Author Topic: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime  (Read 1118 times)

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Offline beanbuddy

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4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« on: June 24, 2014, 14:44:27 pm »
hi, my 4 month old has suddenly started screaming at bedtime. he is fine for most of his bedtime routine but as soon as I put him down to sleep in his cot he starts getting really irritated and within about 10 minutes is screaming. he has been like this for the past 5 nights now, and is taking around 2 hours to finally get him settled, even then this is by rocking him to sleep. we only started him on a bedtime routine about 4 weeks ago and he has always gone to sleep fine. sometimes he would take a while to settle but never screaming like the past few nights.

also, his daytime naps are quite short, he only sleeps for about 30 Min's at a time during the day, on a good day he might have one longer nap of around 1.5 hours in the afternoon but this doesn't happen often. I'm wondering if the short naps may be affecting his nightime sleeping? although he has never been very good with naps but still slept well on a night. ???

he is also waking up constantly through the night and crying, I've tried feeding him and he just seems to carry on crying after this. nothing seems to settle him back to sleep. we've resorted to putting him in his pushchair and pushing him up and down the past couple of nights but even in his pram he doesn't settle for more than an hour before he's awake crying again. :(

I am bf on demand so we don't really have a strict routine but I generally try to get him down for a nap after he has been awake for 1.5-2hrs, although he doesn't always go to sleep after this amount of time.

please help, not exactly sure how to get through this  :'(

Offline Florena49

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Re: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2014, 19:07:36 pm »
Hi Beanbuddy,

Im sorry that things are difficult with bedtime, what would be helpful is if you could record what happens during the day and post it in EASY format so we can have a look. 4 months is a notorious time for short naps and general sleep regression, often even babies who slept through the night start waking up, there is also a growth spurt around this time sometimes accompanied with an increase of A time.
Viktoria

Mum to Oskar 25/10/2013 and Maksim 19/07/2015

Offline beanbuddy

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Re: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2014, 19:44:14 pm »
hi, yesterday went like this:

woke up at 0800 after being up most of the night
E- 0800-0830
A- 0830-0930
S- 0930-1020
E- 1020-1030
A- 1030-1220
S- 1220-1315
E- 1320-1340
A- 1340-1545
S- 1545-1610
E- 1620-1635
A- 1635-1810
S- 1810-1840
E- 1840-1845
A- 1845-1935
Start of bedtime routine- 1935
S- 2040

Today:

woke up at 6.10 after having quite a good sleep for the first time in over a week
E- 0610-0630
A- 0630-0740
S- 0740-0815
A- 0815-0910 (dont usually have A before food, but my partner had taken terry downstairs at 0630 and didn't wake me up till 0910)
E- 0910-0925
A- 0925-0950
E- 0950-1005 (spent the next hour trying to get terry to sleep)
S- 1105-1135
E-1150-1205
A-1205-1305
E- 1305-1330 (terry is being really fussy with food today and after spending more time trying to get him to eat than the amount of time he's actually eaten, i gave him a bottle of formula)
A-1335-1450
S-1450-1650
E-1650-1710
A-1710-1845
Start of bedtime routine-1845
S-2030

From around 1230 terry got really upset and spent most of the afternoon screaming but refusing to sleep, it was only when I took him for a walk that he finally fell asleep. He was in such a happy mood this morning, I don't understand what suddenly made him so upset for the rest of the day  ???

Offline Florena49

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Re: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2014, 08:53:32 am »

E- 0800-0830
A- 0830-0930
S- 0930-1020
E- 1020-1030
A- 1030-1220
S- 1220-1315
E- 1320-1340
A- 1340-1545
S- 1545-1610
E- 1620-1635
A- 1635-1810
S- 1810-1840
E- 1840-1845
A- 1845-1935
Start of bedtime routine- 1935
S- 2040

Looking at your routine the first nap of the day is a little short, your LO is transitioning ok throught the first sleep cycle but wakes after 50 min i would say a little UT here. Try increasing the A time by 10 mins and hold for a few days and see if u can get a longer nap, i always felt that if the first nap of the day was good it made the day easier. Average A times for a 4 mo th old are 1.45-2 hours.So get that A time to 1.45 and hopefully u will get a solid first nap.
He third A time is too long hence why you are getting a short nap.

The A time between last nap and Bt is two hours, its too long after a short 30 min nap, so by the time its BT LO is OT already.

Is there anything else going on? Colic? Reflux?
Viktoria

Mum to Oskar 25/10/2013 and Maksim 19/07/2015

Offline beanbuddy

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Re: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2014, 17:10:08 pm »
whats UT?
the last 20 mins of the third A time were spent trying to get Terry to sleep, he just fights sleep so much. having the same problem when he wakes up in the night, he either wakes up crying for hours or wakes up and wont go back to sleep properly for the rest of the night  ???

He had really bad colic until 12 weeks then it seemed to settle down. how would i know if he has reflux?

Offline Florena49

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Re: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2014, 19:49:52 pm »
Sorry UT is undertired. Some LOs can do a full A time on a short nap, but usually u would meed to reduce it.
So after ur 30 min nap, he might only be able to stay Awake for 1.30, maybe even less before he is overtired, once he is Ot babies are difficult to settle. I dont have experience with reflux myself, but link here for you to have a look. Reflux checklist for parents and Drs
Viktoria

Mum to Oskar 25/10/2013 and Maksim 19/07/2015

Offline beanbuddy

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Re: 4 month old short naps and screaming at bedtime
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2014, 21:19:29 pm »
Thanks, think I will take him to the doctors, From looking at that checklist it seems like he may have reflux