Author Topic: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes  (Read 1700 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Sophie48

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 4
  • Location:
4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« on: October 31, 2017, 02:36:48 am »
I need help, I don't know if I'm doing the right thing and if I'm just prolonging my Lo's crying with what I have been doing. Anyone else didn't follow the guide to the tee and still had good outcomes? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I started carrying my 4 month old for naps since he was 5weeks old as he won't go to sleep in his cot. At that point I didn't know how to do the shush pat properly and probably gave up on it too soon.

We started shush pat and pu/pd since last wed night for bed time and naps.
He still take about 30min even after a week to go to sleep.

His awake time is about 2hr, his nap routine is a quick song, swaddle, white noise on, close the blinds and down in cot. He invariably will start crying, what I have been doing is pick him up- pat and shush and some bouncing to get him to calm down, once calm I put into the cot, he cries again I pick him up, repeat till I can place him in the cot and continue shush pat till he falls asleep. I find that without the bouncing I can't get him  calm enough to place in the cot. However I suspect he's starting to start falling asleep a little on me before he hits the cot (is that ok? When in cot his eyes are still open)

Any nap done in the cot he will wake at 20min- I've tried adjusting his wake times and it doesn't change. Recently I've managed to transition him from 20-40min with pacifier insertion and shush pat. Worked with pacifier and firm pressure on body as well. This will allow him to continue to nap to 65min- u have yet to manage to try to extend at the 65min mark yet. If he wakes early and I couldn't transition him on the cot, I've resorted to latching him to sleep instead of doing pupd again to extend his nap.

Bed time has still been a battle and is really discouraging after going through battles at nap times.
he gets a dream feed at 1030/11pm and used to only wake further 2 times for feed around 2am and 5am. Since starting pupd he wakings have become hourly from 3am onwards, again if I'm too exhausted I end up latching him to sleep.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2017, 23:26:41 pm by Sophie48 »

Offline jessmum46

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 411
  • Posts: 14235
  • Location: UK
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2017, 12:15:44 pm »
Hugs, it sounds like you've been putting loads of effort in and making some progress - well done and I'm sorry things haven't settled yet.  Could you possibly post a whole day's routine for us, when he wakes, eats, when you start trying for naps and when he actually settles?


Offline Sophie48

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 4
  • Location:
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2017, 07:55:25 am »
Thanks for reply!

Today woke 715am
Eat 730
Fussy at around 9am
Eat expressed breast milk
Pupd15min
Sleep 916am

Wake 945am
Eat 1044am
pupd15min
Sleep1116am

Wake135pm
Eat 140pm
Sleep 348pm (pupd45min:()- he was showing sleepy signs but maybe I started too early

A sample from yesterday:
Up 7am
Eat 730am then 835am
Nap at 9am(pupd around 15min)
Wake 1040am
Eat1040

Sleep 1050  (latched to continue nap)
Wake1115am
Eat120pm
Sleep 125pm(pupd20min)

Wake3pm
Eat 306pm,430pm
Sleep521pm (fought nap very hard:()

Wake546pm
Eat 550,650pm
Sleep 701pm

Nights have been very bad.
Typically sleep around 7, usually wake around 730/8 (likely overtired at bed time)
Sleep till 10- wake and feed/ Dream feed
Wake at 1am
4am
5am
6am

Night wakes I have been nursing him back to sleep.


Some progress- his pupd time slightly shorter at times . Though need really loud white noise to help.
Sometimes managing to transition him through the sleep cycles with some firm pressure on his torso and pacifier.
Night have been really bad:( I think k it may be he 4th month sleep regression. I'm afraid I will be stuck in this pattern of night waking even when he is older.

Offline jessmum46

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 411
  • Posts: 14235
  • Location: UK
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2017, 08:40:16 am »
Thank you for posting that :)

Today looks like a pretty good day to me.  The first nap may have just been short due to OT from a disturbed night, but a 2h20 min second nap is great!  I think you are right and started for the third nap much too early.  Sleepy signs can be helpful but I would also have one eye on the clock - after such a great previous nap I wouldn't have gone less than about 2 hours A time.

Yesterday looked like it started well with a good nap, even if you did latch to continue it. To be honest at this stage I worked on independent settling at the beginning and did what worked to get a (rare) resettle!!  The second nap - did you start PUPD at 1.25pm (so sleep at 1.45pm)?  Sorry just a bit hard to tell.  If that's the case I think maybe it was just a touch late so you got a bit of OT fighting.  But honestly 15-20 mins is not bad, though I appreciate it can feel like forever!  What time did you start trying for the catnap? 

Nights....is there any chance he is uncomfortable for any reason?  Reflux, allergies??

Offline Sophie48

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 4
  • Location:
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2017, 12:13:07 pm »
Thanks for response Jessmum and taking the time to look through the schedule! Really appreciate it.

2nd nap started pupd 105pn and slept at 125pm.

Will keep an eye on the clock as well tomorrow.

Thanks for the encouragement! When he woke at 30min felt like flop. Was glad nap 2was good.

Nights he can often he smiling when I go into his room! Once I try pupd he starts crying again and right now really don't have the energy to do pupd through the night as well. Would that rui. What I'm doing in the day or make it harder for him to learn settlingin the day?

I was also worried I was making things worse for him with resettling with latching- thanks for your input regarding that. Feel. Ire reassured.

For now it's ok to be shush patting him into deep sleep?
At this age 7pm bed time is the norm?
It feels I will never get to independent settling stage! Am I expecting too much in 8days?
Also I've been staying  home for all naps and that will end on sat. Really hard to fit in sleep
Training with real life

Offline jessmum46

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 411
  • Posts: 14235
  • Location: UK
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2017, 20:28:06 pm »
At nights does he cry for you and then start smiling when you go in?  Or is he just awake and happy? PUPD is pretty hard at night - it's exhausting at the best of times really.  If he's happy can you just lie down on the floor next to his cot and ignore him?  Or just leave him to it rather than trying to make him go back to sleep?  Day/night sleep are (I'm told) organised differently in the brain so possibly you could do different things at night (if you prefer) than the daytime.  Though I would be wary of latching him on to sleep every time as that can be a very difficult prop to break....

Patting all the way to sleep is ok but I would try to start backing off a bit so that he can learn to do some settling of his own - if you can.  Maybe stop patting when he is drowsy rather than fast asleep and see if he can manage that last bit?

7pm bedtime sounds about right/common to me, though some babies need an earlier bedtime if naps aren't great or they are higher sleep needs. 

How has it been going the last couple of days when you can't be home all the time? xx

Offline Sophie48

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 4
  • Location:
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2017, 06:14:18 am »
Hi jessmum,
Last few nights he doesn't quite smile when he sees me but settles down quickly with feeding.Will attempt to put him back to sleep without nursing.

Going out has taken the pressure off me as it means a few naps in the carrier. Being mostly home 9days in a row was pretty tough along with the crying.

Thankfully the last 2 naps he went to sleep much more easily. Hope this pattern holds.

Thanks for all your help and encouragement!

Offline jessmum46

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 411
  • Posts: 14235
  • Location: UK
Re: 4months old with 20min naps and frequent night wakes
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2017, 19:49:53 pm »
Keep it up - you're doing great :D