Please help me fix my 8wk old's sleeping habits

[Seachelle1512]

Hopefully slow and steady wins the race then!

Yesterday was not great at all. Lots of short naps, no extending them and she wouldn't settle for more than an hour until 3am even though "BT" was 7:40. She's self-soothing to sleep more,  and that wasn't even a battle I was trying to win. Sigh...

Sat
A 7:05-8:30, E 7:15, self soothed to sleep for 15min
S 8:30-10:15 1hr45m
A 10:05-11:15, E 10:15, self soothed to sleep for 15min
S 11:15-12:15 1hr
A 12:15-1:30, E 12:25, Ssh/Pat 15min to sleep
S 1:30-2:30 1hr, no resettling tried 20min
A 2:30-3:30, E 2:55
S 3:30-5:00 1.5hr, I held her for an hour then PD
A 5:00-5:45, E 5:15
S 5:45-6:00 15min. I let her sleep after short A time because she seemed OT
A 6:00-7:40 BT routine, E 6:30
S 7:40-8:50 1hr
A 8:50-9:45, E 9:00
S 9:45-10:00, woke up had to diaper change, S 10:20-11:10 holding her and she woke up as soon as I put her down
A 11:15-12:20, E 12:00
S 12:20-1:30 1hr
A 1:30-2:20, E 1:35
S 1:40-2:20
A 2:20-3:00, E 2:20, self soothed to sleep for 15min
S 3:00-7:00

[Seachelle1512]

Today's nap routine went almost on par with the sample schedule. And it looks like her usual anti-night sleep antics are starting. I feel so terrible waking her up during the day,  especially when it's doing nothing to improve her night sleep. Day 5 in the books, trying to stay positive but it's not easy. If she is up till 3am again should I still wake  her at 7? I feel like I'm hindering her restorative night sleep by interrupting it every morning. Can I be doing more harm than good with this?

[michaeljacknnugg]

Argh, I feel your pain. Do you wake her from all the naps? What about concentrating on getting that first A long enough and then not worrying about the rest too much? I'm just thinking that first one needs to be long enough that she doesn't treat the first nap as an extension of her night.

[Seachelle1512]

After waking her for the day I know I wake her after the first nap. So she probably is just treating that like night sleep. The others I can't remember really. Except last night I woke her from her last nap, after much contemplation of whether I should or not- the nap started at 4:55 and she was sound asleep at 6:30. My plan was to just shift BT back a bit, also giving a later BT a try. My husband got her to sleep at 1:45am and I thought "Hallelujah, an improvement " until she woke up crying at 3:15am. We went outside today during every A time amd she soothed herself to sleep for a couple naps. I've gotten 1hr of sleep since waking up yesterday.

Her first A time is an hour like most the other ones. Should it be longer?

A 7:15-8:15, E 7:25 (S/P 15min)
S 8:15-10:15 2hr
A 10:15-11:15, E 10:25
S 11:15-12:40 1hr (self soothed til 11:45)
A 12:40-1:40, E 12:50 (rocked to sleep 5min)
S 1:40-2:20, 2:30-40, 2:45-3:45. 1.5hr total (I held her to extend this nap)
A 3:45-4:55, E 3:50
S 4:55-6:30, 1.5hr, woke her up
A 6:30-7:50, E 6:35, 7:30
S 7:50-8:10, needed to burp, 8:30-9:00
A 9:00-10:30, E 9:15, fought sleep
S 10:30-11:15
A 11:15-12:15, E 11:20, fought sleep hard
S 12:15-30
A 12:30-1:45 E 1:00.
S 1:45-3:15
A 3:15- E 3:25

[michaeljacknnugg]

I'd see if you can push at least that first A time out, an hour seems very short to me. How old is she now?

If you look at her total amount of sleep and awake time, it looks like she's trying to take it in the day still. Try pushing her to 1hr15 and go from there.

My guy is 17 weeks today and is on a 2.5hr A, for comparison. He's a long A baby though.

[Seachelle1512]

She's 10 weeks today. I'll give 1hr 15min a shot. Can't get any worse- I'm getting less sleep now then I ever was before and I thought I'd be enjoying my last 2 weeks at home but I'm not and that makes me feel terrible.

[Seachelle1512]

10wks as pf yesterday. I don't even know what day it is.

[Seachelle1512]

Well this sleep training thing has been a long journey and I thank anyone who has contributed their time to help me.
Progress was made while my mom was in town all this week. Several nights in a row of successful BT routines and wakefulness during the day.
One more question since LO threw me for a loop yesterday. Friday night she slept 12hrs straight, no NFs. The longest she has ever went was 8hrs. Then today it was like a whole other baby woke up. She was cranky all day. Sometimes going to sleep easily, sometimes fighting it, mostly 15-30min naps. The only 2hr nap I got was by holding her. We kept to our 2.5-3hr eating schedule. Then the 7pm bedtime attempt failed. It's now 9pm and I think this bedtime attempt may fail too cause I still hear her trying to self Soothe.

Could the 12hrs straight sleep done more harm than good? Or could it just have thrown her off for a day? I know BTs and STTN won't be consistent from the start, just hoping all the hard work maintaining a daytime schedule isn't ruined lol 

[michaeljacknnugg]

Well done you!!! I'm guessing she's fighting sleep because she's had such a good day. Maybe stretch her A times when she's slept well and see where that takes you.

[Seachelle1512]

When I say fighting sleep I mean she's shown tired signs but won't settle.

How long should I maintain the strict 'eat every 3hrs' rule that I had to follow when I was trying to switch her days and nights?  I think I messed up today in waking her to eat at 10:00. Should I now just monitor her awake times for tired cues then not let her sleep more than an a certain anount?

A 7:10-8:30, 1hr20. E 7:15, yawn at 8:10 then hiccups for 10min. Settled easily to sleep.
S 8:30-10:05 1hr30
A 10:05-11:20, 1hr15. E 10:15, didn't show great interest in eating and was fussy by 10:50, wouldn't settle to sleep.
S 11:20-12:20. I held her since she was so hard to settle. She was sleeping very fidgety.
A 12:20 Woke up crying, wouldn't settle or stop crying so decided to feed at 12:30 and start a new EASY cycle.

[michaeljacknnugg]

How are you doing now?

You can probably relax a little on the eating - I don't sweat half an hour either way really.

Tired signs get less reliable as they get older, and often going by the clock is easier. They're used to sleeping at a certain time and their bodies get used to it, but often they need to stretch out their A  times a little. I find that if we have a good long nap he will add half an hour or so onto his next A time.

[Elisanah]

Just wanted to say sorry for suddenly disappearing -i managed to log myself out on my mobile and couldn't remember my password. I only made it onto my laptop to reset my log-in a couple of days ago! Sounds like you're doing really well though! I hope things have improved further still