and good nights than the other way around, but I thought good naps=good night sleep...I wonder why my guy doesn't follow any of the rules? LOL

[RachelC]

I am going to fully admit that I did not read the entire thread.  We're talking 4 months, right?  I am thinking his A times need to be pushed out a bit, closer to the 2 hour mark.  Have you tried that?  What happens?

[KimMackay]

He will be 4 months this coming weekend and we have been working on pushing his A time.  We're around 1.45 now...but he keeps short napping and then I have to shorten the following A times.

[KimMackay]

Should also mention that yesterday morning and this morning he was wired.  Slept pretty well both nights (even though hard to go down)...but acting like he's on speed...lol.

[lady5280]

Wake to sleep is my new best friend!!!! Have you tried it, Kim? It takes a little time and effort but I have been getting longer naps as a result and it is sooo nice not to have a grump on my hands!!!

Question to the moderators on here: how long do I need to do W2S for before he starts extending on his own? I'm afraid to stop doing it but I guess if I don't let him try on his own I'll never know if he can?

[ZacsMumme]

Question to the moderators on here: how long do I need to do W2S for before he starts extending on his own? I'm afraid to stop doing it but I guess if I don't let him try on his own I'll never know if he can?

theoretically you do it 3-5 days to break a habit. BUT I did it for like 6 weeks the difference here is our LOs are likely doing it due to developmental sleep problems ie can't transition alone. Maybe try holding back after a week but be in the room ready to try HTTJ if need be that way you can see if he transitions on his own?

Kim, try 2 hrs first A and then try to extend, if extending works go for another 2 hrs. it's arc but when they short nap there isn't a lot you can do if extending fails other than go with it and pull in the next A

Thanks Racheal for posting Hun

[lady5280]

I went in today at 30 mins, and LO had actually twitched on his own and was sucking on his paci and putting himself back to sleep. This has happened a few times now, so I'm hoping he is getting there on his own! YAY!

[KimMackay]

How are you going about W2S Lady? What do you do to stir and do you do anything else? I've always wanted to try...but nervous that I would get an even shorter nap than usual.

[lady5280]

I was so afraid to do it too, bc it makes no sense to wake a sleeping baby that never sleeps haha. But I decided to try it anyway.

I go in around the 30 minute mark (unless he has already roused a bit on his own, in which case I run in at the first sound he makes to try and get him back to sleep before he wakes up) and just barely touch him. I've found that he usually moves pretty easily unless he's still in a deep sleep. But then when he stirs I sit in the room for a good 10-15 minutes to make sure he is back to sleep on his own. I have to admit, I give him the paci if he is fidgeting a lot. It takes a while for him to be back to a deep sleep, but I have noticed if he makes it past the 50 minute mark then I can safely leave and he will sleep another 45 minutes or more. Bliss!

Nights, however, seem to be getting worse Last night he woke up 4 times. A far cry from his 2 night wakings when he was younger. His longest stretch was 2 hours 45 minutes. I am in zombieland today.

[KimMackay]

I don't get it....we used to have only 2 NW's as well.  He would always go anywhere from 5 - 7 hrs in his first stretch....and now we're lucky if we get 3 hrs.  You just think to yourself....you could do it before, why can't you do it now?  Obviously they are forever changing....but it would be nice if once and a while one of those changes could be for the better and not the worse.

This too shall pass (I just keep repeating this to myself over and over lol)

[lady5280]

I'm hoping it's some sort of developmental thing...the 4 month sleep regression or something maybe? Even though DS is only 3 months and a week so what's his excuse?

[ZacsMumme]

At 3-4months they start to sleep differently and go into light sleep/wake up every 2-3 hours. It takes some LOs a while to learn to get back to sleep without needing us.... For me it was the dreaded paci replugging till DS could do it himself (2X a night)

What do you do at the NW?

[KimMackay]

I usually BF at most of his NWs....obviously not when he's up 6 times, but the other times.  Should I not be doing this? I would really like to get rid of his 4 - 5am feed....I feel like he doesn't really need it and then he doesn't want to eat again until right before his first nap.  The problem is, if I don't feed him at that time....he's sooo hard to put back down.

So there sleep/wake cycle changes at 3 - 4 months....if its every 2 - 3 hours now, what was it before?