15 wk old naps keep getting worse

[Jmb2008]

hi. sorry for the long post, just trying to cover everything. my dd2 is 15 wks tomorrow.  She is a textbook/angel baby and I have attempted to follow EASY from the start.  We have always swaddled for sleeping, and started using a soother sometime in the second month.  However I'm not convinced its really a problem as she usually spits it out before she even goes down.  I have always put her down in the bassinet, now crib, to start the night, and she is now in the crib for most of  the night, otherwise cosleeping.  I have switched to lactose free milk as dd1 has a problem with lactose and dd2 has gas once in awhile so just being on the safe side.

I thought we were on a good road-she never nursed to sleep(screamed at the boob when she wasn't hungry), would sometimes put herself to sleep with ssh/pat as needed, had at least one long nap a day, was doing 4-5 hr stretches at night sometimes.  I was at the point where I would swaddle, soother, close blind, turn noise maker on and then just sit in the rocking chair and pat her bum and she would go to sleep.  Even this is now falling apart along with her schedule.  The last two days she has been so tired.  I have tried shorter A times and she seems to be in such a light sleep and is harder to get down in the crib.  It seems like 1hr45-2hr is the norm.  I try to follow her sleep cues but feel like I am just getting everything wrong.  And she wants to feed more often as well when everything is a mess which I wonder if causes gas/tummy issues. I try to delay feeds if its not time, but will feed if shes miserable about it.  And its been harder to get her down at night after feeds too. Why won't she do decent naps when I know she can sleep long stretches at night? She cant put herself to sleep (unless next to me in bed sometimes after a feed), but generally doesn't fight being put to sleep or being transferred to crib, and has never had a 20 min nap so its not a sleep cycle problem, right?  OT, UT? I just cant figure it out.

here's todays mess:

previous night asleep at 9 down at 9:30 with 3 wakings
awake 7:15 (normal) but not happy like she usually is
E 7:15-7:40 dozing
A
S closed eyes 8:58, in crib 9:05-9:48

E 9:53 and again at 10:52
A (lots of gas)
S 11:42-12:39

E 12:40-12:55 to sleep
S switched to soother, slept in my arms till 1:54  (shows me shes really exhausted, she may doze while eating, but generally doesn't do this)
A

E 2:56 (falling asleep)
A
S 4:00-4:30

E 4:50
A
S 6:20-6:55

E 7:02
A 8:15 tried to start putting her down for the night
E 8:30
unsettled
S in crib 9:23


another day this week:
awake 7:15
E 7:16
A
S closed eyes 8:45, in crib 8:50-9:47 (dog woke?)

E 9:50
A
S closed eyes 11:23, in crib 11:33-12:03? woke happy

E 12:10, 1:00
A
S closed eyes 1:28, in crib 1:42-2:33 woke screaming

E 3:10
A
S in crib 4:40-fail, 4:46-5:17? woke happy

E 5:30
A

E 7:15-7:30 snoozing
A

S closed eyes 8:25, in crib 8:35-fail, 8:45-9:12
E 9:13
S 9:35-9:55, resettled, 10:10-12:35
E 12:36
S 1:02-fail
E 1:15
S 1:30-4:05
E 4:06
S 4:25-7:35 not happy


last sunday:
awake at 6:20, thankyou dd1....
E 7:30
S 8:30-10:20

E 10:30
A
S 12-12:45?

E 1:05
A
S 2:40, resettle - 3:34

E 3;35
A
S 5:15?-5:55

E 6:00
A
E 8:00
S dozing some
E 9:10
S 9:26-
E heard a noise at 3:25 so went and did a df
S 3:50-6:20
took her to bed
E 6:20
awake at 7:47

[weaver]

Do you think she might be ill? My babies would feed more and sleep more in the day, when they were not well.

[Jmb2008]

Honestly I feel it's tied more to being OT. As she'll often snooze while she sucks. There's no sickness in the house right now if that's what you mean.   And she's just feeding more often, not sleeping more. And feeding more often during the day usually coincides with feeding for often at night.  She'll wake up 2.5-3 hrs after the last feed like clockwork. 

Except for screaming 2-3 times, when I have given her gripe water and helped her get gas out, she is a very content baby when well rested.

I have switched to lactose free milk as mentioned because dd1 has a lactose intolerance, but this is more precautionary.  I'm not convinced its a problem for dd2. I can feel gurgles in her belly when I'm holding her from time to time but it doesn't appear to be bothering her.

