3 month old - nap changes...

[kw]

Hi

My 3 month old used to sleep really well - 2 hrs in the morning, 1.5 hrs at lunch and then 1 hr in the afternoon.  For the past 2 weeks she's decided that she doesn't want to sleep as much anymore and I struggle to get her to sleep 2-3 hrs in the day.  She now sleeps 1 hrs in the morning, 0.45 - 1 hrs hr at lunch and then nothing until the evening.  She wakes up happy (smiles when I go in the room) though.  However in the afternoon due to lack of sleep she is cranky... :cry:

She does sleep well at night though and will have a df at 10:30 and then sleep until 4-5 or so in the morning - it's just her daytime naps which have turned into a nightmare.

The routine is as follows: once she's yawned a couple of times I do the wind down (switch off light, put on music, cuddle her) but then she cries when she's put in her cot.  I then do the shush pat and it quietens her down but as soon as I put her in her cot she cries again.  How long do I shush pat for?  Is there a max time to shush pat? 

Thanks in advance!

[Matthew's Mommy]

Take a look at your awake time, it may be too long or overstimulating.  When you see the first yawn, then begin her wind down routine.

A lot of young infants will cry during the wind down routine. This is normal. What you can do, is be supportive and keep yourself calm. Also, the time before the wind down routine, make it low key and very calming. Kinda like a pre-wind down routine.

Do you have Tracy's new book? She has a whole chapter devoted to teaching sleep and talks about pat-shush.  Also, I'll attach Tracy's Sleep Interview to this post. She discusses Pat-shush in it.

Let me know if you need any help,