Author Topic: 5 mo old Early Waking & short naps  (Read 1028 times)

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Offline zportiss

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5 mo old Early Waking & short naps
« on: April 08, 2014, 14:24:14 pm »
So we're on day 2, doing shush/pat and it's going great!  She's settling very quickly, and at BT last night needed no help!  I don't think it will be long and I'll be able to wean shush/pat!

Now to tackle her routine issues...She's on a modified 3.75 - 4 hr EASY, mainly because she is BF so we do a little top off that I am also weaning.

Almost every day she is waking early around 6 and she sometimes just tosses around quietly and when my alarm goes off at 7, I can tell she's been up a while.  Other times she fusses, then dozes back to sleep for a few, then tosses around, fusses, dozes some more etc.  I usually just leave her, but sometimes, like today, she escalates, and I don't want to try shush pat when she's only 10 min from her normal wake time. 

Also, she always seems pretty sleepy around 1 1/2 hours after she wakes (8:30), and gets pretty fussy too some days.  I don't  put her down that early, because when I've tried I got short morning naps.  However, short naps in general may be a whole separate issue because we struggle with that every single nap.

I'm just wondering if I should be getting her up out of bed if she's laying awake anyway, but then she's only getting 10-10 1/2 hours of sleep, but she's not really getting good sleep that last hour if she's waking every 5 minutes (I see her eyes wide open).

Here's our typical day:

E 4:20 (straight back to bed)
E 7:00
A 7:30
E 8:40
S 9:15 - 10:35 (typically 1-1:20 min)
E 10:40
A 11:10
E 1:20
S 1:00-2:20
E 2:35
A 3:05
E 4:10
S 4:50 (usually just a half hour nap, or no cat nap if her morning nap goes short then she does a 2 hr afternoon nap and there's no time for the cat nap)
E 5:30
A 6:00
E 7:00
S 7:45

Thanks for your help!


Lucky mom to sweet Brielle, born 10.23.13

Offline zportiss

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Re: 5 mo old Early Waking & short naps
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2014, 19:01:41 pm »
One more question, today her first nap was 1 1/2 and now she's been sleeping almost 2 hours.  Should I wake her after 1 1/2 hours to get her used to the schedule?  I was planning to do the cat nap, but if she sleeps two hours, should I just skip it?  Just concerned because then her next A time is over 4 hrs.
Lucky mom to sweet Brielle, born 10.23.13

Offline creations

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Re: 5 mo old Early Waking & short naps
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 21:38:35 pm »
She's settling very quickly, and at BT last night needed no help!
Lovely :)

I usually just leave her, but sometimes, like today, she escalates, and I don't want to try shush pat when she's only 10 min from her normal wake time. 
I would do (and did do) as you are and let her doze on and off, if she's only a little fussy leave her to it. It helps to establish what time day begins. As you say though you don't really want to shush/pat with only 10 mins to go before WU time if she escalates and calls for you so I would get her up. It's ok to set yourself a time you are going to call 'night' and shush/pat any WU before that time, for instance anything before 6.30am you shush/pat and anything after 6.30 you get her up. You can still leave her to doze or just chill out on the days she is happy to, and get up at 7am as planned.

You are moving towards the time of the 3-2 nap drop so running out of time for the CN is to be expected now or soon if the other naps are decent (which they basically are, seem to be from your EASY anyway), there may be some transition time where you give the CN on some days and not on others.
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months
I would let her have the 1.5 and 2hr naps. If you need to skip the CN I suggest EBT rather than that long A time to BT. (the above link describes capped CNs and EBT).

The only thing that really stands out in your EASY is that BT is quite late.  Some LOs like a full A time after a CN and if you have discovered this is the case for your LO then that's fine, leave it. Otherwise I would consider moving BT earlier to 7pm or even earlier still - allowing for a 12 hr night. Some LOs can't manage a full A time after the CN because it is not a full restorative sleep, it's just intended to tide them over to get them through bath and milk and the BT routine.  If she is getting OT before BT that can cause her to wake earlier in the morning and be unable to settle back to sleep, this could be the reason for her restlessness at 6am.  On the other hand, she might just be an early riser (mine is) which makes moving the morning WU time quite tricky, I found with mine no matter how late BT went he still woke early rather than wake up later, later BT just meant less night sleep. The only way to get a full night sleep for him was to put him down for bed earlier.
hth


Offline zportiss

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Re: 5 mo old Early Waking & short naps
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2014, 18:22:34 pm »
Thanks for your response!  I think your right on the money with the 3-2 transition.  The last two days she cried & screamed her sweet little head off for 25 minutes for her cat nap, compared to basically no crying for her first two naps.  I thought it was just being more tired from the day, but I think we're going to cold turkey cut it out today, and try for an earlier bedtime too!  Today I stretched her first A time by 12 minutes and her second by 26 minutes. She was fussier when she went down, but so far, so good!  I think I hold there for a few days to let her adjust and then go from there. 

Thanks so much for your help!
Lucky mom to sweet Brielle, born 10.23.13

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Re: 5 mo old Early Waking & short naps
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2014, 06:58:59 am »
Good luck :)