Catnapping is back and seems here to stay

[Julie Kenwell]

Hi there,

I had posted previously about my baby catnapping at around one month old. Reducing the awake time really helped but I think it impacted on his night sleep as he would wake not even for a feed.
I had mentioned before my first baby had LSN and I suspect this one is the same!
At just under 3 months he has only been getting between 13 - 14 hrs sleep in every 24hrs?!
His naps have all become short. For a while I could have got one good two hr nap a day with the rest all short by that seems to be a thing of he past.
He seems to yawn around 1.10mins so I put him down with a dummy.
His night sleep isn't too bad. Does 10-10.5 hrs with one night feed and sometimes wakes around 6/6.30 but takes his dummy to go back to sleep.
I know my first boy was a catnapper until around 5 months but I'm wondering am I doing something wrong this time round that his naps are short and he isn't getting a lot of sleep each day?

[Scottishmummy]

Hi
How long does he take to go to sleep? I.e. What is his total A time? (Time you put him down + time to fall asleep) I'm wondering if he might be a bit under tired at 1hr10 A time if he's like my DD and falls asleep quickly. If he takes 15-20 mins to fall asleep, like my DS used to, then that A tune would be right and we might need to look at something else.

How short are the naps?

Is he falling asleep easily or fighting it?

How is he when he wakes? Happy or crying?

As you found with your first, some babies do just take short naps around this age but there are sometimes things you can do to give them the best opportunity for a longer nap.

[Julie Kenwell]

When he wakes he looks up at me and smiles! The naps could be anything from 30 - 45, some times 40. He can take a while to go over, yes, sometimes up to 15 minutes. Today he didn't yawn until around 1.25 for his first nap which was 30 mins (again woke smiling and lay in his Moses basket for a while v quiet). Then the same for second nap, around 1.30 awake time and then he slept 45 mins.
My first boy stopped catnapping at five months after I did pu/pd at 4 months.
Do u think the dummy is the problem here?
It doesn't seem to be an issue at night.
There have been days this week I have had to give him six naps just so he is rested for bed!!!

[Julie Kenwell]

I should add that he woke very unhappy from his last nap today. Woke at 40 mins. I gave him a bottle and he started falling asleep as he fed for about 10 mins. I put him is his cot and after a while he fell asleep again for around 10 mins and woke happy again just before 7pm. His bed time is 9. I'm so confused by all of it. I have stuck to his 9pm bedtime as my older boys bedtime is 830. It means I can get the eldest down and then out the youngest down foe the night. But I'm wondering if his morning nap is short does it mean he wants to do a longer night? Could it also explain why I am having to add a sixth nap in some days? Maybe I should be putting him to bed earlier.
My only worry about this is if I put him to bed earlier will he wake more at night?!

[Scottishmummy]

Hmmm, could you post his day in EASY format for me to get a better idea of how it goes e.g.
Wake up: 7am
E: 7.15
A: 1hr30
S: 8.30-9.15 etc

Happy wake ups from short naps are either UT or right amount of sleep but just a naturally/developmentally  short napper
Sad wake ups from short naps are usually OT.

Most LOs this age can only manage a 12hr day, so if BT is 9pm, you'd be looking to start his day around 9am.  Or if he naturally wakes earlier, he might need an earlier bedtime.  Sometimes LOs actually sleep better with an earlier night because they aren't OT at bedtime.

[Julie Kenwell]

Ok, maybe that's where I'm going wrong then. His bedtime is 9 and he is up either 7/7 30.
I will keep an eye on his day tomoro and post it.

[Julie Kenwell]

Hey so he had just over 10hrs last night. Woke at 2am but took his dummy and went down again and then woke at 5.30 again but again took his dummy. He stirred around 6.45 which would have been 10hrs, I gave him his dummy and he dosed til 7. That's the first night he has taken no night feeds, although he did still wake.
So today so far looks like this

WU 7am and eat
A until 8.10 when he started yawning
S 8.20 jolted at 8.55 but didn't wake until just after 9

E 9.15
A until 10.15 when he yawned
S 10.25 again jolted 10 mins later but didn't wake until just before 11.15

E shortly after waking - he was hungry!
A (yawned at 12.25 and I waited for another yawn to ensure this was tired cue. It didn't come so I put him down at 12.35 and he went over at 12.40 so I suspect this nap will be an OT 30 mins.

