Short naps - 45 min - 6 weeks old

[kasiakle]

Hi everyone, I am first time mum of a almost 6 week old one. He was born 2 weeks past due term and birth weight 7,80 lbs now he is about 11,5 lbs he is on EASY since the first day we brougth him from hospital. He is on artificial milk and the bottle. I try to keep 3 h routine - and he eats about 4 - 5 oz per feeding total 31,5 - 35,5 oz a day. Everything with him is fine he is healthy. He has usually no problems with going to sleep - I follow the procedure as follows - at sign of tiredness ( yawning and small irritation cry - not to be interested at changing position or entertaining ) I take him to his room darken it, play ocean sounds with some white noise, swaddle him ( I have wombie swaddler ) take him on my arms and after he is calm put him to his bed and sit with him for a while, sometimes he also like to suck a pacifier just before going to sleep. Our days was quite calm besides one fact. He started to shorten his naps to 40-45 minutes it has happend before - but just from time to time. For about 2 weeks it looks like it is a habit. He wakes up and usually cry and is upset. I think it is not possible that he is hungry - considering the amount he is eating. I tried to feed him, several times he ate full portion but he looks like he is switching to 2 hour shedule and in the afternoon he reduced the E amount by half. So I decided I should do everything to keep him fed in 3 h intervals. Usually when he wakes up after 40 min I try to do shh-pat till the time of next feeding time. But he is not always to be calmed down. I simetimes take him to my arms and try to do whole sleeping ritual from the beginning but it not always works. Sometimes a sip of water helps and simetimes pacifier and sometimes nothing and he is crying till next feedein time. When he is on a walk in his trolley he always sleeps good and without problems - usually 1,5 - 2 h. What am I doing wrong?? I just add that at night he usually sleeps well the only problem is with night feed - when he wakes up around 3-5 he eats and do not want to go to sleep directly, it takes usually about an hour with the feeding time to have him back to sleep. I also worry that his activity time during the day is too long, but I try to have him in bed as soon as I see tiredness clues but sometimes they do not appear for 1:30 - 2 h... Our typical day looks as follows

7:00 E
8:20 S - 9:00
9-10 - shh-pat and everything to make him sleep again - sometimes he sleps during this procedure for 10 min and wakes up sometimes longer
10-E
11-S - usually at walk in trolley - without any problems
13 - E
14:35 S - 15:20
15:20 - 15:50 - shh-pat
15:50 E
17:30 S - 17:50
17:50 - E - but he eats very little like 1 oz but cries a lot after being awake
18-19 A - including bath
19 - E
19-20 trying to calm him down and get him to sleep
around 20 - S
23 - dream feed
about 3:30 up to 5 ( randomly ) night feed about one hour later sleep usually up to 7 am

I also have another question - I am not sure if it is right place to ask but I try. As his night sleep will increase lets say from 23 - till 6 am what should I do with him at 6 am - I do not want to start the day at 6 but as I feed him at 6 and will try to get him back to sleep it will end so that he will be sleeping about 7 as I assume... And that should be the time we start our day? So should I wake him again at 7 and feed him or let him sleep till &:30 and wake him and feed him or what?

Thank you in advance for all your anseweres and support and sorry for possible mistakes - english is not my mother language

[-Maya-]

Hello kasiakle, usually when a not hungry baby wakes up screaming from a short nap it is OT.

IMHO, OT stems not only from the actual A time, but also on what baby does in that A time. When I started to truly follow these BW advices, DS was 4mo, and to reduce OT I had to keep lower and lower his A time, not in terms of the length but on what he did. Just looking out the window or being carried by mommy to look around the house was more than enough.
If extending nap does not work and you want to spatiate feeds, you could also do some more activity before feeding. With a lot of naps this could lead to eat just before sleep, so you may have to anticipate last feedings of the day.

Have you considered if he may be in a growth spurt?

About WU at 6am, I would put him down again till 8, if possible. I prefer to stick to a tentative 12h night always and your actual BT is 8pm.

Mind that I am not the most experienced mum, I am just giving you my 2 cents and also a lot of hugs!

[kasiakle]

Thank you Maya for your reply In the activity time usually he stairs at the window or lay at the floor mat on his tummy or is going aroud the house on my arms or just stairs at my face and smiles to me nothing more. Growth spurt? Should he than eat more than he is eating or more often? I didn`t continue to feed him in 2 h intervals as it lead to reducing the amount per one feed ( at the afternoon about 1/2 normal portion ). And I am also not sure if the growth spurt should last so long?

