10 week Touchy princess cat-napping all day!! help!

[Abbyw]

hi,
i'm working on starting DD2 on EASY and need some help

She appears to be a little touchy and doesn't love the sh/pat. she'll settle to sleep independently but wakes up after 20, 30, 40 minute naps.
at night, i've noticed that if i wake her for a DF, she'll wake up every 3 hours, but if i let her sleep, she'll give me longer stretches.  (7:30 PM feed, she'll wake up again at 1:30 AM and 5:30/6:30 AM)

is it ok if i put her down to nap without the sh/pat? we let her wind down with a sound machine, darken the room and she falls asleep beautifully. but since her naps are so unpredictable i'm not sure how to go about using W2S, or what else i can do to help her nap longer. her A time is usually 1 hour and 15 minutes

second, how do i get her to take that DF and sleep longer with it?

i'm BF exclusively, and I express for 1 night feeding.

any advice would be appreciated.

[deb]

If she'll go down w/o sh/pat, then follow her cues.

You may want to try tweaking her A time; she may not be fully ready to sleep. Can you keep her awake, in a low-key dark room, for maybe another 10 minutes?

The idea of the DF is that they don't wake for it, just feed in their sleep. If she's waking fully, try moving the time half an hour earlier or later to a different part of her sleep cycle so she stirs JUUUUST barely enough to take a feed.

In our case, part of the short-napping had to do with the 3-month growth spurt, which you are fast approaching, and getting enough calories into her during the day so she'd sleep better at night, wake more rested in the morning, and be able to go longer before napping; a too-short A time (happening because she was waking tired) led to too-short naps, and so on. We ended up extending her naps by being there right when she stirred at the 45-minute mark and re-plugging her pacifier, which she would spit out at that time; if you're not using one you might try just putting a hand on her and doing whatever you would do to get her to sleep in the first place, if you're able to get in there before she fully wakes. (Hint: avoid eye contact or direct interactive communication.)

Good luck!

[Abbyw]

doing whatever you would do to get her to sleep in the first place, if you're able to get in there before she fully wakes.

The problem with that is she seems to fall asleep best when I lay her down and leave her alone... I've tried humming softly, but she turns to look at me with her eyes wide open as if to say "do you mind?! I'm trying to sleep here"
So I'm not sure what it is I can do to help her fall back asleep. Also she often wakes at different times. 20 minutes, 30 and 45...

Regarding the DF if she does wake before the 5 hour mark, should I try hold her off with a dummy and put her back to sleep or should I feed her? She's 11 weeks.

Thank you for all your help! DD1 was a textbook/angel and took to sleep training so well, I'm a little at a loss here

[deb]

Sorry, we were away for a while!

Since you'll be around the 3-month growth spurt now, I'd go ahead and feed feed feed until things level off and then have a look at your new EASY. Once that's done, then yes, I'd try the dummy first and see if she just wants to suck instead of actively feed. She'll likely be sure to let you know if you've chosen the wrong option. LOL

[Abbyw]

Thank you so much for getting back to me!
What about the short naps though? She settles nicely but wakes up after 30 or 40 min... and is inconsolable!
I have a baby nurse at the moment to help out and I'd love to get her sleep trained while I still have the help!

[Katet]

at night, i've noticed that if i wake her for a DF, she'll wake up every 3 hours, but if i let her sleep, she'll give me longer stretches.  (7:30 PM feed, she'll wake up again at 1:30 AM and 5:30/6:30 AM)

In terms of longer at night - that 6 hour  then 4 r 5 hour stretch is fantastic for 10 weeks & TBH if the DF makes her wake more, I'd follow her natural pattern. The DF didn't work with either of mine & some babies it doesn't. Also at under 4mo it's very normal to get 3-4 night feeds still, so only having one and an early morning feed I'd say leave well enough alone as you might get worse not better as you've found.

In terms of short naps, not all babies are textbook & so it's a matter of trying things, but also accepting time may be the one thing that sorts the problem out.

[deb]

Thank you so much for getting back to me!
What about the short naps though? She settles nicely but wakes up after 30 or 40 min... and is inconsolable!
I have a baby nurse at the moment to help out and I'd love to get her sleep trained while I still have the help!

You might want to try gradually extending her A time; she may be undertired so not sleeping longer than a single sleep cycle.

[Abbyw]

Hi, thank you again for all your help!

Baby nurse is leaving tomorrow and my munchkin still isnt trained... it's now up to me!
So I tried extending A times... sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. But for the most part my LO is waking up at the 40 minute mark. Sometimes I can replug the paci and she'll go back to sleep but other times she'll scream until picked up and rocked/walked back to sleep.
She finds any form of the shush/pat distracting...
She just turned 13 weeks, is it too soon to try pu/pd?

Her nights are pretty good. I DF at 11ish and she'll be up again to eat at 4/5. She will need her paci as well once or twice. But for the most part she sleeps well at night.

[deb]

Some babies (like mine LOL) find PU/PD WAAAY too stimulating, but you don't know until you try it.

Only have a moment, but here's the specific info we got from Tracy herself when my alomst-17YO was 3-months-ish: https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=649.0

See if anything there is more helpful?