That's as far as we are today one 40min nap, one 45min and now likely a 30 min.
I should add he was happy after each nap, contented himself after his feeds by playing in his wee activity gym.
His feeds are v close together, but this is what it is like every day. He usually looks for it when he wakes, not by crying but making a sucking movement with his mouth. And j always fear that if I don't give him the feed then he will be hungry later and wend up drifting off on the bottle and that will mess the routine such as it is, even more!
Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated. I will keep an eye on the rest of the day and post how it goes.x

[Julie Kenwell]

So the next nap was a 40 min one. He woke up happy at 1.20 and was v content.
Took a feed again andvthen yawned at 2.35.
This is where it went horribly wrong!
I put him down with his dummy, he didn't sleep til close on 2.55 and woke just before 3.10. I gave him his dummy because even by his standards this seemed far too short, he took about ten mins to go over again and then woke grumpy at 3.30?!?!

[Scottishmummy]

Hugs, Short naps are heavy going.

Sounds like that last one was UT/OT- not tired enough to sleep when he went down so took ages to drop off then OT by the time he fell asleep.

1.20-30 would be average A time for his age & it looks like he's falling asleep easily at 1.20/25 but OT by 1.35 so I *think* your A time is about right, although you could try gently pushing it to 1hr30 tomorrow and see what happened?

The other thing I'm wondering is what his activity level is like when awake? I.e. What is he doing/playing with? Just wondering whether under-stimulation could be giving you the short naps and UT/OT issue?

As for feeds - if he's showing hunger cues I think you're right to feed him. I don't know much about bottle feeding but if he's going all night with no feed maybe he needs more frequent ones than average in the day?

[Julie Kenwell]

I have to be honest I don't know very much about bottlefeeding either!
My oldest was breastfed but I had a horrible virus when the second was born and had to supplement. He ended up preferring formula to my milk and I had no choice but to go with it, but that's a whole other story.
I think you're right about the ut/ot as he ended up sleeping for another hour after I tried resettling but woke up and seemed to want to go down again! He seems cranky, I gave him a bottle and he started dozing so I put him down again with his dummy. So hes sleeping again now (5.10).
I don't know what time to put him to bed at now.
I want him to have a good night so he can be rested for tomoro if I try pushing his A time.
I did notice one day at the start of last week he showed no tired signs for his first nap til around 1.30 and he ended up sleeping two hrs. The rest of the naps that day were all 30 mins though?

[Julie Kenwell]

Sorry, in terms of activity, I out hin on hos play mat that has music, lights and toys dangling from it and I also spend time talking to him or give him tummy time, he is very strong and has been rolling over to his back since he was three weeks old!

[Scottishmummy]

What did you do for BT in the end?

Sounds like he's getting a good level of stimulation in his A time ...are you doing a wind down before naps too?

I think it helps to try to work out the pattern that suits your baby- I.e. A time and how much activity and wind down he needs, then you can run with that. My DS needed a long WD to nap (30mins) I did the same with my DD and she wouldn't go to sleep as she was UT and only needs a 10 min WD. It sounds like you're doing that by following his cues.

Sometimes you do all the things you can to give the opportunity for a long nap, and they still take a short one because they're in a short napping phase but you're putting all th right things in place so they'll start taking longer naps when they're ready/out of that phase.

[Julie Kenwell]

He fell asleep at 8 so fingers crossed he does ok tonight. He woke from the last nap about 6.15/6.20.
I don't really do much of a wind down for naps tbh. He yawns, I put him in his Moses basket downstairs, put on white noise and give him his dummy.
I wanted to keep it simple so other people could replicate it if they were looking after him but maybe I should do more?
I still put him down for naps downstairs as I felt id be running up and downstairs all day with his catnapping and since I have another wee boy, its easier!
I'm kind of waiting for the naps to get better and then I can put him up stairs for his naps (wishful thinking in my part!)
Do u think the dummy is adding to the problem here? I.e. He is drifting off to his naps earlier than he really should and waking from the nap depending on it?

[Julie Kenwell]

I'm probably becoming a complete pest but....
His first nap today has not gone well!
He ended up doing about 11.5 hrs last night albeit broken, waking at 1, 3 and around 6.15 and up for the day at around 7 30.
He yawned at about 8.50 so I put him down and he fought the nap, he hasn't done that before!
Eventually went over at 9.20.
Has he clocked up too much sleep at night now?!

[Scottishmummy]

Not a pest at all!
My own DD has just woken (early!) from her nap so I can't reply properly now but will this evening.
If you get a chance to post rest of your day, I'll take a look this eve.