Hugs for you all
Kate

[-Maya-]

Sorry kasiakle, I cannot give you advice about feeding. I have not enough experience. At that lo age I was BF and DS was eating every couple of hours, but I gueds this is normal for BF babies. I also do not remember how log growth spurts lasts, maybe someone more skilled than me can help you.

[newkidontheblock]

Hi Kate and welcome to BW

You are already getting such great advice from Maya here and I'll just try to help out on a few details. Firstly, the first few months, till around 4 months, are full of these short 30-45 minute naps. A lot of it is just developmental and also down to them 'waking up to the world' and being more interested in things around them. It was around this time (5 weeks) when my DD who previously did lovely long naps, gave up on napping altogether! 45 minutes is one sleep cycle and so he just needs to learn to transition through them. This is a process that takes time:)
short naps at 3-4 months? Take it easy, it will get better!
Starting EASY - all you need to know and more!
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
What are A times and how do they fit into the EASY plan?

I wonder if the first A time is too long for him. At that point, my DD couldn't handle more than 1 hour for her first A. Do you think it could be the same with yours? Then yes, it is very important to watch out for overstimulation. Keep things very very low key. Just about everything gets them too wired up. As Maya said, cuddle with mummy, diaper change, look of the window etc. Overly stimulating activities such as the mobile or play gym should be done right at the beginning of the A for a very short time only.

17:30 S - 17:50
17:50 - E - but he eats very little like 1 oz but cries a lot after being awake
18-19 A - including bath
19 - E
19-20 trying to calm him down and get him to sleep
around 20 - S

I think you might need to tweak this part of your routine a bit. The catnap here seems to be 20 minutes, which generally indicates over tiredness or over stimulation, so might help to take a look at how he is spending his A time before that nap. After he wakes, especially if his nap is 20 minutes only, I would move straight to bedtime routine. At that age, cluster feeding is recommended - so I used to feed before catnap and then before and after bath.

 

As his night sleep will increase lets say from 23 - till 6 am what should I do with him at 6 am - I do not want to start the day at 6 but as I feed him at 6 and will try to get him back to sleep it will end so that he will be sleeping about 7 as I assume... And that should be the time we start our day? So should I wake him again at 7 and feed him or let him sleep till &:30 and wake him and feed him or what?

At this age, we had 2 night feeds with DD - one at 3ish and then at 5.30/6ish. The dream feed helped to cut out the first feed and then as I started waking her up at 7 every day, she automatically dropped the second NF. I think she knew she would be fed soon anyway. Sometimes she would wake earlier but I wouldn't get her out of bed unless she was crying for me. She would generally doze a bit and play around until I got her up. A fixed wake up time & bedtime are really great to set their body clocks. Basically you need to plan your day. If you are going for 8-8, then you would feed at 6 and get her back to sleep. You may find that it is necessary to start your day earlier, in which case you can bring bedtime to an earlier time as well.

Hope that helps

[kasiakle]

Newkidontheblock,

Thank you for your tips and solutions We were discussing the topic a lot with my husband who helps me a lot witk out LO ( as I am back to work we split the time we watch him ). We aren`t quite sure if he is overtired - the whole day even with the short naps he looks really relaxed and happy he is smiling a lot and is very calm. The only problem is with the lenght of those naps. Today we made it this way:

At night he woke up at 4:15 and was fed fell back to sleep at 5:20
then he was awake at 6:15 but just fussed a little and made some single like cry noises it lasted about 30 min and he was back to sleep
He woke again later at 7:30 so we started our day

7:30 E
9:20 S
10:00 E
11:30 S
12:50 E
14 S - in his trolley at outside terrace
16 - E
17:40 S
18:10 E
bath
19:15 E
20:00 S

Although he had only 2 short naps in the morning - the first one was 40 min and at the second one he was awake at 12:15 but tried to settle himself again to sleep - he wasn`t crying a lot and I helped him with my presence near his bed sometimes put my hand on him, sometimes offered him a pacifier he tried to fall again to sleep but managed only to settle for 5-8 min and than was awake again - he seems to be relaxed and happy for the rest of the day, and it is always rather easy to put him to sleep for a nap.

We keep as always activity level at minimum - just looking outside the window, staring at things in houshold, staring at our faces or very limited time on floor mat on his tummy. In all his activity times he is really happy and calm, he doesn`t give obvious tiredness clues. As soon as I see he is starting to be fussy or yawn I take him and start 4S procedure. Do you think I should limit his activity time more by the clock tomorrow?
Till now we deciced that we will accept the fact that he is happy with 45 min naps - will try to get him back to sleep but if he will begin to cry and we won`t be able to calm him down we will take him out for a little activity time and than will try to begin the wind down process again. Maybe it will solve the problem within time

[newkidontheblock]

Do you think I should limit his activity time more by the clock tomorrow?

