9 week old UT or OT?

[Girlcrystal]

HI

My 9 week old son has been waking every 25 minutes during sleep transitions since we was 2 weeks old. I could not get him to nap longer than 1.5 hours total during the day since  2 weeks old to about 6 1/2 weeks. At about 5 weeks old, his night got a lot better, even though he would wake up after the 25 minutes, I would soothe him, put his soother back in and try and burp him and he would go back down fairly easy till his 1st feeding and sometimes only feeding in the night. For almost 2 weeks now he has started to nap (and he loves it!!), ever since he starting sleeping on his belly. He still wakes up after 25minutes sometimes but it is quite easy to get him back down, soother in mouth usually. But now his nighttime sleep has gotten way worse!! His awake time is about- 45-1hour. I don't watch too much for sleep cues as he will start getting grumpy when he wants to go down. I was counting yawns when I was trying to get him to on a nap routine (but and he wasn't napping anyways) but now I wait till he start to fuss abit usually 45 mins or so after waking and then I start his nap routine right away. As soon as we start our nap routine he calms down.

Our routine is not set in stone as I hate waking him as somenights he goes down much later and some days he still doesn't  nap but our routine looks like this

Wake & Eat 815-845am
Play till total waketime is about 1 hour to 1 hour fifteen
Sleep Down at 10am (has to self soothe to sleep so maybe asleep around 10:10 or 10:15)

Wake & Eat 12pm or 12:30pm
Play (total wake time 45mins-1 hour)
Sleep
Usually wakes up around 4-4:30

Eat 4pm or  4:30pm
try to make a wake time of an hour starts but starts getting grumpy around 35 mins
sleep ( he will sleep for about 25-45mins)

5:45-6 pm wakes (does not eat)
Plays for 30-45 min tops gets grumpy
Sleep One more mini nap

7pm bath
7:10pm eat
bedtime routine
sleep (sometimes doesn't fall asleep till 8:30 even though he starts falling asleep while eating)

WAKES 25 mins later and we struggle for an hour or two for him to go down for the night

NIGHT TIME FEEDS at about 2-2:30am
and 6am -7am

I don't know if I can increase his wake time without him screaming as if I wait too long to put him down he gets fussy.
He used to be able to go hours without sleeping now it is barely an hour.

HOW MUCH SLEEP SHOULD HE BE GETTING TOTAL?> please don't include time awake for night time feedings

Thanks in advance

On another note he used to make it to 4am in the morning till feeding but now since he is napping during the day he gets up most nights twice to eat, once around 2am and the other around 6 or 7.? WHY the change his bed time has always been starting at 7pm ish so his last feed was always within 30 mins.

[PaulsMom]

Hi,

congrats on your LO. 

The first three months or so are always a bit rough when trying to figure out sleep.  It sounds like your LO is well on his way to independent sleep! 

WRT A times, LOs that are roughly 2 months are usually awake for 1 hr to 1 hr 15 min so some of his A times seem to be fine. 

As for total amounts of day and night time sleep, here is a link with the info
Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep

At the moment, I wouldn't worry too much about his A times.  It sounds like your are following his lead at the moment, which is really important.  It could be that he's catching up from being OT when he wasn't napping well. 

WAKES 25 mins later and we struggle for an hour or two for him to go down for the night

two thoughts on this...  you could try moving his BT earlier.  he may be waking because he's OT at BT since he's been up since 6 pm.  The other thought is that he's hungry or just wanting to cluster feed some more.  I found that both of my LOs were like this in the early stages.

HTH

[katie80]

On another note he used to make it to 4am in the morning till feeding but now since he is napping during the day he gets up most nights twice to eat, once around 2am and the other around 6 or 7.? WHY the change his bed time has always been starting at 7pm ish so his last feed was always within 30 mins.

It looks to me like he's making up for losing a feed during the day. . With the long naps, he's sometimes going 4hr between feeds which is quite long at this age.  Most LOs are still on a 3/3.5hr EASY.  I'd agree with PaulsMom and try to add in a cluster feed before BT. 

I also think he could be getting grumpy for other reasons than being tired toward the later afternoon, it's a typical time for LOs to get grumpy.  The A time certainly isn't long enough for him to have a long nap again, that's why you're getting 2 short ones.  This works fine though, for that natural cluster feed.  He's also had two quite long naps already during the day (is the second about 2.5-3hr?), so maybe just isn't so tired in th late afternoon.  If you want to make the day more even, I'd start waking from naps at 2hr max, unless he is making up for a short one earlier in the day.

[Girlcrystal]

Well so far no improvement on waking 25 minutes later, but I did add another feed in the afternoon and he awoke at 3:40am instead of 2 so that is definitely an improvement.  When you cluster feed are you supposed to feed them their normal amount that they eat? I have been adding a feed of only 3 ounces so he will still take a full 5 ounces 2 hours later at bedtime.  Or will they adjust to being fed extra and be able to eat to full feeds close together?

Still hoping for improvement on his 25 minute issue, someone else suggested silent reflux previously which I think is a definite possibility but he is starting to teeth now so he is drooling non stop and that may be contributing to the sleep issue.

[PaulsMom]

Glad to hear he's sleeping longer at night  . 

WRT to cluster feeding, is he finishing the 3 oz?  If he's finishing his bottles, then you can add an additional oz.  I bf so I don't know how much my DD was taking but for bottle feeding, I believe that's the rule of thumb.  Now, if he has reflux, then cluster feeding may cause some discomfort when lying flat.  Has your dr diagnosed silent reflux?  does he arch his back during or after feeds? 

Teething will certainly throw a wrench into sleeping and teething can also aggravate reflux  . 

[Girlcrystal]

My dr hasn't diagnosed silent reflux she just says he is Colicky and a high needs baby.   GRRRR, but she thinks he doesn't puke then he doesn't have reflux. He does finish the 3 ounce most days and I have increased his 1st and last feed of the day to 6 ounces, but he doesn't always finish the bottle.

Still working on getting past 25 minute mark, I have been patting him on the back but not lifting him out of the crib for the past couple days. Sometimes it takes 40-45 minutes to get him back to sleep. Do you think that slowly this time of him being awake in the middle of his nap will shorten and he will fall asleep sooner and maybe eventually make it through the sleep transition?

[PaulsMom]

Do you think that slowly this time of him being awake in the middle of his nap will shorten and he will fall asleep sooner and maybe eventually make it through the sleep transition?

Yes, this is what I've found with my DD although it did take until she was around 4 months or so.  I had to be consistent on how I was extending her nap while she was in the crib though.  I have to admit however, (for my own sanity), I would APOP a nap if I wasn't able to extend her morning nap.  Extending naps can be trying at best so if you think it's not going to work out, then you can decide to cut your loses and enjoy your LO.

WRT to colick or silent reflux, just be careful about how much milk he's taking in before BT.  Too much food can aggravate reflux.    You could try to raise the head of his crib so that he's on an incline.