[weaver]

Do you think it could be a feeding issue? Waking 2.5 hours after last feed sounds like hunger to me.  I'm not entirely clear if you're bottle or breast feeding but if she's perhaps having a growth spurt she might be hungrier than usual.

[Jmb2008]

I agree with you re night wakings. I think it is hunger. As once I get her down I'm really not worried about her waking up prior to that 2.5 hr mark. It's so rare for her to wake before that.  I am missing the longer stretches that she can do though!  However that still doesn't explain the short naps.

[Jmb2008]

Oh and she's EBF

[TB9]

There is a growth spurt around 4 months.  My dd2 started waking more frequently for food right around the same age and I had to start topping her up before naps to get good naps.  Maybe that is what is going on 

[weaver]

My EBF babies definitely added in some NFs for growth spurts. You could try letting her have a small feed before her nap to see if that helps her sleep longer. Some EBF babas need a 'snack' to get through to 4 hours. I'd make sure to feed her 20-30 mins before the nap and not in the bedroom to avoid any feeding/sleeping associations.

[Jmb2008]

I'll try topping her up before naps again consistently. I have tried in the past.  But it just seemed to mess up her feeding schedule. I do this once in awhile if I think she didn't take a full feed or if she's being fussy and I want to rule out hunger. She lets me know if she doesn't want it.

But I thought growth spurts were only a week long.  Her naps have been short for quite awhile.  I'll look at my notes tomorrow again.  And try to post our latest easy.

[weaver]

Just to clarify we got NWs for GS for a week but added a snack in consistently for a few months.

[Jmb2008]

my dd is 17 wks now.

ok, so I've given the snack to try to extend her naps a good chance.  And it is not the key to success here.  more often than not she will close her eyes and try to have a snooze, sometimes more interested in eating than others.  I'm scared it's creating more of a sleep association with the boob and just feeding constantly all day.  Her A times were often 2 hrs 20 min.

so the last couple days I have stopped doing that and just tried to watch closer as to when she was ready to go down.  today that meant she was closing her eyes around 2 hrs.  But as has happened before, this means light sleep and I end up holding her longer.  but then after a crazy bad day of sleep she pulls out a random 2 hr nap.   this happened when we were travelling over easter too, up for 3? hrs before we were able to leave the house but then had a really long nap first stretch.  is it possible that she needs even longer than 2 hr 20?

here's last night/today:

(8:50) to sleep
S 9:10-11:35
E 11:37
S 11:57-2:35
E 2:37
S 2:50-6:20

E 6:22
awake
A
S (8:25 light sleep) 8:52-9:14
A
E 9:30
A
S (11:08) 11:20-11:43
A
E 12:00
A
S 1:30-1:45? carseat
A
E 2:30? to sleep
S till 3:10 carseat
A
S (3:55) 4:15-6:15
E 6:20
A

E 8:03 to sleep
S 8:33-

[Jmb2008]

oh, and she will sometimes let me extend her naps but this of course is dependent on dd1 to cooperate.....

and we don't always do dream feeds as I find they don't seem to extend her sleep 

[weaver]

So she's 4 and a bit mos, average A for this age is 1 hr 45 - 2 hrs.  Do you think LO is low sleep needs? 

You did mention above you thought she was unsettled after feeds.  Are you happy there's nothing wrong there?

[Jmb2008]

ok, so most amazing night ever.  the best she's ever done! I am amazed!

E 8:03 to sleep
crib 8:33-3:30
E 3:32
crib 3:47-6:55 (heard her talking)

and another horrible day:

E 7:00
A
S (8:52) 9:00-9:10?  heard her talking, hands were out of swaddle

E 9:35  dozing
A
S (10:51) 11:00-12:09

E 12:12
A
S (2:08) 2:18-2:40  she's never done a 20 min nap!

E 2:55
A
S 4:05-4:37

E 4:45
A
S 5:30-5:45? light sleep in grandma's arms

E 7:00
A
S (8:08) 8:15-8:52
E 8:53
crib 9:10-

Is she low sleep needs?  she's very alert.  when there's a lot going on and she's content her A time stretches beyond what it normally is. if she gets another feed in, dozing or not, her A time seems to stretch.  If she has a good night I think her sleep during the day also decreases, and vice versa.

i'm not sure what you're referring to re unsettled after feeds.  that's not the case.