Can't stay asleep - need help

[pls]

Hi
I have a 7 week old daughter. Right now we are battling some nap problems. We wind down and then I put her down in her crib. I try for drowsy but awake - but most of the time she closes her eyes within a minute or two of being in her crib (I am trying to put her down more awake) and falls asleep with her pacifier but then spits it out and stays asleep.  Sometimes she'll let me know when she'll want it back.   
The problem is she does not stay asleep. About half hour in (I guess when she comes out of deep sleep) she wakes up. I have tried pat/shush which works sometimes. She then goes into dreamstage at which point she wakes up again. I try pat/shush to soothe her back to sleep, sometimes it works, other times it does not. Sometimes she wants her nummy and then will fall asleep again other times she is just fidgiting and hard to calm down. The last couple of days I have spend in her room during all of her nap time to soothe her back to sleep.  Basically for an hour I'll of and on pat/shush as she wakes up and try to start before she fully wakes up.  Other times like this afternoon I got her past dreamstage, she started squirming I gave her her pacifier and she fell back asleep for another couple of hours (wow).  I did not wake her up b/c she she seemed pretty tired after the last nap.
She sleeps fairly good at night. She puts herself to sleep sometimes with and sometimes without her pacifier but it takes her 1/2 hour to 45 minutes (without the pacifier).  She wakes up at night but also puts herself back to sleep - it might take her 1/2 hour or so but she does not fuss or cry she just groans and grunts and makes baby noises then closes her eyes for a few minutes, then opens them, grunts etc and finally falls back asleep.  We don't respond to soothe her at night unless she cries.   
Anyone have similar experiences or advice? How do you keep your baby asleep? I don't know if I should continue what I do and hope that soon she'll learn to put herself back to sleep after deep sleep and dreamstage? I have tried to just let her be like at nights but she'll start fussing and then crying and then it's really hard to sooth her.  I know Tracy says it takes 3 days and I am committed but I am also worried that I am teaching her to only stay asleep with help of pat/shush.  Right now I don't mind staying with her at every nap time for an hour and half to soothe her every time she wakes up but I know I'll mind if I'll still be doing it in say a month. 
All advice is greatly appreciated.

[Kinlagh's Folks]

Sounds so familiar.  We battled the dreaded 45 min naps too and did everything including pat/shh and "plugging" her with her paci before she fully woke.  I remember spending 1-1.5 hours in dd's room at the end of her crib playing with these techniques to ensure she got enough sleep.  I don't remember exactly how long it lasted (maybe a week or so), but she did figure it out and grew out of it on her own.  However, I was lucky and dd found her thumb which helped phase out of this cause she learned to self-soothe that way.  If you're not against thumbsucking, maybe you can encourage that to develop by introducing her to her thumb. 

Something else that worked was using white noise to get her through.  I hate to say it but a hairdryer worked wonders.  Sure it's a prop - very bad - but whatever to get her to sleep right?  And she doesn't need anything to help her to sleep now so no regrets.

Also, dd was a better night sleeper too.  She seemed to know when it was bedtime vs naptime.  So I wouldn't focus too much on expecting the same for naps as bedtime.

[debbygilhernandez]

My daughter is almost 8 weeks and we are currently going through the nap wakings.  She wakes up about every 15, 30 or 45 minutes.  She is sleeping well during the night.  She still wakes up every three to four hours at night but at least she is going back down after feedings (for a while she wouldn't).  It seems like for days I am running in and out of her room to sooth her back to sleep.  But today I broke down and I have the vacuum on as we speak  :roll:  Previously she was on a great three hour schedule and would regularly and easily sleep two hours during every cycle.. gosh I miss those days and all of that YOU time.  Let me know if you hear about how to deal with this (besides time and the vacuum).  Good Luck

[Aarismom]

I'm not looking forward to having to take the air conditioner out of her room at the end of the summer...keeps her room nice and cool and makes a wonderful white noise sound but is an automatic prop.  :roll:

To this day I sleep better with a fan or something with a steady noise running in my room.  Gotta wonder if my mother used white noise a lot to help me sleep when I was a baby/toddler.

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[megbrunskill]

I have been having similar problems with my 9 week old daughter. I was just wondering if Michelle who posted about encouraging thumb-sucking could expand on that. My DD sucks on her hands - she was doing it more last week - but hasn't found her thumb. I thought for sure it was coming soon but this week her hand/finger sucking has decreased.
Any advice?
Megen and Selah

[Kinlagh's Folks]

I was just wondering if Michelle who posted about encouraging thumb-sucking could expand on that.

DD was also sucking her hands & fingers so I knew if she could only find that thumb.... So we would help her during the day by physically placing her thumb in her mouth.  Sometimes she'd keep it there and other times it would pop right out.  But we kept trying.  It seemed to show her there was something on her hand that she could suck on successfully.  I think she "found" it on her own around 10 weeks or so and probably mastered it around 12 weeks, when we won the battle of the 45 min naps.

Good luck and let me know if you need more advice.

[HJ's Mom]

Ya, I am wondering about the thumbsucking. I'm not sure that's something I would encourage. My oldest son thumbsucked and stopped before his adult teeth came in, with a lot of EXTREMELY hard work. Even though he stopped before his adult teeth came in, he had pushed one of his front teeth forward and it came in "buckish". The dentist said that is was a result of the thumbsucking. Plus, he had some really bad skin rashes because of it.

[zayandme]

Fortunately or unfortunately it is already hard to remember when my lo was 7 weeks old. I do know that I wasn't doing BW (didn't find it til he was 4 months), and when I DID find BW, our 45 minute nap issue was due to an overtired/overstimulated baby.

I never realized how easily a baby could get worn out. i was under the impression (baby books, TV etc) that I had to be "Involved" at ALL times to be a good mom- singing, talking, showing pictures.

Anyway. When I realized that too much was going on for him and (even at 4 months) toned it WWWAAAAYYYY down, the 45 minute naps went away in 3 or 4 days.

Worth a shot. Please keep us posted.

[Kinlagh's Folks]

Good idea zayandme.  Glad it worked out so well for you to get rid of the 45 min naps.  Worth a try.

And as for thumbsucking, I think the decision is ultimately up to the baby.  Personally I think they'll either be a thumbsucker or they won't.  So I just gave DD the option and she chose thumb over paci. I belive there are pros and cons to each. I was a thumbsucker myself til I was 6 years old and I too had a slight overbite - probably due to the thumb.  But I guess we'll deal with those issues once they happen, cause DD loves her thumb...and so do we!

[Jamom]

You may have mentioned this already, but have you tried swaddling?  I know that my lo was waking up at the jolts frequently and at that age, swaddling was what cured it. I thought that he didn't like the swaddle because he would kick out of it, but I was wrong.  Once I got one of those swaddle blankets that velcros so that he couldn't get out (he is a real squirmer), it worked.  Swaddling plus getting your lo to bed before she is overtired helps with those nasty jolts.

[pls]

Thank you for all your suggestions and help.  I know she gets tired quickly.  So my new plan of attack is the first morning nap.  I'll keep her activities low key so she won't get overstimulated and try to have her in bed earlier.  I think I'll focus on extending the first morning nap first and hopefully once she gets a good nap there she'll be better at napping for the rest of the day.  We'll see what happens.

[zayandme]

sounds like a great plan. Yes, please keep us posted.