Napping changes - what happened?

[maybell245]

I think I last posted about 6 weeks ago about my daughter napping.  Things had improved since then.  She was usually napping 1.5 hours to 1 hour and 45 minutes in the early morning, then 1 to 1.5 hours in the late morning with some help around the 30-40 minute mark with shush pat.  Then, 1 to 1.5 hours in the afternoon with some help around the 30-40 minute mark with shush pat.  Then, a 35-40 minute catnap between 5-6 before her 7:00 feed, bath and bed.

The past 2 days have been dreadful!  She is 14 weeks old now and I am still reading Tracy's books (not done with the Problem Solving one yet), but I noticed she said to be careful when things happen 2 days in a row because it could mean a pattern is forming.

Here is what I have been doing at naptime (same as before - it's basically the 4 S routine).  When I see a tired sign we go into her room and I turn the lights down and change her diaper.  Then, we sit in the chair for a little while and cuddle while she sucks her pacifier.  When her body seems relaxed and her sucking slows down, I gently pull out the pacifier if she lets me, if not, I let her suck a little more.  (I am afraid of her being dependent on it to sleep so I don't let her suck it in her crib anymore...she did before we did EASY and feel it was a prop at that time because it would fall out and she would wake until we put it back in).  Then, I swaddle, set the tone, sit with a lullaby, and shush pat on shoulder until stage 3, then shush-pat in crib.  We also have white noise.  For the longest time, she hardly needed any shushing anymore than on my shoulder for less than a minute.  I would shush-pat and put her in the crib and that was often it.  If she needed more, I did more.

I have been doing that routine the past 2 days and she has woken up at 40 minutes.  I watch on the monitor as she grunts and fusses and tries to get her hand out of her swaddle and a few times she has fallen back to sleep, but if she has, it's been for 5 minutes.  Other times, she escalates to crying/screaming and I go in and try to shush-pat in the crib.  When that doesn't work, I shush pat on my shoulder until she calms and then put her back.  I did this the rest of naptime for 2 naps so far today and all naps yesterday.

I also tried leaving one arm out so she could suck her fingers and that seemed to make her 40 minutes of sleep fitful.  Is it too early to take one arm out at her age?

Yesterday I thought maybe it meant she was having a growth spurt, so I put 1 more oz in the rest of her bottles and she wouldn't take anymore than she had been taking (5 oz. 6 times a day including the dream feed).

She still slept through the night last night and I woke her this morning at 7 as usual.

I wasn't sure if she needed to start moving to 4 hour EASY at 14 weeks or not and if that is the problem?

My husband was away Wednesday-Friday days this week and his mom came over to do what he normally does night - bath and bedtime.  My daughter screamed for the Wednesday and Friday bedtime I think because it was different.  She woke up at 10  the first night, but then slept the rest of the night after an hour of crying off and on.  The 2nd night, there wasn't a problem.  The third night she slept fine after the screaming. 
Could this have anything to do with the nap issues the last 2 days (Saturday and today is Sunday)? 

Any suggestions or tips would be most appreciated.

I don't want to get desperate and do some accidental parenting! 

[Layla]

Sounds like she might be transitioning from 4-3 naps. If she's taking longer to fall asleep or she's waking at the 40min mark, it might be time to increase her A a little.

She probably isn't ready yet for the 4hr EASY but you may need to start moving towards that and maybe look at the 3.5EASY

Have a look at this link and let me know if you have any other questions

Time to Transition - 3hr, 3.5hr or 4hr EASY

[maybell245]

So do you think I should be trying to keep her awake longer?  I tried 10-15 minutes for the current nap.  We'll see how that goes.  She seemed pretty tired, but didn't fight the nap so I hope she isn't overtired.

If she wakes up in the middle of the nap and I give her the pacifier would that be using it as prop and cause night problems?

What are your thoughts on moving to 3 hours 15 minutes before 3.5?

[Layla]

If she's needing the paci everytime to get back to sleep then I would consider that a prop.

Go slowly with adding A times as you don't want her to get overtired. When adding A times, I usually hold it for a few days (3-4) and then push again (if need be). I think going to 3:15 first is a good idea... you don't want to add 30 mins at 1 time, that will get your LO overtired

[maybell245]

After looking at the link, I think I am going to start with just adding 15 minutes to her first A time of the day for 3 days and then move on to the 2nd A time for 3 days and then the 3rd.

Today was a bit better, but she is still waking at 40 min. like clockwork.  The difference today was that I was able to get her to go back to sleep.

Is it too early to try taking one arm out of her swaddle? 

[Layla]

We also added 1 A time at a time, starting with the morning A time and once we achieved that, we moved onto 2nd A time.

Today was a bit better, but she is still waking at 40 min. like clockwork.  The difference today was that I was able to get her to go back to sleep.

Excellent! Mine also wakes at the 40min mark (sometimes 30mins) but then after some chatting she will put herself back to sleep. I think its great that you could get her back to sleep. She was probably tired enough to want to sleep more.

Is it too early to try taking one arm out of her swaddle?

I never swaddled so not sure but here is a link to the weaning swaddle (and paci) stories and if you have any other questions re: weaning the swaddle, don't hesitate to post on the PROPS board
Weaning the swaddle - when, how, tips and tricks
Paci or Swaddle Weaning Success Stories Here

[maybell245]

I have now extended 2 of her awake times by 15 minutes so that 2 of her feeds are 3 hours and 15 minutes apart.  It seems to be helping.  For the most part since I last posted, she has been having at least 2 1.5 hour naps and the third she will sleep for 40 minutes and either put herself back to sleep with some chatting (as you called it) or if she doesn't and cries I go in and try to help, but usually if she doesn't succeed with chatting she won't go back to sleep even after I try for 20 minutes.

Now I am wondering about the catnap.  I see that for 3.5 hour EASY there are just 3 1.5 hour naps and for 4 hour EASY there are 2 1.5 hour naps and a catnap.  So what do you think it would be for 3 hours 15 minutes? 

Tomorrow I plan to add 15 minutes to her third awake time and that would push a feed to 4:45ish and I wonder if a catnap will fit after some A before her 7:00 feed and bed.  She is usually pretty tired that time of day and seems to need her catnap so I don't know about taking it away and her being up from 4:45 to 7:30ish.

[Layla]

Sounds like she's doing great!

She's probably in that in between period where she would naturally be going down to 3 naps (2 long and 1 catnap) and I don't think you need to worry if the last nap is short. If she's just had 40mins and not putting herself back to sleep, I wouldn't be trying to extend and just offer her an earlier bedtime . Not all babies will follow the 3x1.5hr naps or do 2hr naps.

She's probably too young to drop the catnap altogether but you may find that her A time will naturally be longer than other A times of the day before the CN (this is what my DD did) but still continue to offer the catnap. If her CN starts at 4:45 and ends at 5:30, then you will be able to do bedtime at 7ish.

With regards to the E's - when we had the CN around, I used to offer a feed just after the CN and then just before BT, so we were sort of cluster feeding towards the end of the day