Under tired, over tired cycle and habitual wake ups

[Sunnie1984]

Hi Everyone,

My DD is 14 weeks old, and I'm in the process of transitioning to 4 hour easy, as she stopped being hungry after 3 hours and her naps have dropped to 30 minutes each, resulting in an overtired and very grouchy DD at 5pm until bed time.

So I think the DD has a habit of waking after just 30 minutes for her naps, it doesn't matter when you put her down or how tired she is, she only does 30 minutes. Sometimes wakes up happy, sometimes wakes up crying.

So this is my morning so far:

E      6:30
A      7:00-8:30
S      8:30-9:05
A      9:05- Ongoing

I tried the wake to sleep at 8:50, and it gave me about 5 more minutes but that's it so far (although first day trying).

She's currently still in her cot, sucking her thumb and trying to go back to sleep. Unless she calls out for me, I leave her there in the hope that she'll sleep some more, but it doesn't usually work.

Then I think she is becoming overtired for her next nap, as she does 30 minutes and wakes up crying, but can't go back to sleep.

Unfortunately I think her next tired spell will coincide with feeding (at either 10:30 or 11:00 depending on when she gets hungry) and if she's hungry she won't sleep, resulting in overtired.

Now she sleeps 12 hours at night and generally doesn't wake up unless something is bothering her, like her teeth.

I'm going to bath her at 5pm tonight, and then give her the bottle, letting her decide when it's bedtime, as she's refusing catnaps at the moment and just wants to go to bed.

Anyone any ideas on what might help?

[Ima shel Alon]

Yep, it does look like the UT/OT monster lives your house!
The best way to get rid of it is to figure out the first nap and to do that you'd need to figure what is a good A that gives you a full 1.5-2h nap.
It does look like her A is age appropriate but doesn't give you a full nap, so perhaps she just needs a small increase, like 10-15min and that will result in a better nap. Is she usually waking up happy from the short morning nap but from the others grumpy?
IIWY I would try the increased A for 3-4 days and see if it works better for you, you would need to be consistent with the new A though for those days to see if it really works.
What do you think?

[Sunnie1984]

Yes she's pretty happy after that first nap, it's the second nap onwards that goes downhill.

Ok, well unfortunately we're heading back to the UK (7 hours west) on Friday for 2 weeks, with a4 hour time difference, so I think we'll do what we can to maintain the times, and try to increase the first A time a little bit.

Here was the rest of the day, second nap interrupted by window cleaners banging on her window!

E      6:30
A      7:00-8:30
S      8:30-9:05
A      9:05-11:34
E      10:30
S      11:34-11:50 then 12:00-12:12
A      12:12-2:22
E      1:30
S      2:22-2:44
A      2:44-3:45
S      3:45-4:15 (out in the pram)
E      4:30

Thanks for the advice.

What if she doesn't get a good nap from another 10-15 minutes, do I increase it again after a week or so?

[Ima shel Alon]

If after 4 days she still gives you a short nap for the first nap then I'd up it again by 10min.

I think it might be too much for her to do 2.5h A after a short nap. Could you try and keep it at 2:15h, perhaps?

[Sunnie1984]

So for now just keep her other awake times to the length she can handle - so watch for sleep cues at around 1.5-2 hours, until she gets a long first nap, and seems adjusted to that.

Then begin to adapt her second awake time slowly - 10-15 minutes every 3-4 days or so, and see when she gets a longer second nap?

Will that give her time to adjust to the longer awake time without becoming overtired? And obviously continue putting her to be early if she needs it.

Thanks so much, it's so nice to have somewhere to come and talk about this. It all seems so much clearer afterwards.

[Ima shel Alon]

It sounds like a good plan to me!