7 week old overtired or undertired? Please help

[jcsmom]

Ok so I have been here before and things still aren't looking good sleepwise. I am at a total loss and am so exhausted. Please look at my EASY. Is she getting too much sleep in the day hence the fighting bedtime for 2-3 hours or is she overtired from crappy nights? She is 7 weeks today and her A times are still 45 mins. Anymore and she gets grizzly and really hard to settle. She yawns at the 30 minute mark and by 1 hour A she is giddy.
E:6:45
A 6:45-7:30
S: 7:30-9:30 (woke her) she sleeps in the swing because anywhere else including car, stroller or on my is 20 mins.
so she's up for 45 mins and down for 2 more 2-2.5 hour naps
around 5 pm we aim for a catnap and lately is is 30 mins or less. Then we do another around 6 and again 30 mins or less even in swing.
bedtime since time change has been 45 mins from last nap (she usually has 5) and it's been between 7:30 and 8:00.
The last 4 nights she has fought bedtime. Crying carrying on and unsettled until 10 or 11pm where she finally crashes. Last night she crashed at 10pm after trying since 7:30. Then she slept until 1:30 fed then until 4:45 fed and then up today at 6:30.
So in total she is getting about 8 hours night sleep and 8 hours day sleep with a huge gap at the end of the day with her awake from 7-11 some nights. Then her nights are really short.

Is she not getting enough A time and am I letting her nap too long? I am folllowing her cues and can't keep her up that long if she is yawning and glazy. Someone please help!

[jcsmom]

Ok so we had a great night. But am still curious about her A time. She yawns after 30 mins and begins crying and fussing after 45. But at 7 weeks I read they need 1 hour-1 hour 15. How in the world would I do that? She is waking 40 mins into her nap (in the swing) but resettles. I have read other places that at 7 weeks A time can be between 45 and 60 mins. Should I stick to her cues?

[Ima shel Alon]

How many naps do you have now?
You are suppose to be on 4 naps (3x1.5-2h and a CN) and your last one should be around 5 and after that A it's BT. Is the last nap a CN?
I know, it's really hard to stretch the A, but it's so worth the better naps. For a LONG time I had to hold DS during the last 15-30min of his A because he was tired already. If I'd put him earlier, when I saw the first cues, I'd get a short nap.
What happens in BT (I think) is that she is a bit UT from the day sleep and not enough A and she doesn't manage to fall asleep and then becomes OT and then it's even harder to fall asleep. This is so so common.
Have you tried feeding when she doesn't fall asleep at BT? I found it helped us. I know it's not great, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do the feed calmed him down and he could then fall asleep.

[jcsmom]

So I just tried a longer A time and got a 30 minute nap. She was doing 45 mins and yawned at her usual time so I walked around with her and she fussed and fell asleep at the 1 hour and did a 30 minute. Boo. She has 4 2 hour naps right now. Sometimes last nap is only 30-40 mins. Yesterday she did 4 beautiful naps and had a great night. I dunno. I am afraid to cap naps at less than 2 because she has had some really bad sleep days.

[Alexanna]

First of all , sorry for that but can you tell me what does OT, UT, DS,   mean?


My little one is also 7weeks old...
We have  1,5 h sleep just after the E time which is around 6 
then a      40 min from 9-9:30  usually until 10-10:15
then a     1-1,5 h from 11:30
then a     1,5-2,0 h from 2-2:30 pm
and           a max 30 min around 6 pm

In the night normally he sleeps from 8pm to 2 - 3 am when I breast feed him, and then from 2-3 am to 6-7 am   - but nowadays for some reason he wakes up at 9 pm and he seems to loose sleep and i have to calm him for a half hour... and sometimes he  wakes up around 1 am  and 3 am and 6-7am... that is one more feed...  I do not understand why....  but for sure I also have to longer A time...   

I never let him sleep more than 2 hours during the day time... 

[Ima shel Alon]

So I just tried a longer A time and got a 30 minute nap.

