Author Topic: 4 month fun  (Read 1553 times)

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Offline grace annes mommy

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4 month fun
« on: January 23, 2016, 01:48:21 am »
Hi there! Josie is 4 months now and we are starting to hit all those fun 4 month crazies!  There are a few things I'd like to talk thru, so forgive me if this is all over the place or if I've possibly posted in the wrong forum.

J enjoyed her "4th trimester."  We haven't done much in the way of independent sleep really and she is sleeping swaddled in a rock and play.  For pretty much the whole month of December, we had a pretty good routine:
WU & E 7am
8:30ish nap 40 mins  (this nap is consistently short regardless of A time it seemed)
11/11:30 nap 40 mins to 1.5 hrs - usually out in the ergo, if at home usually 1 hr
2:00/2:30ish - nap at home, I usually had to resettle at the 40 min. mark but then she would sleep for a long nap.  I would wake her at 5 pm if she wasn't awake yet.  This was often the case.
BT 7pm
Usually one NF or STTN

Since the New Year, her routine started going a bit haywire and she started fighting that long afternoon nap.  Some days she was scraping by with 3 catnaps.  Often refusing a 4th nap.  Then, of course, she was hard to settle for bt since OT.  She seems to have a very fine line between OT and UT for bt and it can take forever either way to get her down.

We've had night feeds the last 2 nights, so I'm thinking we could now be hitting that growth spurt.  She may also have a touch of a cold.  So don't want to make drastic changes right now, but we need to probably make some steps toward IS soon.  She's started rolling, so soon it will be time to move to the crib and out of the swaddle, I suppose? 

I also need to sort out naps.  I've made an effort this week to get a long nap from her mid-day and that has seemed to help with settling for bt some days.  But the APing to get a long nap is extensive.  I think she doesn't know how to sleep thru the cycles for naps or I'm not hitting her window, not sure.  I have a hunch she's on the higher side of A times considering her routine last month at 3 mos.

Here was our day today which is more or less what I've been aiming for this week. 

WU 7:15
E 8am (had a NF at 5:30am so not hungry at WU)
A (2 hrs)
S 9:15 - 9:55 (40 mins)
E 10am
A (2 hr 10)
S 12:05-12:45, 12:55-2:00 (2 hrs ish - I always have to resettle here and hold her until in a deep sleep...  Sometimes she's very easy to put right back to sleep.  Other times, she seems UT and I feel like I'm forcing her to take a nap...  I typically have to rock her back to sleep.
E 2pm
A (2 hr 15)
S 4:15 (40 mins)
E 5pm
A
E 6:30  - I usually let her fall asleep with the bottle for bt.  Here, I think she was UT and it took extensive rocking and resettling before she was finally asleep for good at about 8pm leading to OT.  Just had to settle her at 8:40 (able to pat without picking up).

So... any thoughts on where to go with our routine to get some restorative naps, how to move her into the crib, out of the swaddle, and on our way to IS are appreciated!!!


Offline michaeljacknnugg

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Re: 4 month fun
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2016, 07:05:02 am »
Following as we'll be here far too soon! Would a 5 min nap just near bt help stave off ot? That's what we're playing with right now.

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Offline grace annes mommy

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Re: 4 month fun
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2016, 01:12:21 am »
Hi MJ&N!  No clue if a mini nap would help or not.  My guess is she'd just refuse it.  :-\  BT tonight was better with a higher A time.  Here was today:

NF 11:45pm 6oz (expressed breast milk for all feeds)
NF 4:15am 6oz  (last week, we had no NFs with 12+ hours sleep.  Is it safe to assume we've hit a growth spurt with these NFs?)
WU 7:30

E 8am 4oz
A (2hr 15)
S 9:45 - 10:20 - a bit hard to settle, this A was longer than intended bc was busy with DD1, woke happy as always

E 10:30 5oz - over the course of about 1 hr
A (1 hr 40) very fussy by the end
S 12 to 12:40, 12:50 to 1:55 (took a lot of patting/rocking/bouncing to resettle; held til in deep sleep and put down at 1:10)

E 2:00 6oz
A (2hr)
S 4 - 4:40

E 4:45 6oz
A (2 hr 5min)
E 6:35 7oz
S 6:45 asleep feeding, put down 7:00, awake at 7:10, rocked back to sleep, put down 7:20.  We've passed the 40 min. mark, so I think we're good for now.

So much better bt than last night.  But still struggling to get day sleep in her in general..  I'm not sure if it's routine related or an IS issue.  Any thoughts on what steps to take are appreciated!!


Offline grace annes mommy

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Re: 4 month fun
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2016, 01:10:59 am »
Well, today was a bust.  Had 4 naps of 20 to 40 mins each.  We are snowed in here so decided might as well try without the swaddle and in the crib since our routine's a mess anyway.  She is sooo not ready to do without the swaddle.   :P  She's doing OK in the crib, though, and it took quite a bit of patting, but she's down for the night.  Realizing this is more of an IS issue than a routine tweak, so I'll give her a bit to adjust to the crib and then maybe come back and post on another board.


Offline Scottishmummy

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Re: 4 month fun
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2016, 19:51:17 pm »
Just following with interest too as we also are at the 4 month mix it all up stage.

Your day looks pretty good with 1 long nap at least. I agree that the resettling for nap & night sleep is possibly due to feeding/AP to sleep.how are you getting her to sleep and resettling?
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Offline becj86

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Re: 4 month fun
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2016, 22:32:23 pm »
Sounds like normal 4mo regression stuff with that sleep cycle becoming more pronounced and DD needing to learn to get through that to sleep a longer nap (aka IS issue) to me - you've got decent A times there.

How long has she been sleeping in the crib? Is it a familiar place for her?

Offline grace annes mommy

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Re: 4 month fun
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2016, 01:17:01 am »
Thanks, ladies.  Yes, definitely an IS/4month regression issue.  We just started the crib yesterday and so far so good.  I've started a thread on the naps board since I think getting her thru that 40 min. mark at naps is really the at the crux of my stress here.  I don't want to be redundant with my threads, so please go hold my hand over there!! xx