Hello all--
Tired newbie, here, hoping for some help.
HISTORY:I have a 9.5 month old, who was an epic, amazing sleeper (i.e., 8 hours at 6 weeks) until 2.5 months old, at which point she started doing exactly 45-minute naps and started waking sometimes at night. Things were still ok until 5 months, when she stopped STTN (frequent wakings, but no feedings needed). She hasn't really slept well since, and though we had about a month of 1.5 hour naps at 7.5-8.5 months, those are gone too and we are back to the 45 minute thing. Sometimes she shortens it to even 25 minutes. She has only SSTN a handful of times since xmas (it's now mid-May).
PROPS AND ISSUES:1. Crazy arms. She just cannot control them. She flails, hits herself in the head, knocks her paci out, and so on.
2. Eye rubbing. Sort of related to ^. I am unsure whether this is really a problem, as maybe it is just a way for her to calm herself. But it sure looks painful. It does seem to wake her up a little.
3. Pacifier. On the plus side, she only takes a paci for sleep time, and sometimes she can sleep chunks of time after it has fallen out. On the down side, she is very upset if she wants it back. She has not figured out how to put it back in her own mouth yet because...
4. Zipadeezip. She sleeps in a Zipadeezip, which is a swaddle-transition product that is shaped like a starfish and allows baby more movement while still letting them feel edges and somewhat muffles crazy-arms and the startle reflex. She was a swaddle junkie as a little baby, and we've successfully gotten her out of the swaddle and she's now on the 3rd stage of the 3 Zipadeezips sizes that you progress through. The one she's in currently allows completely free movement. She does rub her eyes in it, and can knock her pacifier out while in it, but cannot replace the pacifier while wearing it (it covers her hands).
5. Rolling/sitting/crawling. All of these are new for her, and she is excited about them. It seems to calm down a little after each new skill is realized, but she does like to roll around, sit up, pull up, and so on when she should otherwise be sleeping. I think this may be normal.
6. Teething. She got a tooth on Easter, and a new one seems imminent (but has seemed imminent for weeks).
METHODS USED1. Pu/Pd does not seem to work very well with this one. It seems to make her furious. I know it's heavily advocated here, but I don't know if it's for us. She seems confused by it, and it is exhausting!
2. Replacing the paci and stroking her head and shoulders does put her back to sleep fairly easily. It's just that she needs this
repeatedly.
3. It is almost impossible to lengthen the a.m. nap, but the p.m. nap can SOMETIMES be lengthened by replacing the paci and stroking her head. Not always, though.
4. W2S does not work for her at all. She simply wakes up completely, or wakes when she otherwise would have (usually after 45 minutes or at 5/6am). She may be too old for this method.
5. We have not tried CIO, and don't want to.
SLEEP NOTES1. She is breastfed but hasn't needed to eat at night since around 2 months old. The only exception is that she has a 5/6am feeding, which I have fostered since I am a working mom and need to empty the girls before work anyway. This feeding is reaaaaaaally hanging on. Trouble with this is, her morning wakeup has moved to around 7:30/8am, which leaves a very short window and sometimes she does not want to go back to sleep after the 5/6am feeding; sometimes it takes a very long time to get her to fall back asleep. I'd love to ditch this feeding altogether since I am still home at 7:30/8 when she wakes up.
2. Our bedtime routine is dinner, stories/wind-down/diaper/bf. I nurse her to sleep. I know this is controversial, but that is the current state of things.
3. She sleeps in a Zipadeezip with a paci. She doesn't have a lovey yet. No nightlight, yes whitenoise.
4. Naps were 45 minutes at 4 months old; 1.5 hours at 8.5 months old. Now at 9 months old, they are 40 minutes (morning nap) and 40 or 80 minutes (afternoon nap). Sometimes she wakes after 25 minutes for one or both of these.
5. She has a later bedtime than some babies (9pm) because my husband and I both work/commute and if she went to bed much earlier, we would never see her. I get home at 5:30, but my husband does not get home until 7. Moving her bedtime up by much is not really an option we are considering. I appreciate that some people think this is a good idea, but when we have tried this in the past, it has not made a difference.
6. She seems refreshed and happy most of the time after short naps, and in the morning, but she can be seen yawning pretty much throughout the day. If she is awake too long in the last stretch before bed, she can get cranky.
7. She's presently on 2 naps.
ROUGH SCHEDULEE- 6:00 breastmilk (early a.m. feeding we're having a hard time shaking)
S- 6:30-7:30
A- 7:30 Wake for the day. (2.5 hour awake time)
E- 8:30/9:00 breastmilk
S- 10:00-10:40
A-10:40 (around 3.5-4 hour awake time)
E- 11:30 breastmilk
E- 12:30 solids
E- 2:30 breastmilk
S- 2:45-3:30 or maybe 4:15 if you're really lucky
A-3:30/4:15 (5 or 5.5 hour awake time)
E-5:30 breastmilk
E- 7:00 solids
E- 8:45 breastmilk
S- 9:00
(wakes up between 1 and 8 times at night, usually 3-4 times, needing not much but paci and some head stroking... wakes consistently at 5/6 for a.m. feed)
QUESTIONS:1. I feel like she's not getting enough sleep. She gets about 10 hours of nighttime sleep, and between 1 and 2.25 hours daytime sleep. This seems woefully inadequate, but I am not sure?
2. Her naps are very short. It may be her thing, but it may also be that she needs longer naps. She does not seem like she is capable of the large amounts of A time that her short naps produce.
3. When I type her schedule out like this, it looks like an absolute mess. But I'm trying. I am hesitant to only do one E during her A times, because waiting until after her next nap seems like too long a time to go without eating again. Also, I am bf'ing and want to protect my supply by nursing as often as she wants to eat. Am I just making it worse by doing so?
4. Help.
I really appreciate your help, and thank you in advance!!!
-R
