Hi everyone,
I'm trying so hard to implement EASY (maybe I'm trying too hard...). Anyway, my 6mo DD has always been a daytime catnapper. From 7 weeks until about 4 months she was sleeping through the night (we were so lucky!), but now she also has random NWs... but that's a different story.
I'm soooo confused about what her awake times should be. Just when I think I've got it worked out (ie she actually has an hour nap or resettles for once), and then BAM, it's all out the window again.
So we usually do a 7am WU/Feed (she's bottle fed). She seems to prefer a 2 hour A time, at least before the first nap of the day. Whether she's in her cot at 8.30 or 8.50, she'll typically be asleep at 9. However, sometimes this first nap is only 30 minutes, sometimes 36-39, sometimes 42, sometimes 45, and even sometimes 50. Occasionally if she does 30-36 she'll resettle herself, but often she's wide awake and I just can't get her back to sleep again. Then I get confused about whether I should just leave her there to 'rest' (the advice of our local parenting centre), or get her up and try again in 20 minutes, or an hour... or let her have the same A time (ie back to bed at 11, which is when her next feed is actually due...).
Fortunately she's happy when she wakes (unless she's got something else going on, like teething). As long as her dummy is still in her mouth she will just lie there, awake. Often if she has lost her dummy she'll lie there blowing bubbles until I go in and replug. The local parenting centre says this is fine (and maybe it is), but that just adds to my confusion about when her next nap should be. If she sleeps for 30 minutes then lies quietly awake for 30 minutes, is her awake time from when she woke, or when I got her out of bed? It doesn't help me work out if she's UT or OT.
Yesterday and today she did a short first nap (yesterday 30, today about 37), and then in both cases *would not* go back to sleep until about 11.40. That's about 2 hours and 15 minutes, despite a short nap... So maybe her A times for the rest of the day should be 2.25?
I feel if I could just crack this first nap then the rest would start working itself out. On a good day when she resettles (rare!), she has her next bottle at 11am and her next nap at about 1.30pm, then her next bottle at 3pm, then a last nap at 3.30 or 4pm. She then has her last bottle of the day at 6.30pm and is in bed for 7pm (though lately she's often not asleep until 7.30pm). I think she might be an 11 hour a night baby. She's definitely not usually getting 3 hours during the day though - it's more like 2.
Every morning is a battle and my husband thinks I'm trying too hard. I just don't know anymore. Maybe she's just not quite developmentally there yet...
Further info:
We're still getting the hang of solids so she's typically only having them once a day (either at breakfast or lunch, depending on how tired she is).
She's good at self-settling (just not
re-settling!). Her nap routine starts with a quiet wind-down activity (a book or a quiet song, or a cuddle with a soft toy). I then take her in her room and turn on a CD (classical music specifically for sleepy babies). I change her nappy if needed, then I get her into her sleeping bag, close the blind and pop her in her cot. I tuck her 'Ellie the Elephant' in next to her (it's a Fisher Price elephant that plays music and vibrates for 10 minutes), and put her Cuski comforter next to her too. I put her dummy in her mouth, and start the elephant music. I tell her to have a good sleep then leave the room. She'll usually be asleep within 15 minutes, if not sooner. She does sometimes lose her dummy (I watch her on a video monitor) so I have to go in and replug, and if she's still awake after 10 minutes I'll sneak in and restart the elephant.
Please let me know if I need to provide any other info. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (feeling very lonely here!).
Margaret
