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!!!