Yes, hun, especially that first A time. 2 hours A is more suited to a 4 month old. At 6 weeks, they do tire quite quickly. As I mentioned, with a lot of babies, they can only do an hour at that time but maybe you could start by limiting it to 1.30 ?

Till now we deciced that we will accept the fact that he is happy with 45 min naps - will try to get him back to sleep but if he will begin to cry and we won`t be able to calm him down we will take him out for a little activity time and than will try to begin the wind down process again. Maybe it will solve the problem within time

Fair enough:) Glad that you and DH have some clarity on the matter. Sounds like a very sensible plan

xx

[kasiakle]

Hi all,

Today as suggedted and decided we tried to limit his first activity time - I started 4S as I saw first yawn this is what we got:

4 am night feed - back to sleep at 4:50
5 started fussing but settled himself back to sleep and again fussing repeted every 10-15 min
6 - fussing with single cry like sound - but was asleep a little twisting and moving but eyes were closed - repeted every 10-15 min
7:20 E - we started our day
8:20 S - wind down started at 8:05 at first yawn but when I held him in his swaddler he was twisting and crying ( normally he went rather quietly to sleep )
9:00 A he was up I tried to put him back to sleep with shhsh pat and calming, then tried to start again 4S routine but nothing works. so we decided for some A time - he was just sitting with my husband in bed and staring at my husband`s face and at wallpaper
10:00 E
10:20 S - he was up at 11:30 but with a little shhs-pat went back to sleep
12:20 A - but he was fussing and started to cry for food at 12:40
12:40 E - but he vomited 20 min afterwards and was fed again at 13:20
13:40 S at stroller
15:40 A - he was very quiet and happy after this nap he was laying in his crib looking at us having dinner
16:00 E
16:50 S
17:20 A - he was awake and we tried to get him back to sleep but it didn`t work
18:00 E

Assuming I am not sure if limiting first A time worked?? The whole day was a little bit crazy and althought 2 long naps ( 2 x 2 h ) he right now seems quite fussy....

[newkidontheblock]

Try 1.5 for the first A?

[kasiakle]

Today was totally crazy  all I can do was laughing I think our LO wanted to show us today how much he cares about our plan

So yesterday he went to sleep at 19:20 after he was fed at 18 and again at 19

19:20 S
20:00 E - he woke by himself and was hungry ate 2 oz
23:00 E dream feed 3 oz
4:15   E night feed 4,5 oz
6:00   A - he started fussing from 5 and screaming from 6 I tried to calm him first and put him to sleep but nothig worked so at 6:20 I fed him
6:20   E- 3 oz - I tried to put him to bed right away but he was fussy and screaming, I tried the whole 4s rutine but nothing worked so I decided we start our day
7:40   S with some cried and twisting
8:20   A - he was just awake, I tried shhs pat and calming up to 8:50 but nothing worked so I gave him some more quiet activity - he was just laying and looking at me having breakfast
9:20   E - he started a "hungry cry" so I fed him 4,5 oz
10:10 S - rather quietly transition
10:50 A - he was awake, I tried calming him down, shhs-pat up to 11:20 but again nothing so I gave him some more quiet activity - looking outside the window
12:00 E - he started again hungry cry so I fed him 3,5 oz
13:20 S - at 12:30 my husband put him to bed but he managed to fall asleep at 13:20 - he was laying there quietly and looking around
13:50 A - he was again awake, my husband tried to put him back to sleep but again nothing
14:30 E - 3,5 oz
15:15 S - in his stroller interrupted by 20 min ultrasound hip check
17:15 A - he was awake after coming home
17:30 E - 3,5 oz
18:45 S after bath etc
19:30 E - he was awake screaming so we fed him - 2,5 oz
20:00 S

I really wonder what the night brings us - today was totaly crazy.... 

[newkidontheblock]

6:00   A - he started fussing from 5 and screaming from 6 I tried to calm him first and put him to sleep but nothig worked so at 6:20 I fed him
6:20   E- 3 oz - I tried to put him to bed right away but he was fussy and screaming, I tried the whole 4s rutine but nothing worked so I decided we start our day

It is completely normal for him to need a feed at this time. You can treat it as a night feed - so lights off/dim, no talking at all - feed, burp and put back in bed. No need for the 4 S routine as that is a wind down routine and is probably waking him up more.

Hope you have a better day today:)