Hi everyone,
We have a 4 month old right now who is still taking 4 naps per day; they used to always be 45 minutes, but the time seems to be shrinking down to 35 or 40 minutes instead. We're totally clueless, though, as to whether she's overtired, undertired, or just a short napper. For a while, she wasn't waking up at night until 4 or 5 AM, then she switched back to 2:30 and 6 AM, and lately it's been more like 12:30 AM and 5:30 AM. Her ability to go down for the night seems to be disrupting, also; we've been having a 7:30ish bedtime for quite some time, but she almost always wakes up at 8:15 to eat or get paci one more time before conking out for the night. For a while, she'd just go right down at 8:15, but lately it's been a bit more of a struggle. So... here's about what she's doing:
7:30 Wake and eat, nap 9 - 9:35 ish
9:45 Wake and eat, nap 11:15 - noon-ish
Noon Wake and eat, nap 1:45 - 2:30 ish
2:30 Wake and eat, nap 4:15 - 5 ish
5 Wake and eat, bedtime at about 7, wake at 8 to eat again
12:30 AM and 5:30 AM night feedings
The feedings have been spreading out more lately, though, for example, she doesn't really take a full feed at 7 AM anymore, and sometimes just waits to eat until 9:45 AM either way. I feel like she should be napping longer, but the only success that we've had with that is by holding her and patting her for 45 minutes after the first wakeup. If we try to put her down, her eyes bolt open (even after I'm pretty sure she's in deep sleep), and she's up. Whenever we go into her after the 35-40 minutes, she always gives us a huge smile, but she's also been crankier at random times lately and seeming to be more restless.
Looking at the EASY 3.5 hour schedule, I think that's what she needs, but if you tally all the times up, it only allows for about 7.5 hours of wake time during the day, and 16.5 total hours of sleep; that seems weird to me because I thought the average 4 month old got 14 - 16 hours total! Any advice or help you could give would be great. Thanks!
- Jason