You will get those, don't worry about it till you offer the same A for 3-4 days and still get 30min naps, then you'd reduce the A by 10min. It's normal that at the first day of stretching A she will be OT.
I think 4 naps of 2h each is a lot of day sleep. To prevent OT I would try and have only three of the naps at this length and then the last one as a 45min CN, if that still doesn't help after a few days then I would try and cap one of them to 1.5h.

Alexanna - have a look here: Site Acronyms/Abbreviations - What they are, and what they mean.
If you need help with your EASY I suggest you start your own thread so you can get support for *your* EASY. You can just copy and paste from what you wrote here

[jcsmom]

So yesterday went like this
She woke at 6:22 then went back for another 40 mins with me
She napped a total of about 6.5 hours yesterday. Then she went down at 7:15pm and was very hard to settle. And settled closer to 7:45 so real She slept until 1:15 then she was up for 30 mins then up at 4:15. She didn't want to eat just wide awake. She didn't go back until after 5 then slept for 2 40 minute stretches and was up at 7am.
I stretched her A time today to 1 hour and still woke at 40 mins. What would an EASY look like for a 7 almost 8 week old? I feel like a crazy woman with this lack of sleep. One night she has a great night then next she's up at 4 am ready to go. How do I stretch her day so she's not doing this?

[Ima shel Alon]

I really think it's still too much sleep for her...
Tracey was talking more about 3x1.5h naps and a CN at this age. Have a look here: Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep
And here you can have a look at what other babies doing at around the same age: chronological EASY samples, 0-3 months
Of course every baby is different but I would think it's worth a try to stick to the new A time you are introducing and to shorten the nap a little bit.

[jcsmom]

Thanks for the advice. Problem with shortening the naps is that it lengthens our day and the catnap will end at 5 and we are back to square one. She will never to a 13 hour night. So with an hour A time our EASY wouldn't work with only 3 1.5 hour naps. She'd need 1.5 hrs A time for that, no?

[Ima shel Alon]

Why wouldn't she have a 45min CN at 17? Then at 17:45 you'll have your BT routine, which usually takes a while anyway, bath, dressing, feeding and then BT at around 19, 19:30.

[jcsmom]

So my routine would look like this:
E:7
S:8-10
E:10
S:11-12:30
E:1
S:1-3:30
E:4:00
S:5-5:45
Long A before bed. Isn't it too long of an A from 5:45-7 or 7:30?

[Ima shel Alon]

What you could do is have one of the naps, perhaps the second one 1:45h long and then you push the CN to 5:15 till 6 and then BT at 7-7:15. Would that work? Does she sometimes wake up a bit later in the morning or it's usually 7?

[jcsmom]

Well right now her wake ups are all over the place. After 4 am waking she is either wide awake or falls back asleep for a short time then wakes again around 5:45 then falls back asleep. I wake her at 7. At 7 weeks should I push out her A time to 1:15? I think the night waking at 4am is due to UT. She sleeps great from 7:ish to 12:30 then she sleeps from 1-4 no problem. After that she's up 2 times between then and 7.

[jcsmom]

So the last few days her AM nap is only 40 minutes no matter what I do for A time. Have tried 45, 60 and today 1:15 (had to get son on bus) and still 40 mins. I just want to figure this out so we can sleep from 4-7am! Is it possible 9 hours is all she needs at night? Or I guess I need to give it a few days of cutting back her day sleep to see what happens?

[Ima shel Alon]

Or I guess I need to give it a few days of cutting back her day sleep to see what happens?

Yes, you are seeing now the effects of too much day sleep, I believe.

So the last few days her AM nap is only 40 minutes no matter what I do for A time. Have tried 45, 60 and today 1:15 (had to get son on bus) and still 40 mins.

It's important that when you tweak A you stick to the same A to see what kind of nap it gives you. Of course life is life and sometimes you have to be out of the house or whatever, but in general you should try and stick to the same A.
I think it's actually a good idea to try and push her to 1.15h, but again you'd need to be consistent with that for 3-4 days to see if it's working.