Extending short naps

[BabySophie]

Hi there, I've had the same problem as Knockonwood with my 5mo daughter. She rarely can get pass the 45min marks from one sleeping cycle to another. Even i sit next to her and shh/pat her, she seems never can settle back to sleep (both nap and night time sleep). She is obviously still tired and cranky. I've been starting the PUPD training for 7 days now. It seems to have helped her settle to sleep a bit easiler without holding her, and without her dummy, and we are very pleased with that. But once she wakes up in the middle of sleep, we just can't put her back to sleep. I am feeling very frustrated because we've used the PUPD method when my eldest daughter was 4mo, and it went really well after a few days. She then sleep like an angel baby and have no problem at all. I can't figure out what went wrong with my baby daughter this time. Would love to have some advice. Thanks

[becj86]

Hi, Often the issue at this age is A time being too short. Can you post your EASY?

[BabySophie]

Her A time is about 2hrs each time. I thought that's long enough for her age? We are trying to follow the BW book 4hr routine as much as possible. But since she is not sleeping well her naps are chopped  into short naps.

Update from today: As things didn't go well with PUPD/shh-pat, and we were frustrated and desperate, we have decided to try one thing - swaddling! And that makes a huge difference!
We had stopped swaddling our daughter since she was around 3 weeks old as she seems doesn't like it. I guess we shouldn't have stop swaddling her at all?!
Since we starts swaddling her again last night, she was able to fall asleep much quicker, although she still woke up twice last night. This morning during nap time, she slept for 1.5hr straight. But since she woke up, she wasn't able to settle herself back to sleep. She was cooing and playing in her cot, with an occasional cry like calling someone to attend to her. She still look a bit tired rubbing her eyes. I shh-pat her but couldn't put her back to sleep so I picked her up for A time.

Now she is down for her second nap. We will see how it goes. Finger cross!

[becj86]

2 night wakings is quite normal at 5 months. That doesn't need fixing.

Average A time goes from 2hr at 4 months to 2:45 to 3hr at 6 months so well worth increasing in 15min increments every couple of weeks. A 1.5hr nap is absolutely fine. She doesn't need to sleep 2hr to have a restorative nap so if she's slept 1.5 hr, get her up.