Nap help for 3.75 month old, please!!!

[deborahchristine]

Hello,

My son has consistently only been able to take 30 minute naps throughout the day. We started PU/PD method three days ago and it has helped eliminate his sleep crutches. He naps 4 times a day. He usually wakes up from his naps crying and goes down crying. Getting him down can take anywhere from 1 minute to 45 minutes. We typically only use the shh pat (although we don't shh we say a key phrase). Once or twice a day some PU/PD will be needed to soothe him to sleep. We have tried to shh pat him when he wakes up to extend his nap but it has not worked. We have also gone in and started the pat before he wakes up to see if that would help and it hasn't. We also tried to PU/PD after he woke, but a couple episodes of 60 minutes of very loud crying and no going back to sleep, we decided not to do that anymore since he is still young. Now we are just letting him cry/fuss for ten to twenty minutes after he wakes up each time with no intervention to see if he can settle himself. It will look like he is going to fall back asleep and will settle (eyes closed, arms relaxed) for five minutes and then start crying again.

Our EASY schedule looks like this (from yesterday).

Awake 7am
In Crib at 8:30am, Awake at 9am. Minimal time needed for him to fall asleep.
In Crib at 11:30am, Awake at 12:15pm. Took 15 minutes to get him to fall asleep.
In Crib at 2:15pm, Awake at 3:00pm. Took 15 minutes to get him to fall asleep.
In Crib at 5pm, Awake at 6pm. Took 30 minutes to get him to fall asleep.
In Crib for bedtime at 7:45pm. Took 45 minutes to get him to fall asleep.

We feed him as soon as he wakes up.

There must be something wrong if he takes so long to get down and wakes up crying! We just don't know what it is. Is his A time too long? We could try to shorten his A time and add a 5th nap. His awake times are so long after the first nap because we were trying to stick to the E schedule.

Appreciate any insights!!! Also I am brand new to the forums!

[lily_layne]

It's hard to know for sure, but I am guessing he's maybe a bit UT (undertired) for the first nap so does a short nap. Then, because of the long A time, he's OT for the next nap and can't settle into a deep sleep. Most LOs at that age need a shorter A time after a short nap.

I would try stretching that first A time by 15 minutes and hold it there for a few days. I would keep the next A time somewhere between 1.5-2h (closer to 1.5 if he got a short nap, closer to 2 if you get a nap of 1h15 or more). I would abandon your E schedule for a bit and just feed him on a routine that works with the A times he needs for naps since I'm pretty sure he can't do those long As. You could feed him when he wakes or just before the nap if you think he'll sleep better that way.

Also, he may have some built up OT if the short naps have been going on a while so it may take a bit for things to change. Does he nap better in a sling, swing or bouncy chair? If he does, it may be worth doing some naps in there to help him catch up on lost sleep.

What do you think?

[deborahchristine]

Hi! We tried your suggestions below (i.e. 1hr 30mins of awake time if nap is short and around 2 hours if the nap is long) and have definitely made progress . The second day, even though his naps where still short between 3-45 minutes, he did not wake up crying. He stayed in the crib for a good 10-20 minutes afterwards trying to fall back asleep (again no crying). He didn't get himself back to sleep but I saw it as progress. This morning we put him down after an hour and 30mins of awake time and he slept for an 1hr 35mins! I know it was a shorter awake time then you advised but from 6-7am he was awake in him crib just hanging out quietly so I thought he might be a little tired earlier. For his afternoon nap today he was only able to stay up for an 1hr 40mins even though he had a good morning nap. It only took 3mins to get him to fall asleep. Hopefully he will sleep over 1hr 15mins, if not I will try to keep him up longer next time.

Thank you! And I will let you know if anything changes.

[lily_layne]

That's great that you're seeing progress so quickly! Many LOs like a shorter first A time (I know both of mine did) so 1h30 may be right on for your little guy. I would stick with 1h40 minutes for the next A for a few days - sometimes it can take a while for a nap to lengthen when he's been short-napping for a while.