Any ideas, routine woth long A

[Florena49]

Hi ladies

Just wondering if anyone can glance at our EASY, its been hit and miss really, nothing disastrous during day time, i sort of learnt to relax about this sleeping business and most of the time I know whether he will sleep through the 40 mins or wake up.
I would say Oskar is mainly a textbook baby with spirited mixed in there! To get a decent nap he needs a really long A time. So we recently started doing 3.15A and i did some w2s but it wasnt enough for him to transition on his own, so in the morning if he had more less decent night sleep we will do 3.30A sometime he sleeps through, sometimes he doesnt, but i cant get anymore than 1.20 mins, usually 1.10 out of him. In any case 3.15 A time before second nap, even with me patting him through, gives us a short nap, so yesterday he was really happy and he ended up doing 3.45A time and as i thought he would be OT did w2s and he slept for 1.10! So our BT was screwed up and late! The problem is i cant do a UT nap with him, i mean he will just not settle himself unless he had a long A time, so in this case how do i go about his BT? This was our EASY yesterday and we suffered with early waking which i resettled and he slept for just over an hour before WU



7.00
7.15 eat
10.30 sleep-11.40 3.30A had to resettle
11.40 eat
1.00 solids
3.30-4.40         3.50A w2s
4.40 eat
7.30 eat
8.05BT


Our nights are always pretty bad whether we do early BT or bT on time

[nevinsmama]

Hi Viktoria! DD's 2nd nap was always rubbish, nearly the whole time she was on 2 naps. I don't think she was quite as high A needs as your Oskar sounds though. I learned to take what I can get, most of the time. Can you AP a CN to keep bedtime from getting too late? I wonder if some of the rotten nights are due to a long day? Will he wipe out "somewhat tired" in car, stroller, or carrier? If I recall, Heidi's DD3 had high  A needs and put herself on a routine for a much older LO and it worked out, I may see if I can find her.

[Florena49]

Hi Maryn

Long day gives us EW which are ridiculously difficult to settle and even if i manage to settle i literally have to sit there and pat so he stays asleep! Whatever the BT we always get nightwakings i dont even know if it cam be fixed, im kind of use to the sleep deprived state. Although of course I would like to fix it somehow. He isnt all that great at transitioning throughthe 40 mins,so at BT he will always wake after 40 mins and will need resettling. Any suggestions would be great. I can rock him to sleep in the pram or go for a drive its thenonly way i can get a UT nap. It feels like we need to somehow get a longer AM nap and then have a cat nap, that way we might get somewhere. But with rubbish nights i cant se to get a longer AM nap and his A times are sometimes inconsistant in the morn.

[jessmum46]

We never had two long naps, at least not consistently.  And also could never do UT naps. I would be tempted to do something like

WU 7am
Nap 10.30-11.45/12ish
Nap 3.30ish for maybe 30-45 mins (wake him if he doesn't wake naturally)
BT 7/7.30pm

What do you think?  It might take some experimenting to get the times right but I don't think one long and one shorter nap is an issue for babies who need high A to sleep well. 

Is he an independent sleeper?  How old is he exactly?

[Florena49]

Yes he is an independent sleeper 90% of the time settles within a minute or so. He will be 28 weeks tomorrow.  Thays what I was thinking too, he can manage 2.5A after a 40 minute nap, so that should work out well in terms of BT.

Ill play around with the A times, he has no cues all, i have to watch the clock with him, he will sometimes go from being totally happy and laughing and cooing to me picking him up and him just falling asleep on me, considering he isnt mobile yet he just wants to keep going.....

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hi Viktoria...Maryn is right, DD3 is super low sleep needs! With two older kids her A times are really not precise but at 6 months she was doing about 3.5/4 hr A in the am, a 1.5 hr nap, 3 hr A, catnap of 30-45 min and then a 3/3.5 hr A time to bed...she does 11-12 hr nighs mostly but we went to one nap at 7.5 months because we could not fit it all in. The odd time (like today) she zonks in the van for 10 min in the am if we are out and then has a shorter nap later. How many nw's are you getting? Bf or bottle? Sorry if you said that, I am typing on the fly here!!!

[Florena49]

Oh Heidi

Pretty much wakes every two hours, ocassionally throws in a good night with only two wakings to feed, but thats rare. He is BF. Tbh im happy to fiddle with his routine, im mostly worried that these NW will still be here at the end of tje summer when i have to return to work

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I hear you, I'm back to work in July...we still have one nw and sometimes an ew if I let her nap too long (seriously two hours max!). Hmmm does he go back down easy after the nw's that aren't feeds? Have the nights always been like that?

[Florena49]

We had a few blissful weeks right after sleep training, he wouldnt wake after 40 minutes and would wake aroubd 10.30 and 3.30 to eat,otherwise he has always been pretty bad. First part of the night yes i have even stopped patting just shush and hand on chest, he wakes aroubd 2.20 and then he is difficult to settle im starting to think its a habit, as it is every night now, irregardless of what time he was fed before. Sigh

We are flying back to the UK today and ill see if I can adjust his routine a little.

[Florena49]

Uh and we are back, that is another attempt to sort out Oskars night time sleep. Since we have been back his sleep has been progressively worse in the night and i would really settle for the fact that it is just how it is, but I do have to go back to work in august and im getting worried about how I would cope. So I have spent a few days just following his cues to see if he will tell me when he needs to sleep during the day in hope that it might make the nights better. Erm well the problem with that is he will go on forever especially if i carry him around! Few days ago he was awake for 4 hours before BT happily sitting in his highchair whilst we had dinner, but night time was horrendous.
This is what our day looked like today

6.20 wu
10.00 sleep-11.20 3.40A
11.20 eat
3.00-3.40 3.40A
6.30 BT

He was OT by BT, really he only needed 2 hours i reckon, but he just carries on with a bit of fussing here and there nothing major, no meltdowns.

First nap is usually ok but never longer than 1.20 mins, he is teething ATM so i had to resettle that first nap a few times this week. its the second nap thats the problem, it is always short unless i resettle him, but then if he gets anything over an hour he wont go to bed at reasonable time and the day is just too long.
Is it the start of 2-1? Tbh i haven't slept for longer than 3 hour stretch for weeks so i might be missing something here?!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

We started gearing up for one nap at about 6/6.5 months so totally possible. I did alternate 1 & 2 nap days at first. We always needed a longer A to bed but I know lots are the opposite and need it in the morning. Our second nap was always apop because it was the only way she would go down, but yes the day does end up getting longer before you get to one nap.

Does he go to.sleep independently at naps and bedtime?

[Florena49]

Hi Heidi

Yes goes down like a dream for naps, at most a couple if minutes of fussing, BT is sometimes a struggle, although last night went down within a couple if minutes but was up like 5 times before 11!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yikes! How do you resettle those times? Does he have a soother?

[Florena49]

Nope no soother, no swaddle, he still responds to shush pat or more so to its sleepy time and shush.

Patting is a little difficult as the legs go up in the air, honestly im at loss what to do with him.

6.20 wu
10.00 sleep-11.10 3.40A
3.15-sleep-4.15 4.00A time in the pram took some time to fall asleep

I will see how long he lasts tonight before BT

I wonder if i should push that am nap forward a bit and leave the second nap as 40 min to get to BT

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I would try that, as the second nap would be ut but that is okay for a short catnap. Perhaps a longer morning A is his thing? Yeah, shh/pat has finally stopped working here so I just use my voice and sometimes a back rub (tummy sleeper).