Can't get past 45 min naps!!

[mhaerens]

My little one seems to be stuck in 45 min nap, 45 min wake routine! Our routine is as follows:
6:30am eat
6:50am wake
7:45am sleep
8:30 eat
8:45wake
9:15/9:30 sleep
And so on...

The day goes on where my LO ends up eating and being awake for a total of 45min- 1 hour and then sleeping for only 45min.  He easily goes down for his first morning nap and mostly easy for his second nap but, because of his short naps, he takes about 5-7 short naps throughout the day.  It's exhausting for both of us! Towards the end of the day he fights the naps and will either fight going to sleep or wakes up the minute I put him down or within 30 min. Sometimes he seems hungry so I feed him even though it does not follow the EASY routine. I try to make sure he gets a full feeding by offering one breast until he won't latch and then I offer the second.

He seems most alert and happy first thing in the morning because he has had good sleep and, as the day goes on, he is still happy but quieter and more easily frustrated because he isn't g
Getting good sleep during the day.

How do I get him to take longer naps?  It seems that the only way I can sometimes get him to sleep longer at nap time is by letting him sleep on me or nursing him back to sleep!

Also, if it's important, bath time and bedtime routine is started at 6pm and I start the 4S routine at 6:30pm and he is usually asleep by 6:50/7:10. We have the same issues with him staying asleep and he usually will wake screaming/ crying about 4-5 times so he isn't down for the night until about 8pm/ 8:30pm.  He wakes at 1:30 or 2:30am regardless of a 10/11pm dream feed and then wakes at either 3:30 or 4:30am, then 5:30 and 6am. I feed him at the 1:30/2:30 wake and the 3:30/4:30 wake.

Can someone please help? The short naps are killing me and I know there are probably a lot of issues going on and I want my LO to have good restful sleep- especially since I am going back to work soon!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[jessmum46]

How old is he?

[mhaerens]

2 months- I can't believe I forgot to include that! Mommy brain!

[jessmum46]

No worries, I have one of those too!!

How does he go to sleep at the moment? Shh pat, rocking etc?

Short naps are to an extent developmental but can reflect either UT or OT as well. On the routine you posted the first A time is 1h15 - that's at the top end for a two month old (how old is he in weeks?) so you could try shortening that a touch to see if you can get a longer nap. If that doesn't help, try lengthening it instead by 5-10 mins. Always hold any change a few days to see if it makes a difference.

Can you ever resettle a short nap?

[mhaerens]

He is 10 weeks this week. I do the shh/ pat but I do it either holding him or rocking him. When I do it stationary, he will literally scream and cry for an hour or more! I know he is tired bc he yawns, gets quiet, and gets fidgety. I've tried shortening that period and I've tried lengthening that awake period. I just recently got him to the point where he won't cry and fight the naps by screaming but sometimes, especially in the afternoons, he cries and tries really hard to keep his little eyes open.

I will try to change the awake time by 5 min increments- that might help!

Occasionally I can resettle him and he'll sleep for another hour and 15 min but that rarely and I can only do it by nursing him back to sleep.  There are also some times where he will wake 10 minutes after I put him down and Ill resettle him and he sleeps for an hour and 45min more! I just can't figure this guy out!

[mhaerens]

When he wakes after 45 min do I try to put him back down to sleep (this could take 45 min to an hour) or let him get up and follow his cues?

[jessmum46]

Personally I just get LO up now, totally drove myself bonkers trying to resettle with DD so have taken the approach with DS that unless its very easy (ie 5 mins or less) to resettle then we'll just move on with the day, shorten A time a bit and try to follow cues.  If you want to persist a bit more then I'd still give yourself a limit of 15-20 mins or you'll go mad with shh-patting in a dark room

[mhaerens]

How long does a shush pat take on average bc there are times where I could do it for hours!

[jessmum46]

Can't really give an average as it depends on so many factors. Will take a lot longer if LO is OT or UT or teething for example, but should theoretically take less time as LO gets used to it provided all else is well.

[hayley66]

I have a 10 week old doing the same thing. It was 30 min naps but were now hitting 40-45 mins. My lo can self settle but still wakes all the time. I end up giving him 2 naps in every 3 hours ( eg first in cot but second out and about in pram etc!). He ends up having around 5 naps in a day. Not sure if this is the right thing to do but trying to stop ot.

It's so hard moving naps by literally 5 mins to see if there's a change when u have a toddler and places and things u have to be and do :-( My husband thinks I'm crazy! We did just over 1hr 15 activity today to see if made a difference and he was ut but nothing!

[lrj]

I'm having this same problem with a four week old! did we decide on what was the best reaction to the short nap?
I usually try shush patting for a bit but the only times it's worked for this are when I've done it for like half an hour and that's starting to stress me out. now I tend to put her in the carrier for the second half of the nap so she can still sleep enough but after two or three naps like that in a day my back starts seriously questioning my decision haha

[mhaerens]

Right now I've been trying to extend his A and then winding him down by walking with him in my arms to the point he starts to fall asleep on his own. He hasn't fought his naps as much but he still only sleeps 45 min. Since he wakes so early he goes back down earlier so I'm doing the EASY on a 1.5 hour schedule. Do I skip the feed after he wakes early and feed him after his second nap? I'm at a loss!!!

[jessmum46]

Yes you can do EASAS if that works out better, or EASAEAS, both are common when you're in the short naps phase x