Will baby learn to go back to sleep on her own after 40min nap? (3.5 month baby)

[shira1206]

Hello,

My little one is 3.5 months old and has a pretty good day routine by now. she has 2 bigger naps during the day and then a short one in the afternoon.
for her longer naps she sleeps 40 minutes then wakes and I help her get back to sleep - and all together she sleeps 2 hours (she was always like this with the 40 min cycle).
what i do is pat her gently and (i don't do the 'shhh') and give her pacifier (it helps her fall asleep but when she sleeps it falls out and she keeps sleeping without it).
i know she always wakes after around 40 minutes and once i used to automatically go and pat her until she fell asleep and now i try to give her some time before i go to her.
she doesn't cry, she wakes looks around, moves her head from side to side, and after some time she can start cat miaoing (it's so cute - sounds like a cat voice) but i will not let her get to crying of course.

what i would like to ask is if what i am doing is OK and if she will learn to fall asleep on her own this way?
is this an age 'thing', meaning only in certain age she can fall back to sleep on her own or do i need to do something differently?
also is it OK that i put her pacifier back? i mean, it does help her fall asleep and relaxes her but like i said it can fall and she doesn't need it back, only during the time she tries to fall asleep.

thank you!
Shira

[Buntybear]

hi there, sorry you post hasn't got a reply yet. hopefully someone will be along soon.

I don't have any experience with a paci so can't help there but wonder if it might be worth you going innate about 35 minutes and so you are there before she wake? See what she is doing. If she is jolting awake then try holding her arms gently to her sides. This worked with Olly when he would jolt as he moved through sleep cycles.

HTH

[deb]

Sorry, I missed this one. This was my world when my DD1 was 3 months-ish too.

Here's how it worked out for us: How Tracy Helped Josie and her Family Get Past 45-Min. Naps!

[shira1206]

thank you both!
i tried to go in before she wakes - maybe didn't try it long enough.. now shes been waking after 30 min, not 45 not sure what's going on.
she really tosses her head from side to side, and her legs and arms - we never use swaddle.

Deb i read your post on how Tracy helped you - what you had is very similar to us.
i didn't understand about the light feed - could you explain? i don't know if i should give her more food than what shes eating.
couple weeks back she cried couple times after food so we raised the amount by 30 ml. from then, she's on a 4 hour schedule but sometimes doesn't finish her bottle - so giving more sounds like forcing on her more food than needed, no?

thank you,
SHira

[deb]

In our case, what we were trying to do was make sure Josie was getting enough daytime calories to eliminate her waking during the night for a feed; that 5AM waking was setting her up for waking for the day already not-rested, so short A times before she presented as sleepy - even if we kept her up for 3-4 hours till next nap, she was OT anyway but wouldn't sleep (her naps were WORSE if we held off, actually; 30 minutes might be UT but might be OT, so try tweaking the A time).

As she was around the growth spurt anyway, adding in a "snack" before naptime helped to up those calories; eventually we weaned them one nap at a time as she took fuller feed the rest of the day.

Not sure when my next online time will be, but can you write out your current EASY from wakeup to bedtime (and note any regular nightwakings)? Even if I can't get back, someone might be able to use that to see where a tweak might best be tried.

[shira1206]

thanks Deb.
actually i have another post with our EASY times - i am starting to think this and the other post are related Changes in sleep times at night - 3.5 months baby

i will write it here again so you can see:

WU -  at 6:45-7
A  - in bed - she wakes slowly and looks around plays with a small bed toy
E  - 7:30
A - about an hour depends how tired she is (she did get up before she ate so i can see it is more than an hour of A time looking at this routine - but only in last couple days)
S - 8:30 (2-3 hours with help getting back to sleep after 45 min)
WU - 11
A - 30 min
E - 11:30
A - until 12:45
S - 12:45 until around 15:00 sometimes 15:15 with help falling back asleep after 45 min)
E - 15:30 and if she doesn't seem very hungry maybe even 15:45
A - 1 hour
S - 16:45 (around 30-40 min)
A - from 17:30 until 19:00 - 19:15
bath time around 19:00 - 19:15
E - 19:30 - 19:45
Bed time around 19:45 - 20:00

Night time
starts tossing her head from side to side around 1:00 AM then i help her continue sleep
Again at 2:00 AM
E - 3:00 - 3:30 AM
S - 15-20 after she starts feeding
around 5:00 AM she tosses her head again and i help her sleep - sometimes again at 6:00 sometimes wakes around 7:00

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Please continue to support shira1206 here: Changes in sleep times at night - 3.5 months baby